Some belated pictures from Ometepe Island!
National flag and Sandinista flags on the ferry
Arrival!
Our tour guide waiting for us with a handmade sign
On a hike around the lagoon
View of the lagoon
Tour guide driving us around the island
Most beautiful beach
Leaving on a ferry
Volcano receding
Aaaaand some thoughts on the different pace of life in rural Latin America:
Thirteen ways of looking at time passing in nicaragua
1. your favorite pineapple
melting into smug fermentation
on a cool table
in a dark kitchen
2. a hot street --
motionless figures standing on doorsteps --
the only street in town
3. three clean twists of
barbed wire
cutting the sky into sections can you see
the different shades of blue
4. mangoes so tiny
their dusky purple bodies
taste like a hard bruise in your mouth
5. sitting with a silent baby
watching the flies
land on the floor's patch of sun
waiting for the water
to be turned on again
6. two women -- their backs towards you --
rhythm out a hot stack of corn tortillas
in the back of the kitchen
while a dog chases a cat and a baby cries
7. watching a large
(but harmless)
ant make a winding way down
the outside of my soft
white mosquito net
8. on hot maroon leather
of a refurbished schoolbus waiting to leave --
the old spanish ballads are playing and
out the window leaves undulate
in the hot breeze
and i sweat
and wave back with a blink
9. the rooster gang starts up its battle cry
4am on the dot every morning
(i check my phone
just to make sure)
the gang of dogs is up next
10. is there meat in this meal
then it's probably lunchtime
11. depending on whether i've met you
or not you may get an
hola
or an adios
as i pass you on the street
sometimes i decide
at the last second
to be generous with my eyes
12. crunching down the mountain
on that gravel path past the cows and
horses
past the gently crying river
take large steps
avoid getting stolen
watch the hilltops ascend
13. bench with yellow paint scraping off
mossy tiled roof and low flying clouds
red toyotas and arched neck horses
bottlecaps in saturday afternoon dust
and groups of men in saturday afternoon hats
No comments:
Post a Comment