Managua, NICARAGUA

I have little comment about Managua.

In fact, I think of it as a wasteland, windswept, "sick-dog" city...and forgive me to be so brutally blunt. Proverty is a real serious problem here!

The city was damaged several times by huge fires, and almost destoyed in the December 23, 1972 earthquake which left 10,000 people dead and thousands without homes. Yet, almost 2 million people still call it home. The downtown area was totally wiped out in the 1972 earthquake and even today, little has been rebuilt. When international help came in to rebuild the town, the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle (President at that time) and his troops allegedly took the donations and either hid them from the public or used the donations for themselves. The old cathedral is still closed with huge cracks in its walls. Most rubble of the ruins have been removed but most street blocks are still vacant....which became playgrounds and baseball fields. Some just garbage dumbs...most...just empty. Like so many places in Central/South America (with the exception of Costa Rica and some others), the people throw garbage everywhere -- seems like they love living in garbage! What a shame! The general rule in buses are: Dont litter the bus...throw it out of the window.

Off to Honduras tomorrow and then on to San Salvador, capital of El Salvador.