el duende grande

Chugging through dec-jan with some weird drizzly weather. Sometimes warm dry days with cool damp nights. The yo-yo weather that I have come to hate. It is really bad on people who have sinus problems.

Noticing now accuweather has daily reports on air pollution. I always new we had local pollution from cars, wood stoves, and light industry. I sometimes felt it if I walked on the Panam for too long. Apparently there are bigger regional problems of ozone and particulate matter. What is strange is that the maps show more pollution over the sea than the land. This I do not understand. What I do understand is that the real hotspots are over Guate, central mexico, and Haiti, although I don't know what the haitiens could be doing. Usually it takes money to make pollution.

Well, we took a little trip to take the kids to the National Zoo near Masaya. We rented a van and driver and I insisted on a weekday to avoid crowns and covid cooties. All went well. The Zoo is hanging on. It is a private foundation that took a hit during the tranques for lack of customers and logistic problems and now is taking another hit from covid. It is a little deteriorated since the last time we went, but it is OK fn. Kids were happy. Then we took in Pricemart carr Masaya. It too is still there. Food court seems to have a limited menu and the tables have sneeze guards. There are 3 different ATMs inside and when we were there lines were comfortably short. They accepted my US credit card which was a convenience. Bought mostly food, stuff that is a bargain or they don't have here in the boonies. No big goodies, hanging tight to cash because of what it will cost me when I finally get a chance to travel to the US. It has somehow come to my attention that I am not too big to fail like the banks and airlines.

Then we went to Sinsa carr Masaya. Holy crap, Mother of God. That place is huge! It's like being back in civilization all over again. Mostly looked around to see what they have for the future. I will never view our Sinsa Enana and it's crappy parking lot in the same light again.

All in all, a nice quick trip, 12 hours with transportation. Last year we did Volcan Masaya and Pricemart. Maybe next year we will do Puerto Allende, the National Museum, and the Managua Pricemart.

One relative lost his bean crop to root rot or something after the hurricanes, but everybody else is working and doing OK.

Traffic was surprisingly light but there is a stretch north of San Benito that is overdo for road repairs but the roads near Masaya were great. My first trip out of the Segovias in a year so it was quite a treat to get to clean, green, modern Managua. Or at least "carr Masaya".

It's nice to get out, stimulating even. Kids got to see wild animals of the world; and papa found religious vision inside a hardware paradise. Staying cooped up at home, same ol', same ol', puts the mind to sleep, perchance to wander into dangerous deviant territory, not to say a duende would ever stray . . . Hey, what'd van & driver for a day cost ya?

It may have been karmic balance, but as you ventured south, my fam went north, north of your turf, past the Pirate's to Ocotal, in public conveyance, which out of Esteli was a chicken bus. It was OK if you had a window seat, beautiful views, otherwise it was like bedding with Itchy & Scratchy. Highlight: lunch in a restaurant beside the rapids of Rio Dipilto in the little town of the same name. Bargain prices: room for 4 in nice hotel in Ocotal 500 cords (under $15). From there it was onto Matagalpa for guirilla and the new, improved Mirador.

No rain in Leon. Sometimes cloudy & cool, often clear blue and stinking hot. Air pollution? only when someone in the neighborhood burns trash with too much styrofoam, thankfully rarely. But when - everyday - my little woman mops, pouring half a bottle of Azitin on it, I immediately choke up and start sneezing. Time to vacate and see what's doing in town.

School's about to begin. All are excited. Hoping that the Covid Lockdown of the world doesn't push it's way into La Tierra del Amor.

Yes, an X-chromosome clean attack will chase a man out of the house! Maybe they do it on purpose?

Going north does my soul good. I leave the filth and squalor behind and see some pretty mountains. In Dipilto there is a chapel on a rock which is well known in the region. Mozonte has a pretty cathedral if you need some salvation and a hilltop shrine if you are dying for stair-stepper exercises and the town is famous for pottery. It is not far from Ocotal. Ocotal has a cute central park. A former mayor was an amateur botanist so they did the park up pretty, not the usual Moorish monotony.

By the way, there are many expresso buses that stop in Esteli, some at cotran sur, some at cotran norte, and some at gas. esquipulas. Much better than the ordinarios but you have to ask what leaves when and where.

A moderately scenic drive is La Pelota in Esteli to Jinotega and a fantastic one is Jinotega by the old road to Matagalpa. This one passes by the entrance to Selva Negra resort, great for lunch and a stroll if nothing else. May I suggest the Selva Negra Burger on the terrace overlooking the Pond?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ni/le...y-index/253797

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ni/le...y-index/253797

Originally Posted by el duende grande

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ni/le...y-index/253797

Yes, particulate matter, earth, dust, soil, the stuff of boogers. When the winds pick up in this dry season, it blows up volcanic dust off the fields. In a couple days worth, you can do a proper calculation in it on an adequate surface. But my dear little woman considers it a plague, an apt subject for full-fledged scorn and lengthy bitching sessions. Come time to harvest peanuts, a big crop hereabout, farmers turn the soil to expose & dry the goobers and strong winds create ominous-looking, lite-brown clouds of aforesaid particulate over Leon, jodido. All bitch then. The hum of complaints can be avoid in churches.

But dangerous, worthy of worry? In micrographic photos they're little boulders. Booger builders. Look at pollen and spores: mace balls with spikes & hooks, not unlike our ubiquitous coronavirus. ** Hey I just learned from a virologist that the total mass of SARS-CoV-2 over the whole planet and in its hapless human hosts has reached one kilogram - political pixie dust ** Some inorganic dusts are bad actors. Airborne glass microfibers and asbestos are nano-needles that puncture cell walls, spill protoplasm and open doors to nasty bacteria, or carcinogens from inhaling burning tobacco smoke.

Alfred E. Newman vive en Nicaragua.