Off to Managua

Greetings,

I’m on Big Corn Island and not much has happened this week as I ran out of sand, oh well. That said, yesterday I received 100 sacks of sand, 25 sacks of gravel, 30 bags of cement and 300 6″ blocks; that’s my last major order. On Wednesday I’ve got 100 pieces of lumber coming on a “Cat Boat” from the main land aka “direct” as they say around here.

I’d share images etc but I’m on this horrific connection that I’m shockingly able to even load this page with. You see, I stay at this place which became my office and I told lots of people about it. Well the place is full but I had called to let them know I’m coming so I’m up in their attic. What’s cool about it is that I was always curious what the rest of the house was like and now I know. Also, the fact that they trust me in their home with so many pirates about.

I’m in Managua until Friday because I need to buy roofing and every single outlet, wire, you name it. I have a long long long shopping list which is just nuts and to say slightly overwhelming would be an understatement. That said, meeting up with some of my friends there who are Nicaraguan and they know the drill, so it should be alright. I think the plan is to give the list to a lady who is a buyer for my friends on the island and just be some random dude looking at zinc until the deal is reached and it’s payment time.

Then, I rip out a wad of cash and pay for the whole thing. There are hardware stores near where the trucks leave Managua so it should be rather easy and can get the store to drop the larger items off directly on the truck, good. The smaller stuff I need to package and then get on the truck. Basically this truck leaves Managua and drives to Rama or El Rama.

That’s the end of the road. You see, the Corn Islands are part of the RAAS which you can google if you really care. It’s an autonomous zone which is part of Nicaragua but really not at all; it’s the Caribbean coast while the rest of Nicaragua is considered Spanish. What’s odd is Bluefields aka the capital of the region has no quality roads leading to it. There are some which are “decent” in the summer if you have a 4×4 but really, it’s faster to go along the river.

The river snakes until it reaches Bluefields where some supplies are dropped off and the rest go to the Corn Islands. The boat should arrive on Saturday and as a result, I’m going back on Friday evening. This stuff is tiring but also rewarding; I assume kinda like kids but completely different all at once. I’ve also got some other matters to attend to in Managua but life is good.

I have boatloads(sorry couldn’t help myself) of photos from the build, going to start laying them out in the not too distant future. This place is the starter project and my jungle house. In two weeks or so I plan on breaking ground on my second house which is two storeys, has a view and considerably more complex. I learned a few things trading stocks and one was to ease into positions. As a result I bought a small piece then a big piece the next year, so building a small house then the big one. This way if my builder ended up to be unreliable or whatever else happened, I’d not be too deep in the rabbit hole to somewhere; hopefully cool.

Also, part of the reason I’m going to Managua is the savings… A 15′ 1/2″ PVC pipe I need is 100C here but 70C in Managua; I need 20 of them as I’m laying a new line for water. The list just keeps going on and on and on so by taking the flight I’m actually going to save a lot of money. I’m rambling and tomorrow is huge; flying out at 8am and time to shop until I drop; the plan was to go on Sunday but flights are sold out.

Oh, before I go… Things are getting BUSY around here. When I first came in December 2011 it was 1 panga which ran twice a day and it was usually half full with the odd cargo on it. Last year it was at times two pangas which was consider nuts. This year, I’m sometimes seeing 3 at each time slot. They need a “SUPER PANGA” which I envision being 100FT long with 4-5 200HP engines but anyways…

Tips hat,

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