Nicaragua

Thursday, 24 April 2003. Somotillo, Nicaragua. I wanted to forget the past couple of days as days of un-coordination and monetary waste. The 22nd, the day I left Livingston, showed signs of promise until I hit Puerto Barrios, and everything went to shit. [i.e. Again:]

“Right at the pier when leaving Livingston, when my sea-bag came all undone, I should have sensed what bad things were to come.”

I paid too much for taxicabs, I tipped government officials too heavily – I bribed too readily, and I allowed myself to be suckered too easily. Little mistakes adding up to over-expenditures; little things (nickel and dime things) costing me big bucks in the long run. [Sin embargo,]

“I feel better by thinking that I’m helping the economies of Central America single-handed. Hell, they need the revenue more than the USA does.”

It seems that in a single day, today in fact, I went through more than $50-dollars USD. “That’s one night in a Motel 6 or Best Western hotel! Where did it all go?”

“I truly am learning the hard way.” From Puerto Barrios to the frontier of Honduras, and one night at a border [inn]: Approximately $10-dollars USD. From the border to Puerto Cortes, I [hitched] a ride with some petty government officials: Another $5-dollars USD. From Puerto Cortes to Tegucigalpa, I estimate no more than about $10-dollars USD. Now, here are where the mistakes begin: At Tegucigalpa, $12-dollars USD for the hotel; $20-dollars USD for taxi rides and beer; $3-dollars for the bus ride out to Nicaraguan border. [And,]

“Wait, it gets worse very fast!” $15-dollars USD to get my bags to Somotillo via bicycle and taxi; $10-dollars USD at the immigration offices of Honduras and Nicaragua together; and $15-dollars USD for the hotel room here in town. Total: +$50-dollars American gone.

I would call it a waste, an example of gross inefficiency, if not for the contacts I [have] made. “Have you found your feet yet?” With the information I have just acquired tonight, I am another step closer to having that livelihood I talked about: In the Bay Islands of Honduras of all places!

You can’t put a price on information like this. Many expats would pay top dollars for my contacts (over one-hundred), but here I have them, all mine, for the price of not knowing where the hell I was going [to go] or what I was going to do.

“Fifty American dollars? That’s nothing in the long run. Compared [with] another month of uncertainty, it’s peanuts!”

Contact information and purpose and processes, etc.:

1. Immigration & property issues; residency applications & [other] realty issues: MARCONI, AMAYE (Tegucigalpa) Telephone 504-237-3187 or 504-238-3889 (home)
2. Offshore bank account; money [laundering] & transfer of funds: HELENA NELSON (Banco Atlantia) Telephone 504-545-5592 or 504-455-1055 (home)
3. Property owner & business contact: EDDIE NELSON (Somotillo, Hotel Nelson) Telephone 505-346-2579, “Needs investors for property development.”
4. Useful contact in terms of establishing boating enterprise of some sort in the event that Eddie Nelson cannot be reached: GARY GRANT  Telephone 504-994-1544

“Resume and supporting documents will be useful for establishing business permits and acquiring a sponsor to support residency request.”

Someone will either have to sponsor me in Honduras, Guatemala or Nicaragua if ever the residency issue comes up, and it may very soon; I [will] have two options: get married or find a sponsor.

“Looks as if I will be checking out the Bay Islands of Honduras within a month to take photographs and formulate a business plan.”

In the meantime, I am headed to Managua and then to Puerto Limon in Costa Rica. [Afterwards], after about a month of looking for my old girlfriends, I will be headed back through Honduras for my island visit. “Perhaps I can head for the Bay Islands with my girlfriend.”

“Sin embargo.” I will nevertheless make May a productive month [regarding] other issues: “Si, sin embargo!”