When I tell you that the most important thing to understand about Chinandega is that it is hot, you need to really understand the kind of heat I’m talking about. This understanding is vital to your comprehension of the last twelve hours of our lives.
This is not the kind of heat that you casually observe after a few minutes outside - “It’s kind of hot,” you might say to describe the kind of heat that does not settle over Chinandega like a thick wool blanket.
Managua, Nicaragua
What a long, crazy day!
We all woke up relatively early - I’d say everybody was showered and dressed by eight-thirty - and had a good solid breakfast. Ana spent all yesterday evening working to arrange a particularly delicate interview and was going to call us if the plans came through. Either way, she was going to pick us up at noon to take us to her office at Almori where we could interview Alvaro Montealegre (who is, essentially, The Boss) and another employee to get two perspectives on the business.
Nicaraguans, Ana says, work hard and play hard. Today we definitely did more play than work. After breakfast, Ana, Trevor, Arthur, Eleane (Ana’s cousin), and I piled into Ana’s car and drove about forty-five minutes to the beach. Arthur and I visited the beach on our last trip and agreed that it would make for some beautiful B-roll.
We rented a small villa for the day, parked the car, turned on the AC in the villa, and went for a walk by the water, which was warm and wonderful, gentle waves moseying up and down the sand and leaving gorgeous sea-shells behind. We spent most of the day doing Very Important Filmmaker Things like baking in the sun and cooling off in the pool. In the late afternoon, when the heat (and light, I assume) became less intense, Arthur and Trevor wandered around and shot some footage of the beach - a soccer game, a girl building a sandcastle, some people on horseback. Trevor’s greatest cinematic endeavor, however, was yet to come.
Preparations, Monuments, an Interview, Two Neighborhoods, and a Suggestion
By Steph
April 22nd, 2006 | Nicaragua | 2 Comments
After a brutally early ride to Boston’s Logan airport; two three-hour flights (Boston to Atlanta, Atlanta to Managua) and a one-hour layover; an hour in the customs and immigration line; and a twenty minute car ride through Managua’s hectic mid-afternoon streets, Arthur, Trevor and I finally arrived at our destination.
We spent the rest of the day recuperating from our travels, and from the insane pace of the last week. Life in Boston has been on permanent fast-forward in the past few days, with everyone becoming increasingly stressed out over final papers, projects, and exams, moving back home for the summer or finding a place to live.
I just returned from dropping off Arthur, Steph, and Trevor at the airport. With less than three hours of rest, I hope they sleep well on the airplane. The great journey has begun, and I’m not referring to the World’s Longest Detour for 93 South from Logan airport.
Steph will be blogging from Nicaragua and I will be posting additional content as it becomes available.
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