
Originally Posted by
Daddy-YO
The León-Poneloya highway, a.k.a. Renco's driveway, has been completed, which is to say, all its bridges have names. I've noticed on my drives throughout Central America & Mexico the names of bridges. Even the dinky ones have names. When I first saw a "puente baja calzones" (drop-your-drawers bridge) I thought it was a joke, and one-of-a-kind, but then I saw another of the same name in a different country. My little Nica woman explained to me it’s the name of a bug that gets in your pants & bites. Ouch! (Not the lewd thing I’d imagined. Calzones are, after all, women’s panties.)
On the León-Poneloya highway one or two may truly have names unique in all of Latin America. “Puente Country Club” is a double-decker reinforced concrete structure that spans what almost looks like a creek. It may serve as a vagabonds’ penthouse during the dry season, for all I know. That the name is in English may be a nod to the American Millennial Fund (Reto Milenia) that bankrolled it (and must have supervised engineering & construction, cause the road is unusually well done for Nicaragua). And probably in no small part it's a nod to the style of living that gringos working on such moneyed projects in Nicaragua are accustomed to, or, I should say, prefer. Right, Renco?
Another one on that two-lane country road - the glory of its accomplishment was claimed by León’s Sandinista mayor, por supuesto - bridges a gully wash and is named “puente Arlen Siu”. (That it sounds like ’see-you’ served my mnemonic “Arlen Specter” the rock n’roll impresario & criminal whose name is undoubtedly unknown to Nicas not submerged in American ’culture’.) I have no idea who señor Siu is/was, nor whether he had sons, grandsons, &c., named Arlen, who might have merited bridge immortality elsewhere. For now, the one & only can be found not far outside of León, on the highway to Poneloya & Las Peñitas, for adventurers in search of the unique.
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