Condega and Palacagüina

Note:  My plan was to take a leisurely, one-day trip to visit a couple of smaller towns not too far south of here.  Condega I’ve been through several times on the bus and Palacagüina I only “discovered” when riding the local bus home from Estelí—it is off the Pan-Am Highway so expresses don’t go there.  Well, that was the original plan, but the internet stopped working a couple of days prior, so I started the trip by going north to Ocotal and to the Claro store (internet/cell phone provider).  I did have an interesting conversation on the bus with a kid of about 18 or so—he spoke English, I spoke Spanish and we complemented each other on how good our respective foreign language was!  The trip to Ocotal added about 2 hours to the trip and to make a long story short, it turns out that “unlimited” service doesn’t really mean unlimited.  It means you have x-number of days (in my case 30) UNLESS you go over a certain allowance for down/up load bytes.  It turns out I went over, so I’m now back to a pay-as-you-go system, so my internet access (and hence blog posts) may diminish from here on out.  I also found out that even if I buy an hour, there is still a data limit, so the hour can be cut short.  (I hope Skype is not too data-intensive.)  I don’t know if it’s the language that leads to these problems/misunderstandings or if it’s just typical small-print from a big company and the same thing would have happened even in English.

Condega is about one-third of the way from Sabana Grande to Estelí and is another strongly Sandinista town.  It also has a strong indigenous influence.  The name means “Land of potters” and a sign on the central park declares this in Spanish as “Tierra de los alfareros.”   There is a well-known women’s pottery cooperative a bit north of town, but too far to go in the time I had.  First I wandered back north along the highway before backtracking into town.  Somewhat surprisingly, Condega has a pedestrian overpass over the highway, but I bet I’m the first person in a long time to actually use it (unless it was another curious gringo).  I did it to get a better panoramic shot of the area—I can’t imagine why a local would use is as the road is not that busy.  I’m always fascinated just wandering down streets in Nicaragua and almost always find something interesting:  a mural, an eclectic mix of merchandise in some store, a name for a store that doesn’t seem to fit, kids playing “basketball” across a street by trying to toss some fruit (a very hard fruit of some kind) into a litter can, the way stores display merchandise, the “interesting” way that power lines are wired into homes, how mannequins are dressed…  It seems like getting out of one’s  usual environment heightens the senses and powers of observation—everything seems new, different and intriguing.  In Condega, I also saw my first Nicaraguan cemetery (although I soon saw another in Palacagüina), my first post office (they DO actually exist!) and my third or fourth Pali (aka Wal-Mart).

View from the overpass in Condega.  Note the adjacent crosswalk and lack of serious traffic.

Although Estilí has many murals, this is a popular form of expression in Nicaragua and one finds at least a few murals of various genres in most town.  The building also houses the offices of a women’s network and the red building to the left if the ubiquitous Claro office, one of two major cell phone providers.  (You can also see the base of the cell tower.)

A couple of guys playing horse(?) across a street.  The trash receptacle is on the left, the shooter on the right and the ball in mid-flight above the street.

Condega is big enough to have electric meters (Sabana Grande simply has a monthly charge without metering), but the installation still appears to be less than professional.

The jumble of wires and connections on the pole also evokes little confidence in the safety of the systems.  From what I can tell, grounds are virtually non-existent.

Here’s one of those weird things I notice sometimes.  The mannequin obviously has on underwear under the shorts—do mannequins in the US wear underwear?  I’ve never noticed, but underwear seems to serve little purpose for a mannequin.

This is just a curb-side vendor with a range of items, including some sort of Spiderman thing, but what caught my eye were the cranes.  It must be the Nico version of pink flamingos?

I mentioned that Condega has a strong indigenous influence and this sign is advertising a dance performance by a group called Xochinahuatl.  Unfortunately it was the day after I was there.  The sign says in part:  “Together we may recover our culture.)

A view of the cemetery in Condega.  Most of the graves have some kind of decoration.  The overall effect seems a bit like a fantasy land.

The first post office I have seen in Nicaragua—and very un-presuming.  Postal delivery seems non-existent, at least here in the north, but people can pick up things via general delivery.

Pali (Nico Wal-Mart) seems to have spread like smallpox did with the arrival of the Spaniards.   The slogans are even direct translations of Wal-Mart:  Siempre precios bajos…SIEMPRE!  (I did not see one in Palacagüina, however.)

I eventually arrived at the town center and it, of course, has a central square/plaza.  This seems to be a standard feature of most Nicaraguan towns, but at least from my limited survey, each park has a unique character and style.  (With more travel, I think one could do a nice post just comparing parks.)  The Catholic Church fronts the square (on the east side so it’s facing west) and the park is filled with statues, some whimsical and some historic or commemorative.  In contrast to other parks, there are fewer trees and the park seems much more open.  The statues range from a famer with an ox team to oversized indigenous pottery to the requisite statue of Augusto Sandino to a monument to the martyrs of the war of liberation (against the Somosa dynasty) and the Contra war.  The monument to martyrs lists the names of those from Condego who were killed and I noted that about 20% were women.  While there were the usual shops and markets, what I did not find was a place that sells the local pottery for which Condega is famous.  It is a plain, brick-red with no added colors or glaze embellishment.  Apparently one has to visit the studios to see and purchase the pottery.  The church is unusual in that it is an 18th century church, but has been remodeled to the point of appearing completely contemporary.  The interior is simple and plain, but is painted white and well-lit, a contrast with many larger churches. 

A view in the part looking towards the church.  The campesino and ox team plowing are in the center, a sculpture with bamboo canes on the left and what I think is some sort of coffee processing machine on the right.

I had to put this in since it reminded me so much of WI.  This could almost be New Glarus.  There is also an indigenous-pottery-inspired sculpture to the right.

Condega’s version of the General Sandino statue.

The martyr’s statue with names of the fallen listed on the plaques.  It sort of has a minute-man feel to it with a farmer taking up arms.

The San Isidro Labrador parish in Condega.  It appears very modern but is 18th century below the façade.

The church’s interior is very simple, but except for the 2x4 acoustical tile on the ceiling, it is attractive and much lighter than most church interiors.

The trip to Palacagüina only takes about 20 minutes with the last 4 or 5 km veering off the Pan-Am.  The road to town is paved with interlocking concrete blocks rather than concrete slab or asphalt.  Because there is no freeze-thaw stress here, the blocks should last almost forever, and I would guess that many of the blocks date from the Somoza era and were probably made in the family’s factories.  The road is relatively smooth, but has the distinctive hum of a brick street.  This road also had the first speed bumps I have encountered in Nicaragua.  Here they are euphemistically called “policiá acostatdo” or “policiá muerto”:  lying-down police or dead police.  Unlike in Yucatán, where the bumps (called topes there) seemed to placed completely randomly, there did seem to be a logic as we were approaching schools or factories where there would be more pedestrian traffic.

The pavement of the road to Palacagüina.

There is no bus station in Palacagüina and the main stop is just an intersection near the church.  The church in Palacagüina is actually much more impressive from the outside that that of Condega.  It occupies its own city block and is surrounded by gardens.  The church gates were locked so I couldn’t see the interior, but there was a rock-type band rehearsing, so the areas around was pulsing with the rhythm of drums.  The central plaza in Palacagüina emphasizes the trees and flowers and is more similar to Ocotal than to Condega.  It, too, has a statue of Sandio and, like Ocotal, a monument to mothers with a mother nursing a baby.  There is no gazebo or band stand in the center, but a circle of structures like picnic shelters to shade the benches.  Here I ran across a friendly group of guys goofing around who wanted me to take their picture and chatted a bit (if only I could have understood a bit more!).  The park also has a look-out tower with a statue to a local hero from the war against the US Marines in the 20s and 30s. 

                                          

The church in Palacagüina, one of the oldest in Nicarague.  The buses stop at the corner to the rear and left in this picture.

Palacagüina’s version of a Sandino monument.

Another monument honoring mothers.  This seems to be a common theme as we saw several similar monuments in Yucatán, and of course, I’ve already talked posted a bit about the one in Ocotal.

My 4 buddies that I met in the park.  They were really friendly and talkative and seemed to be proud of where they lived.  I couldn’t catch it all, but they tried to point out some historically significant spots.

Statue of Miguel Angel Ortez who fell in combat in 1931 at the age of 24.  The plaque has a quote of praise from General Sandino himself.  It also indicates that when he was 21, he was the youngest general in the world.

A view across the park and over the church to the surrounding countryside.

This is one of those mysterious things that crops up in Nicaragua.  There is absolutely no sign to explain why this lizard is in the park;  there are always signs declaring which politician(s) was(were) in power whenever something was built, but not necessarily an explanation of what was added or why.  This does not appear to be play equipment, but exactly why it’s there I can’t say.

Palacagüina it turns out is somewhat famous for it is featured in the lyrics of a song by Carlos Mejia Godoy called "El Cristo de Palacagüina"  (The Christ of Palacagüina).  If you'd like to see the lyrics in both Spanish and English, go here:  http://www.sfbach.org/text-cristo-de-palacag%C3%BCina and for a U-tube video (there are several), go here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWu-jBZ-60&feature=related.  After seeing the song lyrics, it refers to a hill of the iguana, which may have something to do with the lizard above?

Palacagüina is a pretty little town and much smaller than Condega, so there was not a lot new to see, but I walked to the edge of town to see the coffee drying operation.  I’ve seen small drying operations in Ocotal (maybe a couple thousand square meters), but the scale in Palacagüina is many times that.  There was also a baseball stadium (not just a field) across from the drying operation.  I’m guessing that there is probably an organized semi-pro-type league (think of Field of Dreams) to justify such a stadium.  I wandered back a different route and ran across a school which was holding classes on Sat. afternoon, most probably adult classes.  (As a side note, Nicaragua has a concerted education/literacy effort for both children and adults and is trying to bring the entire population to a 6th-grade level.  One of the tools for accomplishing this is to train high school grads and give them a stipend to lead their elders through a structured curriculum—probably akin to the old normal school model in the US.)  Arriving back at the bus stop, I had about 45 minutes to wait and simply observe the whirl of activity that accompanied each arrival and departure.  In the 45 minutes I was there, there were 4 or 5 buses going to various destinations.  Finally the Ocotal bus arrived and I headed back to Sabana Grande.  Although I couldn’t get a photo, I saw another first on the trip home: an entire refrigerator at a stop waiting for a bus.  It would have been nice to see exactly how they would wrestle it to the top of the bus, but I was too tired to consider getting off to see.

Here is a shot of the coffee drying operation.  At the left you can get a feel for how vast this is and it goes left and right even farther than front to back.  My spatial estimating power is not very good, but I would suppose on the order of 50-100 acres.

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Another view with some of the workers.  Coffee production is extremely labor intensive (at least as practiced here) and all you addicts back home should feel lucky/guilty that affordability is only possible with the relatively low wages in developing countries.

A view over the wall of the local baseball stadium.  In the rainy season, I expect it would look much better, but it seems to be well-maintained.

Arriving back in Sabana Grande after a bus excursion is always a breath of fresh air—it is so calm, un-crowded and un-hurried in comparison with life on the bus.  And after these excursions, it’s always good to clean up a bit in the shower.  I’ve found that afternoon is my preferred shower time as the block walls of the shower are heated and radiate a bit of warmth and the water itself is a bit warmer.  In spite of no hot water, I must confess that it is pretty nice to shower and be able to look up and see trees, the sky, ripening papayas and birds.