Nicaragua, Nicaragua

[Hamlet]

All,

I am now at home in my second country, and what a good feeling it is.  I will be here about six months, or until my K1 application for my Vietnamese novia is approved.

If anyone has a hankering to visit this beautiful country you could come now while you have a chance to know someone, even though through PL.

Pete E!  Come on down!  

Hamlet

[Pete E]

... in response to Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Hamlet on Nov 13, 2003

Thanks for thinking of me.See my comments below under Cali Vet.But maybe I presume wrong.Tell us about where you are at.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Hamlet on Nov 13, 2003

Thanks for thinking of me.See my comments below under Cali Vet.But maybe I presume wrong.Tell us about where you are at.

Pete

[Cali vet]

... in response to Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Hamlet on Nov 13, 2003

Might one come "up" for a visit?

[Hamlet]

... in response to Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Cali vet on Nov 13, 2003

Of course you can come "up" to Nicaragua for a visit.  You seem to be an inveterate traveler, and for that reason alone you should come here.  Plus, for those seeking fulfilment through relations with Latinas, there are many lovely ones here.

From what I have heard about Colombianas, the Nica women compare in loyalty and fidelity, if not in looks.  The Spanish blood left behind mixed with the indigenous quite well here, and as a result many people have darker skin and some have facial features from the New World rather than from the Old.  Naturally there are many in-between and some who appear to be Europeans.

After Nicaragua's 1979 revolution to overthrow the brutal and corrupt US-backed dictator Somoza, they experienced a ten-year civil war fomented by "contras" illegally funded by the Reagan administration, terrified that the Sandinista victors would start a "domino effect" and influence other of our southern neighbors to become Communist.  (This fear also helped justify our involvement in Vietnam.)

After Congress stopped this activity of the Administration, peace came to Nicaragua.  For the first five years of the 90s President Violetta Chamoro, widow of Somoza-assasinated La Prensa editor Pedro Chamora, stabilized the country.  She began to undo the land expropriations of the Sandinista government.  The second half of the 90s saw more stabilization and some advancement under President Arnoldo Aleman.  But at the same time he was notoriously corrupt.  There is corruption here in general, but this guy was was over the top, amassing a fortune of hundreds of millions during his five year term.  

In 2001 Enrique Bolanos took over the helm, and he did something that has never been done in Latin America: he put former president Aleman in jail for corruption.  Every citizen of Nicaragua I have met is happy by this turn of events.  Meanwhile, Bolanos charges on, trying to reform the congress, the courts, and other parts of the government with some but limited success as the resistence is intense.

However, for investors like me that is all good news.

The people here are gentle and friendly.  Despite the actions of our government in helping pit father against son and brother against brother in their civil war, these people actually like US citizens, just as the Vietnamese do (something I was surprised and pleased to learn about when I visited Vietnam this year.)

There are many areas of natural beauty here, mountains, rivers, volcanoes, islands in Lake Nicaragua, beaches.  Many of the cities are filled with beautiful 300 year old Spanish Colonial architecture, like the jewel Granada.

Hamlet

[Edge]

... in response to Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Cali vet on Nov 13, 2003

I know Hamlet has 3 houses in Granada and he plans to stay in one of them for around 6 months.  From what I hear of Granada it is by a very large lake and is an attractive city with colonial architecture.  

I do not know much about the women although I know that Hamlet introduced his "girl friday" or personal assistant to a gringo he knows and the guy moved there and they are planning to get married.

Cali-Vet, Hamlet is a good friend with Nico - who you also know.

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Edge on Nov 14, 2003

I pulled out my book on central America after his post.Grenada sounds very interseting.I guess my jungle comparisons were off base.

Pete

[cancunhound]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Pete E on Nov 14, 2003

To avoid the jungle - consider this central american nation.  Although not long ago it was nearly entirely covered by forests, it now contains just 2 percent natural forest cover!  Gives a whole new meaning to "Can't see the forest for the trees".  Of course, since they cut down the trees they've run into some slight environmental issues - at least 10,000 Salvadoran children die each year due to respiratory ailments triggered by the environmental clusterf%ck they've created.  I think I'll stick with the jungles & guerrilla issues in Colombia!

[Pete E]

... in response to Perhaps El Salvador?, posted by cancunhound on Nov 14, 2003

One of my professors recomended a magazine called "Cry California". It was the most rediculous thing I ever read.The way they were whining you would have thought someone had clear cut the whole state.It still looked real good to me.
If what your saying is true it sounds like they almost clear cut El Salvador.It looked pretty green with trees when I went through the airport there.I guess those were the 2% that got left ? Or something is really wrong with this story ?

Pete

[cancunhound]

... in response to When I was in College - -, posted by Pete E on Nov 14, 2003

unfortunately, you can do a quick search it's pretty much all there in black and white.  The 2% figure is virgin forest remaining.  The problem was bad timber management(well actually no management) - it lead to soil erosion and the snowball kept rolling into water, etc..  El Salvador isn't exactly a large country so they managed to muck it up pretty quick.

BTW, please do not confuse me with a tree-hugging preservationist - I just simply preach the art of conservation and sound resource management (I almost went into Forestry but after a year of studies in the field I learned what they earned for a living).  Learned some pretty neat stuff back then (around '85), ironically I ended up taking a grad course in Fire Ecology and one project we had dealt the necessity of fire management in the now recently headlined chapparal of California - it was obvious back then by scattering houses in that area and obstructing the natural frequency of fires every couple of years that they were asking for a disaster when a big one broke out and had all that built up fuel to carry it - I've still got the text book.  That's the problem with preservationist groups - they don't have the common sense to think of the consequences of stopping mother nature.  The biggest scam is that the insurance companies knew it was coming and of course reserved for it - all out of everyone else's premiums of course - ahhh, but don't get me started....

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: No, nothing wrong with story, posted by cancunhound on Nov 14, 2003

No I didn't presume you were a tree hugger,but the subject reminded me of some.I think what we need is reasonable attention to the envirement.Most people are for the envirement.Then laws can get passed that are not reasonable,because extremists can be the advocates.
One thing that really got me along this line.I used to work for the city of San Jose.We have a sewage treatment plant that cleans the water to almost drinking quality.That was the problem.This water was too clean,so we were screwing up the little mud critters of the south San Francisco bay by dumping in water that was too clean.And this was backed up by federal law,so if we didn't address it no more building allowed.So the developers got shafted to put up $40,000,000
to build this system of pipelines to pump water back to use for irregation.Of course you know who that gets passed on to.Before that if you were a contractor you had to drive to the sewage treatment plant to fill your water truck with water to keep down dust,because they wanted to get rid of the water.
About letting it burn,thats one option.That was what they decided to do with a fire at Yellowstone a few years back then it really got out of hand.Another option is allow a certain amount of logging if they have to clean up the brush in the process.But you know more about this than me.
My brother in law is a retired exec with Boise Cascade.I was in his office one time.He had on display a cross section of a tree with a big spike in it.The idea of spiking trees is to injure loggers.There are some real nuts out there,mostly people who need to get a life and not take one issue and blow it all out of proportion.They ought to be doing their part for the envirement making little rocks out off big ones.
I was working at the City back when James Watt was Reagans secretary of the interior.My planning department buddies were circulating a petition to recall James Watt.I told them the enviremental extremists fully deserved James Watt as an alternative to their extremes.If the Sierra club was around we would have had to have had an enviremental impact report for the Lewis and Clark expedition and we would all be huddled up in the eastern 13 states.
But I digress again.

Pete

[cancunhound]

... in response to Fair enough, posted by Pete E on Nov 14, 2003

Sounds like we're on the same page here,  - unfortunately some of the misinformed environmental terrorist groups like green peace and Sierra muck up the appearance of truly informed groups like the conservation societies (conservation = sustainable use/management - IOW we cut trees, make controlled burns, and hunt deer).  Problem is they recruit misinformed people that are geniunely concerned about the environment but get guided into backing some BS agenda all while thinking it's right.

I relocated for a year in Santa Clara recently for a big engagement so I know well the BS that goes on there - very similar to that found around Austin.  Some folks would rather see for example, deer starving to death by the hundreds than selectively maintaining the population as our natives did for centuries - go figure.  As far as some little 1/2" fish that is deemed "endangered" - and subsequently halts the development of a multi-million dollar enterprise, well there is a point at trying to salvage that micro-environment - but history is very clear, extinction of a species is the rule not the exception.

BTW - that Yellowstone fire has proved to be a success as far as rejuvenation of that ecosystem - of course that's not headlines so nobody hears about it.

[Pete E]

... in response to Perhaps El Salvador?, posted by cancunhound on Nov 14, 2003

They would actually have an issue !
Sounds like those trees went about as fast as the buffalo in the old west.
How this translates to respitory issues I don't know.Must be something else going opn to cause that.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Cali vet on Nov 13, 2003

CV,
Yeah you're more the outdoor jungle type guy.Sounds way too quiet for me even though I appreciate the offer.
AFTER I find another woman I might consider building a house in Panama or maybe Nicaragua or Guatamala,preferably on a beach.But I don't want to be out in the boonies by myself right now.Hmm,maybe we could be neighbors somewhere else also.
My cousin came back from New Zealand and moved in to the family Ranch in the mountains of Idaho.It gets snowed in every winter and you don't come or go except by airplane or snowmobile for about 5 months.2 miles away is a little town,Yellowpine Idaho,population 36.Thats the people that actually spend the winter.Everyone was asking John when I was there in the summer are you staying the winter?He would say sure I am.I talked to him about Thanksgiving and he was in Boise.He said when the first snow hit he did a head count and discovered there were  no unattached women there.He got the hell out while he could.

Pete

[Cali vet]

... in response to Re: Re: Nicaragua, Nicaragua, posted by Pete E on Nov 13, 2003

Ah ha! Yellowpine sounds like the place to bring a calena wife if she misbehaves.