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COUNTRIES and CULTURES of the WORLD, THEN and NOW, VOL. III
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Buenos Aires Boca district, popular with artists Guacho shows how, on a running horse, to put pen in a ring
Arrayanes [trees] Nat. Park, Argentina
[Excerpt, Countries & Cultures, Vol. III, p. 100-112, Brazil]
TRAVELS [in Brazil]. My slow tanker stayed close to the coast of Brazil, on its way southeast from Venezuela in 1945. We saw a few fishermen on rafts, jangadas. Near the mouth of the Amazon the sea was brown, not blue, for an entire day and night. It is more than 360 km. (225 mi.) across. We crossed the equator at 12:30 P.M. one day and blew the ship's whistle. Due to a shortage of fresh water, we didn't have a Davy Jones initiation celebration for those, like me, who crossed the equator for the first time. Shadows from rivets were straight up and down, the sun was directly overhead. The sea temperature was as high as 88 degrees F (31 C). The Amazon, world's biggest river, but more of an inland sea than a river, puts 12 times as much water into the ocean as the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio! All other rivers in the world are only creeks compared with the Amazon. One island alone, Marajo, near the mouth, is far larger than the State of Rhode Island in the U.S.A. We opened the porthole of the oilers foc'sle, put in the air scoop to bring in a breeze, and each of us slept with a weak electric fan turned on us. My ancient direct current fan frequently needed new commutator brushes and the ship had none. I cut up old pencils and used the "lead" (graphite) for brushes. At least once each day a big wave dumped several barrels of water onto me as I slept. I quickly took out the air scoop, turned over my wet mattress, and started bailing out sea water. Temperature of the sea water in early November dropped to 67 degrees F (19 C) just before we reached RIO de JANIERO.
Entering big Guanabara Bay from the Atlantic is very impressive. On our port or left side we saw the girls on Copacabana beach and tall apartment houses just behind the sand and paved beach. Sugar Loaf Mountain sticks out to the water. Corcovado Mountain, 710 m. (2,329 ft.) high, with a statue of Christ 38 m. (125 ft.) high, is farther inland. The big town of Niterói was on our starboard or right side. The "reat Escarpement" of steep hills rise to 800 m. (2,620 ft.) or so not far from the sea. We met several ships of the Brazilian navy, with sailors in bright dress uniforms, for some kind of inspection. We saw the tall buildings of the city and three Ford Tri-motor airliners landing at nearby Santos Dumont Airport. Big Governador Island was straight ahead. Soon after tying up at the dock and getting shore passes, those of us who were not on duty went ashore. I drew 400 milreis (400,000 reis) of my pay, then $22.50. Brazil had terrible inflation long ago, it is still bad.
A friend and I walked in the downtown area, the central zone. The market women sat on boxes and sold all kinds of seafoods, tropical fruits, and vegetables. We visited a tall building occupied only by the navy of the U.S.A. It had a garage and warehouse on lower floors, mess hall and galley above, and lounge and living quarters above that. Officers had the top floors, with a view. It was easy duty, in the city with many pretty and friendly girls.
We walked on Rio Branco Avenue, with stores and commercial buildings. We crossed wide President Vargas Avenue, named after the dictator, who was ousted in a military coup not long after our visit. We turned at the Praca (Square) Maua, looked at an old monastery, São Bento, then the old Candelária Church. It has a big dome with a cross on top. We visited Praca 15th of November, with a statue of King Jão VI on a horse, and an old fountain carved in marble. Nearby are the former Viceroy's residence built in 1743, and the Royal Chapel or cathedral. The Convent built in 1590, the Carmo Church, and the national Chamber of Deputies (now the Tiradentes Palace), are in the area. We soon learned that we could climb onto the horizontal board for standees on the outside of the old wooden trolleys, as they slowed down at street corners. Youths held on tight. When the conductor asked for fare they jumped off and waited for the next trolley. There were communities of shacks, made of cardboard and scrap wood, littering the rocky hillsides and hilltops. The poor in Latin America have the view sites, but they usually don't have water, electricity, or garbage collection.
We found that young people liked the Cinelandia area with many bars, cafes, and movie theaters. We did also. Later, we took a trolley on an old aqueduct to the Santa Teresa District on a hillside. Another day we found a way to get to Copacabana Beach. Girls didn't wear tangas (little triangles in three vital places), or even bikinis, in 1945. However, some looked great in big one-piece bathing suits. Most of the cariocas (girls of Rio) were born with skin the color of a good suntan, or much darker. The bay has beautiful curves, like some of the girls. On our last day in port my friend and I met a pretty, well-developed girl in a sidewalk bar in the Cinelandia area. A secretary at an embassy, she had the day off and had started to celebrate. She persuaded us to take a taxi to the cable car, then up Sugarloaf Mountain. From the restaurant-night club at the summit, 395 meters (1,295 ft.) above the sea and Copacabana Beach, we had great views of the bay, ships, and later, of city lights below and the lighted statue of Christ on Corcovado behind us. The girl said that she was willing to finish the night in a hotel. My friend was more aggressive, he got the girl, I returned to the ship. I was surprised later when he didn't get the claps. I had been brainwashed so much in the Maritime Service training that I thought gonorrhea or syphilis almost automatically followed.
Our plane from Asunción, Paraguay flew over forest, farms, and two brown rivers before landing at the airport in FOZ de IGUASU, Brazil. My wife and I changed money at 12 NCz$ per dollar U.S.A., got a map and information at the tourist office, and took a crowded bus 10 km. (6 mi.) to our big Hotel Carima. It was the largest hotel in Parana State in 1989, with 421 rooms. We ate brochettes with grainy but pleasant manioc flour, with local watermelon and good Brazilian wine. Italian, Portuguese, and German settlers brought winemaking skills to Brazil. Our nice buffet breakfast included peeled oranges, except for an unpeeled end cap to hold while eating the orange. Other fruit was papaya and pineapple.
We went on a tour of ITAIPU DAM, the "world's largest dam." The information center has exhibits showing that construction began in 1975 and would continue for several more years. A new town, Foz de Iguasu, was built to house workers. It has 50,000 people, there is a smaller town, Stroessner is across the river, it houses workers in Paraguay. Trees have been planted along streets, and most were paved. Paraguay sells most of its half of the electricity generated, to Brazil. We rode about 40 km. (25 mi.) north, passing a forest, tall grass, red soil, new painted masonry houses, and squatters' shacks. The dam has 18 generators of 700,000 KW each, 15 were installed. It has a potential of 12.6 million KW. The rotors are 22.5 m. in diameter. [The World Almanac 1996 lists Itaipu as the largest existing dam, with 13,320 million KW, Grand Coulee in Washington State U.S.A. with 10,830, Guri in Venezuela with 10,300]. On an annual basis, with a steady high water flow on the Paraná River, Itaipu has an annual potential of 75 billion KW, Guri has 50, Krasnyo has 30, and Grand Coulee has 20 billion KW potential, according to information at Itaipu. Brazil gets more energy for motor vehicles from gasohol made from its sugar cane than from oil. However, total costs of production, including subsidies to grow the cane, have been higher than the world market price of petroleum. We watched a movie in Portuguese telling about the construction of Itaipu. In big buses we toured the dam: the area with transformers and power lines, the concrete dam 8 km. (5 mi.) long, then below the dam, with water rushing out of one-third of the penstocks. The lake's bottom is elevation about 50 m. (164 ft.), the water surface was 220 m. (722 ft.), the dam is 180 m. (590 ft.) high.
After returning to the hotel we took a public bus some 24 km. (15 mi.) to the "cataracts," paying for admission to the NATIONAL PARK IGUASU FALLS. They are "the world's largest waterfalls," some 67 m. (220 ft.) high. Argentina and Paraguay share the falls with Brazil. Africa's Victoria Falls on the Zambesi River in Zimbabwe are 105 to 108 m. (344 to 354 ft.) high and were more impressive because the water falls in a straight line 1,738 m. (5,700 ft.) across. However, Iguasu has a crest 3.8 km. (2.4 mi.) wide. The 20 cataracts are mostly in two areas. Visitors on the Brazil side can sit in an observation platform close to the main Horseshoe Cataracts, it is solid water, very impressive. The blue Paraná River has a greater volume of water than the Zambesi River. Niagara Falls have a 54 m. (177 ft.) drop at the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, 675 m. (2,214 ft.) across, and a 56 m. (184 ft.) drop on the American side, with a 320 m. (1,050 ft.) long crest.
We took a walk along the river, seeing more waterfalls through the thick jungle trees. Some have a double fall, many drops are about 65 m. (213 ft.). We saw many iguanas, two of the lizards were each 75 or 80 cm. (30 or 34 in.) long, but timid. Iridescent blue morpho butterflies and yellow butterflies seemed to like the water. The Argentina side has about two km. of falls. We climbed to the top of the cliff, and returned in high humidity 32 degree C weather on the upper path.
Leaving early the next morning, we were taken by bus from the Foz de Iguasu airport to another airport in Argentina 40 km. (25 mi.) distant. We flew east, circled awhile, and landed in CURITIBA, a modern city in a green forest. It is known for an innovative public transportation system. The public bus service is so good that few people drive a car. We then flew northeast to SÃO PAULO, circling to land in one of the five airports. Small green hills have red soil. Wastebaskets in the modern terminal building advertised Marlboro, encouraging more nicotine addiction. We flew in another plane 3,200 km. (1,988 mi.) northwest, over several big rivers, forests, and few towns. Before landing in MANAUS we flew low over the Rio Negro and the Amazon.
We talked with a travel agent at the airport and agreed to go to the two-star hotel he recommended and to take at least one excursion with his firm. They gave us free transportation 10 km. (6 mi.) or so to and from downtown. My wife and I speak Spanish and French fluently, and I had perfected my Portuguese during a trip to Portugal earlier in the year. Manaus has 1.2 million people in the middle of the Amazon basin, some 1600 km. (1,000 mi.) upstream from the Atlantic. It is a free port. Brazilians come by the planeload to buy appliances, computers, electronics, and everything else, duty free. Tariff elsewhere in Brazil is 250 percent or more on many of the products. Manaus has many assembly plants hiring girls in sweatshops to assemble electronics, appliances, motorbikes, watches, and other products. Our guide, a bachelor, said there are 15 single women for every bachelor in the area. The men are either away in the illegal drug trade, working in the dangerous mines, or they have been killed. The government had announced that a 2nd free trade port would be opened at TABATINGA, some 2,000 km. (1,242 mi.) upstream, which we had visited a few weeks earlier. (See Peru). People in Manaus did not like the new competition, saying that "everyone in Tabatinga already gets rich from the cocaine trade."
Before we entered Manaus, with narrow streets, old masonry buildings needing paint, and shacks of squatters all around, we smelled the city. It is like a big cesspool. We were the only foreigners in our hotel but it was satisfactory. A ceiling fan in our room made it comfortable, and we need only cold water in the tropics. Much of Western Europe would fit into Amazonas State, largest in Brazil, with nearly 1.6 million square kilometers of jungle and water. The cover of the telephone directory had a picture of many nude women, "Amazons," riding horses. We went for a long walk, first to the famous Opera House or Teatro Amazonas. It has a dome of green and orange ceramic tiles brought from Italy in the 1890s, during the "rubber boom." The British Sir Henry Wickham stole a shipload of rubber plants. Most of them died but the survivors were replanted in London's Kew Gardens, then in Malaysia. It was then a British colony. The big plaza in front has a statue in honor of opening the Amazon to ships of all countries. It is paved with a wavy design in two colors, like Rio's Copacabana Beach. They look like waves on the sea. Soon after the opera house opened in 1896 many great European and American singers entertained guests in all 700 seats. The Saint Sebastian Church is nearby. There were many vendors, of textiles, picture post cards, leather goods, toys, cigarettes, casette tapes, and more.
Most local people are small, with a brown skin, some are Blacks. Many senhoritas wore only a tight Tee shirt above, compressing their breasts and nipples. There was much dirt, trash, and filth, and sidewalks in poor repair. Bottle caps had been pushed into the soft noonday asphalt for decorations. Several boys climbed a tree to eat mangoes, in season in late November. Many shops sold textiles and remnants. Middle class women from all over Brazil were stocking up on the low prices. The cathedral is near the waterfront. The Rio Negro Palace was built around 1900 for a rich rubber merchant. It has cast iron porches and balconies, and a beautiful wooden staircase. Other Victorian buildings border the tiled sidewalks and pracas (plazas or squares).
Our prepaid buffet breakfast was delicious, many fruits were in season: watermelon, melon, banana, pineapple, and tasty local oranges. We also ate fried eggs, bread, and Brazilian coffee. The 5th floor dining room had beautiful wall, ceiling, and floor ceramic tiles. Many of the Latin American countries have beautiful colored ceramic tiles with designs. Portugal and Brazil like the azulejos, or blue tiles, that would delight any artist.
A minibus took us to the waterfront on the wide river. The old custom house is nearby. The busy docks built by British float, water-level would be five or six meters higher in two months, at the height of the rainy season. Dock workers were on strike one day, wanting a wage increase to catch up with inflation. It was around 100 percent, prices doubled each month. However, the strike affected mostly only small ships and big cargo boats. Rows of big boats brought fruits and vegetables from riverside farms 100 km. (60 mi.) or more distant. One dugout unloaded ears of fresh corn. They will sell fast to housewives and vendors, who roast them over a charcoal fire and sell them like candy bars. The big cast iron market was copied from les Halles in Paris. It is now used only for meat. Seafoods of all kinds, and fresh fish up to two meters (7 ft.) long, packed in ice, awaited buyers. Several monataries or dugouts were loaded with balls of black natural rubber, some 25 cm. (10 in.) in diameter. One boat just came in, the man cleaned several fish 30 or 40 cm. (12 or 16 in.) long at the dock. When he threw the entrails into the water, it churned with razor-sharp teeth of hundreds of little piranha cannibal fish.
Six of us boarded a heavy wooden boat some 16 m. (52 ft.) long. It had one deck, mostly open, and a flat roof where we could sit or lie in hammocks. In the busy harbor big ships were anchored, others were at dock, awaiting the end of the strike. Long passenger and cargo boats, usually with a plastic or thatch roof for rain and sun, make regular runs on nearby rivers, a ferry service. A big dugout with an outboard motor came in, overloaded with watermelons. A big wave would have swamped it. Men and boys paddled dugout canoes, using a paddle with a round blade. Some had a hand line for fish. We stopped at a waterside store to buy beer, then motored down the black Rio Negro, some six km. (4 mi.) wide. We passed a sawmill and dry docks. In 10 km. (6 mi.) we came to the "meeting of the waters," where the black Rio Negro meets the brown Amazon. The two waters don't mix for six km. (4 mi.), finally agreeing to co-habit in the same riverbed. Several black dolphin jumped completely out of the water. Natives don't kill black or pink dolphin, they believe they could be an ancestor. Lucky dolphin. Environmentalists in Brazil, as in Peru, encourage the belief. We heard the same story as in the upper Amazon, that a handsome stranger came to the village dance, but he was really a dolphin. (See Peru) Pregnant unmarried girls on Brazil's Amazon also say "a dolphin did it." Our guide said the Amazon puts five million cubic feet of water into the Atlantic each second, and the same amount of silt into the Atlantic each day. In the rainy season the Amazon is up to 480 km. (300 mi.) wide. During the rainy season floating islands appear and disappear daily.
We motored quietly some 10 km. (6 mi.) up a narrow waterway, with an occasional house made of unpainted boards, and metal roofs, on the high bank also on stilts. Most had the last year's high-water mark a meter or more high on the walls. Water rose more than usual, six or seven meters (20 or 23 ft.), forcing many people to flee their homes. One or two dugout canoes were tied up at each house. Many had an outboard motor with a long almost-horizontal drive shaft for shallow water, like those used on the klongs of Thailand. Small fields of corn (maize), manioc (cassava), watermelon, rice, and beans were near each house. Other farms had fields of lettuce and string beans. Some had humpback white Brahma cattle, tough enough for the tropics. We saw a few fish nets in rivers. Kids often waved from isolated houses. Women and girls washed clothes or cleaned big fish along the shore. Our cook-captain prepared a tasty lunch of salad, tambagui (fish stew), chicken stew, and watermelon slices. Grainy farinha or mandioca is the staple food, with fish, of most people in the Amazon basin. Like tapioca, it is made from the manioc plant. We threw leftovers to the piranha, who jumped for it, their mouth open, showing rows of sharp teeth. Our guide was born and grew up on a small river some 50 km. (30 mi.) distant. He leads hikes of up to a week in the jungle. He said that Manaus is a dangerous city, with many hungry armed people. Six are killed there on an average day in wars to control drugs. He said that Tabatinga, upriver, where we visited a few weeks earlier, is even worse. He was robbed two times at gun point in Manaus. We saw many birds on the bank, including white egrets, looking for fish. Brightly colored kingfishers waited in trees above the water. Vultures chose the highest limb that would support their weight. Bright parrots watched us. The anaconda is plentiful, up to 10 m. (33 ft.) long. It lives in water. The boa constrictor lives on land. However, the small poisonous snakes "are the most dangerous." Catfish are so big that they sometimes eat a grown man! Some have poisonous whiskers, stunning or killing their prey. Electric eels, rays with long tails, and caiman (like alligators) are dangerous. Piranha are dangerous where there is blood or where they are accustomed to being fed. There are dozens of species of piranha, some are worse than others. Near the water we saw many ripe mangoes hanging from trees, ready for eating. Big gourds hung from trees, they are used instead of pottery to carry and store water, letting the silt settle. The brown Amazon's silt makes lots of rich soil when water drops in the dry season, like the Nile. The Rio Negro doesn't have silt, nearby soil is poor. It gets the black color from roots and other dissolving vegetation. Slash burning to make fields is "not much of a problem" in the Manaus area. Farmers can stay in the same place, the soil is replenished each rainy season. Our guide said cutting and burning the rain forest is much worse downriver "where the Japanese, French, Germans, and Americans burn the forest to grow crops on huge plantations." It is also worse in Rondonia State, in the southwest, near Bolivia. The new road brought many settlers and miners to Rondonia.
In Lake January we tied up to simple docks, walking on board catwalks past houseboats where 12 or 15 families live. Most were made of boards, some were painted. Roofs were sheet metal or thatch. Several houseboats had walls and roof made of thatch. Windows were usually a board on hinges, closed during bad weather. None had screens on windows or doors, and there were flies and mosquitoes. Shops on high boardwalks sold handcrafts--bows, arrows, blowguns and darts, feathers, carved masks, woven bags, and more. Most of the vendors were away during siesta time. One houseboat was painted, it had glass windows and a small restaurant. Customers loafed, watching TV. A Christmas tree, four weeks early, looked out of place. An electric generator was on a floating back-porch, next to a black pig tied by its left front leg, eating garbage. A nearby big box had a fresh litter of pups. We looked down at the Victoria Regis water lilies, up to almost two meters (7 ft.) in diameter. The National Geographic featured a photograph of a little girl sleeping on a lily pad. Several lilies had blooms, they are pink the first day, white the 2nd day, then they're gone. Around 5:00 P.M. the lilies close for the night, trapping a beetle that helps pollination. The next morning when the sunshine opens the bloom the beetle escapes. It is only used for a sexual nighttime companion. We saw five or six caiman, some were more than two meters long. An iguana was a very bright green color. Others were on tree limbs over or near the water.
The biggest tree in the jungle in the mid-Amazon is the sumama, also called the ceiba, silk-cotton, or kapok tree, with grey bark. We saw hundreds of hevea or rubber trees, with a grey bark, a ball of green foliage. They often have a big termite nest. On the floodplain the "white" or softwood trees are most common. On higher ground, not flooded, hardwood trees include mahogany, other cabinet woods, pau Brasil or Brazil nuts, and various palms. Brazil has 500,000 seringueiros--men who still gather latex from wild rubber trees, much of it goes through Manaus. Other jungle trees are the source of medicines and spices. Flooding for half the year spreads seeds, leading to the great diversity in the tropical forest. Several thousand species of plants have been found in each hectare! Parts of the Upper Amazon where there is no flooding have less diversity of plants. The Amazon basin has more than 1000 species of birds, 250 mammals, many kinds of reptiles, and thousands of species of insects.
We tied up on shore. Several of us went swimming, it was 35 C and humid. I wore shorts. I wondered what creatures were near me in the brown water. We then fished, catching many piranha and a shark nearly a meter (3.3 ft.) long. Our cook prepared another tasty meal. Not far away on the shore two girls cleaned a fish almost as big as they were. A trail up the bank led to their frame home on stilts. A fire smoldered in the front yard. The fish will be placed on the platform above the fire for about two days, to smoke it. The fish will be preserved for at least a month. Bats came out to chase the mosquitoes that were discouraged by our insect repellant. When it suddenly got dark we left in two canoes, paddling upriver, shining flashlights along the shore. When a bright pair of eyes reflected the light our guide climbed out, wrestled a caiman some 70 cm. (28 in.) long, and gave it to me to hold while the others paddled. I had learned in Peru to clamp its mouth shut so it couldn't use the 48 sharp upper and 48 lower teeth. I also held it mid-tail, sometimes gently stroking its belly to relax it. I knew that a "sleeping" alligator can strike almost as fast as lighting. Caiman have no tongue. They have two pairs of eyes, one for underwater, and one for above the surface. Part of its tail had been bitten off by piranha. When the other canoe arrived we compared their caiman with ours, then released both into the river. On the return upriver huge lightning bugs and thousands of stars provided some light. We saw the bright lights of Manaus shortly before we noticed the cesspool-like smell.
In Manaus we walked a few hours in the historical city, with a map and tourist information. There are few street signs, and the name often changes every two or three blocks. Each military leader, politician, and hero is entitled to a street, or at least a block, named after him. The legislative building is the main government for Brazil's largest and poorest state. When we walked during siesta time we walked on our shadow, the sun was directly overhead, only 330 km. (205 mi.) south of the equator. The filth and poverty reminded us of India, but Manaus had few beggars. My wife, a physician, recognized several people on the street suffering from leprosy. They had faces like a lion and many fingers were missing. Many physicians in advanced countries never see a case of leprosy. Public typists waited in the shade at the big market and several other places. Each had a manual typewriter and a big pile of forms. Most people cannot read or write, so they perform a great public service. They are a bridge between the primitive Amazon culture and modern bureaucracy, government and private. Near the municipal market there are several blocks filled with street vendors. The cast iron market building was brought from Europe in the 1890s. It now sells only meat. Soap is sold in unwrapped bars some 30 cm. (12 in.) long, in red or blue. A man with one leg had a pet monkey wrapped around his neck. He probably lost the other leg to a caiman. Strikers carried banners and rented a big sound truck, to add to the confusion. Cities in Lesser-Developed Countries are usually very noisy, there is almost no awareness of the harmful effects of loud noises.
ne evening [in Manaus, Brazil] , to celebrate my wife's birthday, we ate in a nice churrascaria or meat restaurant. Our 10 plates included rice, manioc flour, fried corn meal, fried banana, beets, tomatoes, boiled manioc, potatoes, and beans, plus sausage, roast beef, and many meats cooked on a skewer. We topped it off with red Brazilian Forestier wine. We returned to the hotel by taxi. We had met two young German men. They were walking near downtown in the evening when a man with a pistol ordered them into a little park, sheltered by trees. Another man lurked in the shadows. They were told to take off their shirts and trousers. They were young and athletic, and started running in the dark. The man with the pistol fired several rounds at them, a bullet made a bad scratch on one man's hip. The other German fell in the dark and skinned his leg badly. They got away, valuables intact, but were scared and were trying to get out on the next plane. The camera of one of the German men had also been stolen from a shelf on a tour bus in Rio de Janiero. We decided that we wouldn't walk after dark, but would take a taxi.
We took a taxi to the Indian Archeological Museum. It shows the life of 18 tribes in the upper Rio Negro. Maps show the home territory of all Indian tribes in Brazil. Less than 100,000 pure Indians remain, the others have been killed or assimilated into white man's culture. The museum, operated by Catholic missionaries, has a model of a big rectangular thatch house. It also has a big round thatch house with a center pole, a large center opening for smoke to leave. Each house is for several families, with hammocks, pottery made from coils of clay, and fire pits. A big bowl is used for manioc dough. A long narrow woven straw container is hung and used to squeeze out the poisonous liquid of "sour" manioc, as well as the liquid for sweet manioc to make beer. An enclosed hollow log is used to ferment manioc to make beer. A metal pot is used over a fire and a long tube carries distilled cane juice, to make cachaça or pinga, a kind of rum. Indians roll leaves of a plant like tobacco to make cigars. They inhale a hallucinogen drug with a long tube. They use bows, arrows, blowguns 2.5 m. (8 ft.) long, and darts. They weave beautiful baskets, cloth, and hammocks, sometimes using a simple loom. They use a rough piece of wood or ralador to separate food fibers. They use low benches with four legs. [In Africa nearly all benches have three legs.] The Indians wear necklaces and belts decorated with feathers and teeth of animals. They sometimes wear grass skirts to reduce insect bites, but usually wear only a loin cloth. They have a ritual kidnapping and raping of a bride as a marriage ceremony. They make funeral masks, and eat ground bones of the deceased, mixed with banana, to preserve the memory of the deceased. They make fish nets and spears.
We walked back to downtown on filthy streets with big open rectangular sewer holes, unmarked, both on streets and sidewalks. Hundreds of slum houses on stilts, a favela, extend over a deep ravine. Trash and excrement fall into it, fertilizing the many vines and plants. In the rainy season, to begin any day, water will fill the ravine and help to clean it. Leaving Manaus, at the airport everyone went through customs, because Manaus is a "free" port. Brazilians carried electric fans, radios, tape recorders, and checked bigger purchases. People going to other parts of Brazil, with more than the limit of goods, may have to pay a tariff. There was no airport security but an undercover secret service man was on the flight to Belem. Departing, we saw tall trees of the jungle surrounding Manaus, the two mighty rivers, and many smaller rivers. I had a window seat on a clear late afternoon. Our jet flew just north of the Amazon. I saw almost no sign of civilization or the cutting of trees on the flight to SANTEREM, some 800 km. (475 mi.) east, downstream. It is a big port on the Amazon. After awhile we continued in the dark to BELEM, near the mouth of the Amazon, another 800 km.
Belem has 1.2 million people. It is some 120 km. (75 mi.) from the southern side of the Amazon's mouth. Belem is capital of the State of Pará. The Guamá River flows nearby into the Guajará Bay. After stopping at the tourist office for a map and information, we negotiated for a taxi to take us to our four-star downtown hotel. We rode on Julius Caeser Avenue from the airport. The hotel couldn't find our reservations but had a vacancy and we negotiated a satisfactory price. I agreed to pay cash, a credit card would cost 50 percent more, because the money would be worth a lot less in a month or two.
After a nice breakfast with lots of tropical fruit we walked toward Rodriguez Alves Park. Soon we were seeking shade of big mango trees along the sidewalk. I flagged down a taxi as the sun got hotter. Taxi drivers give a "thumbs up" signal to show agreement, pleasure, or when they see a pretty girl. The park, in the southeast part of the city, has 16 hectares (40 acres) of jungle preserved since 1883. Paths have been built, and a few small buildings for monkeys, parrots, and other creatures. Tapirs, coatis, parrots, and some monkeys roam or fly free. The park has more than 2,500 species of trees. Many have a placard with the name in Portuguese. The sumama or kapok tree is often more than 60 m. (197 ft.) tall, with huge limbs. It is part of the jungle's upper canopy. Orchids, vines, and other parasites are attached to many trees. Sometimes they squeeze and kill the host tree. Big nests of ants or termites made of mud were built on some trees. Pools have huge lilly pads. Many well-dressed local families enjoyed the park on Sunday morning.
We took another taxi to the Emilio Goeldi Museum, in another city park, near the center of the city. When I bought soft drinks and got change of 40 cents, I had a wad of cruziero bills more than a centimeter thick. We were billionaires! I could have papered a room with 40 cents change. Goeldi was a Swiss naturalist who studied problems, flora, and fauna of the Amazon. Many local people threw down trash even while standing next to a trash can. The small aquarium has many fish found in the Amazon. Animals native to the Amazon live in the park including monkeys and sloths. The Ethnology and Archeology Building is well done, with the help of a guidebook in English, explaining the exhibits. I would be much slower reading Portuguese. Brazil nuts, a major export of Belem, grow about 20 in a hull like a coconut. The rubber latex collector in the jungle works in the early morning, emptying cups of latex into a gourd. He slowly pours milky latex onto a stick, which he turns over a fire to make a smoked ball. We saw them by the boatload in Manaus. Beetles in the Amazon are sometimes 12 or 14 cm. (5 or 6 in.) long. "Lantern" bugs or lightning bugs have a 15 cm. (6 in.) wingspan. Indians feed captive birds particular foods to bring out desired colors in feathers. Yellow is the most rare, so it is the most valuable. Only 100,000 "self-identified" Indians live in Brazil, the others have mixed into society. Indians use woven or bead belts and feathers for decorations. They use a trump line on the forehead to carry heavy baskets. Their pottery, made by coiling clay, includes a thin-wall pot more than a meter (39 in.) in diameter and a meter high, used for storage. It can keep out mice and insects. They "fire" pottery, and put pots over the fire to boil liquids. Manioc, corn (maize), sweet potatoes, and fish are the basic food in the Amazon. A hollow log is used to store juice. The museum has recorded realistic jungle sounds of birds, monkeys, the scary sound of a jaguar, and more.
A typical Indian home is shown, it is rectangular, with a thatch roof and dirt floor. Hammocks are used for daytime relaxing, bunks are often used at night. A long narrow woven container is hung or twisted at each end to extract liquid from manioc. Sieves, strainers, baskets, pots, blowguns and darts, spears, and other household necessities are shown. Parrots and toucans are common jungle pets. Turtles are kept in cages for food, their meat is never put into soup. Children use a twirling toy on a string to make a whirring sound, like the aborigines of Australia, and like a toy I made as a farm-boy. Beads are glued to the body or strung to wear. A body stamp carved from stone is used with coloring, dyes, to decorate the body. Paintings, stamps, and tattoos are a substitute for clothes in many cultures. Stone spindles are used to spin thread (cotton, bark, kapok tree fibers, etc.) into cloth. Big pottery urns with lids are used to bury human bones. Ritual pottery vases are decorated with human and animal heads, like those of the Maya. Round benches made of fired clay were used.
Belem is not quite so hot as Manaus, day and night. Belem is also cleaner and the streets are in better condition. Early in the morning we walked to the busy waterfront on the brown bay. Nearby we saw and smelled a few plants busy roasting Brazil nuts. There was more than a kilometer of hustle and bustle as hundreds of motorboats, usually 15 to 30 m. (49 to 98 ft.) long, unloaded products from the huge Amazon to tran-ship all over the world. There were also fishing boats with dirty-looking brown triangular sails. Other boats loaded products to carry up the many rivers. Big cargo ships flew the flags of many countries. The adjoining Ver-O-Peso Market area is one of the world's largest. It began in 1688 as a checkpoint where Portuguese weighed and taxed products going into or out of the Amazon. It is really several markets: the Municipal or Meat Market, Free Market, Fisherman's Park, Clock Park, and the Açai market where wrought iron was brought from England. Under thatch roofs vendors sold fish and sea foods of all kinds, fruit, vegetables, Brazil nuts, black balls of crude rubber, tobacco, alligator and animal skulls, dried skins of big snakes and animals, incense, voodoo charms, medicinal herbs, live birds and monkeys, Indian artifacts, pottery, clothes, household goods, and much more. My wife and I found a high place to observe the activity. I wish that we had stayed all day, just looking.
In the Praça da Independência, a plaza with a statue of a general, a speaker for an evangelistic church tried to get converts, even on a Monday. The nearby Cathedral of Belem, built in 1617 and 1748, is one of South America's oldest. Inside there is beautiful mosaic art. The dome has a painting by Domêmico de Angelis. Three trucks with loudspeakers had recorded voices of politicians running for election. They were parked within two blocks of each other. Each was so loud that it cancelled out the message of the others. Even a local person fluent in Portuguese could not understand the messages. The Lauro Sodré Palace, now home of the government of the State of Pará, is only a few blocks away. The Paz Theater, with classical columns built in 1878, is at Praça da República, a few more blocks inland. Busts at the entrance represent music, poetry, comedy, and tragedy. Belem is rightly known for beautiful statuesqe women who put their best points forward. We walked in an older neighborhood with colonial buildings, cast iron balcony railings, red tile roofs, shuttered windows, masonry walls once painted in pastel colors, trimmed in ceramic tiles, and unpaved narrow streets. We also walked several kilometers in a neighborhood with middle class homes, a few tethered goats on unpaved streets, and an occasional beautiful home. There seems to be no zoning, a beautiful home may be in a slum. One, for example, has a high cast iron fence protecting the carport and home. Beautiful ceramic azulejos (blue tiles) on walls and floors had several designs. They included a stream with trees. Drivers are dangerous, often ignoring a red light. Pedestrians must be prepared to run at any time. Local newspapers, such as A Provincia do Para and Diario do Para, are like many in South America. Feature news articles are about automobile or other accidents, murders and robberies; the society pages have pictures and articles about rich girls who have a "coming out party" to celebrate their important 15th birthday. However, few newspapers dare to publish an article criticizing an incumbent politician, the military, or church.
In a local restaurant we ate tacacá, a strange soup, apparently made of whatever the cook had handy or left over. It included egg, little shrimp, strange herbs, and tapioca. In the restaurant on the 15th floor of our hotel we had great views of the waterfront, the city, and surrounding jungle. During several meals we met foreign engineers who worked for the big aluminum plant some 70 km. (43 mi.) upstream, and others who worked on the huge lumber and pulp mill some 100 km. (62 mi.) upstream, originally developed by Ludwig. Together, they account for much of the native forest destroyed and pollution on the lower Amazon. The engineers said they either fly or go by boat upriver. The only road out of or in to the Belem area is the highway that goes more than 2,000 km. (1,242 mi.) south to the new capital, Brasilia. Several days each month, when the moon makes high tides, a wall of tidal water three or four meters (10 or 13 ft.) high rushes inland, swamping boats and drowning many people. The engineers recommended that we see a macumba voodoo ceremony. Unfortunately, there was none during our visit of only a few days. On the way to the airport our taxi had to stop for 20 minutes until a very heavy rain ended. It is impossible to drive in such a downpour. At the airport, after paying the usual departure tax, we had several dollars in local money. We split it, giving part to each of two janitors. We often give leftover currency to a janitor or cleaning lady, in a poor country they are always in need. We flew northwest, over the crowded poor northeast part of Brazil, to French Guiana.
On a flight from Miami to Buenos Aires in 1994, with daylight, I saw jungles, a north-flowing tributary of the Amazon (the huge Madeira), one lone small plowed field, then drier plateau, and even a road.
[Excerpt, P. 122-136
CENTRAL AMERICA
The Central American Common Market (CACM) was created in 1961. However, trade between some of the member countries stopped many years ago because of disputes or wars. A few countries have apparently dropped out. Many of the countries compete in selling the same products in world markets. However, there is much room for trade.
Within the market area El Salvador exported cotton textiles and other cotton products, shoes, petroleum products refined from Venezuelan oil, insecticides, and rice. El Salvador imported from Honduras beans, maize, soap, and lumber. El Salvador imported from Guatemala fresh fruits, cottonseed, cottonseed oil, cotton cloth, automobile tires, and batteries. Prior to wars in the 1980s Nicaragua exported chemical products to Guatemala.
El Salvador is a very crowded country, with 1040 people per square km. of arable land. Twenty-seven percent of the land is arable. Guatemala is almost as crowded, with 840 people per square km. of arable land. Twelve percent is arable. They also have very unequal distribution of land, with the poor owning only a small percentage. It is not surprising that those two countries have the strongest guerrilla movements, wanting land and less inequality. Costa Rica, where only 6 percent of the land is arable, is even more crowded, with 1107 people per square km. of arable land. However, it is a democracy and the land is not so unevenly distributed. Some 6 percent of Panama's land is arable, resulting in 593 people per square km. of arable land. Since 9 percent of Nicaragua's land is arable, we find that it has 354 people per square km. of arable land. Some 14 percent of the land in Honduras is arable. It has 348 people per square km. of arable land.
The poor in rural areas and small towns are often barefoot. In cities most adults wear sandals, but children may be barefoot. On Sundays and holidays even the poor wear nice clothes, prettier than those typically worn by a North American or Western European. In towns and rural areas married women are expected to wear a shawl or scarf over the head when they go away from the home alone, to avoid attracting other men. In towns and rural areas women are limited in their activites, almost as much as women in Islamic countries. However, in cities the educated women have considerable freedom.
Cities in Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and much of South America are much noisier than in the more-developed countries. There is little awareness of the harmful effect of noise, especially noise at night. Dogs bark, vehicles with broken mufflers use the horn more than the brakes, radios and TVs blast at full volume, firecrackers are used at every opportunity, and roosters awaken early those who have managed to get to sleep.
REPUBLIC OF PANAMA ("The Crossroads of the World")
Population 2.7 million (1.9 % per year natural increase); area 75,900 sq. km. (29,200 sq. mi.); GDP $12.3 billion; average income $4670; literacy rate 88% Panama City has 640,000 people.
HISTORY. (See Colombia also.) Panama had more than 500,000 Indians in many tribes when the Spanish arrived in 1501 and settled in 1510. The main founder of the colony was Vasco Núñez de Balboa. In 1513 he led a group over the hills and through the jungle, to discover the Pacific Ocean, claiming it for Spain. Another jealous colonist claimed that Balboa was treasonous. Balboa was beheaded in 1519. In 1521 Old Panama was settled on the Pacific coast. Much gold and silver from Peru was shipped to Old Panama, then on mules to ships on the Atlantic side. In 1671 Britain's Henry Morgan, who often took the loot from Spanish ships, burned Old Panama. Morgan and his crew came through the jungle and were half-starved when they arrived to shoot, loot, and burn. Panama City was founded a few kilometers distant.
Panama declared its independence from Spain on November 28, 1821. Panama joined Greater Colombia, which was later called New Granada, then Colombia. During the 1849 Gold Rush in California thousands of prospectors and adventurers arrived by ship on the Caribbean side, rode burros on a trail to the Pacific side, and boarded a ship there for San Francisco. Engineers and financeers from the U.S.A. built the first transcontinental railway, across Panama, in 1855. France under Ferdinand de Lessups began to build a canal in 1881. He had built the Suez Canal through Egypt's sand. They had many problems and went almost bankrupt. The group in France that acquired rights to build the canal offered to sell it to the U.S.A. for 40 million dollars. When France stopped efforts to dig a canal, the U.S.A. asked Colombia to meet to discuss the building of the canal. The Colombia Senate in 1903 voted to refuse permission to built it. Theodore Roosevelt, then president of the U.S.A., announced that he would support a revolution on the narrow isthmus. Groups in Panama announced their independence. Warships of the U.S.A. guarded Panama's coasts to prevent Colombia from attacking. There were no roads.
The U.S.A. guaranteed the independence of Panama (from Colombia), and got sovereignty "in perpetuity" over a strip 16 km. (10 mi.) wide from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 80 km. (50 mi.) A treaty was signed, the U.S.A. paid Panama 10 million dollars (plus 40 million to France) and agreed to pay 250,000 dollars yearly. Building the canal was the largest construction job in the history of the world. Col. Gorgas, health officer, helped to kill mosquitoes and stop malaria that had slowed down construction. Panamanians over the years wanted more control over the canal and less control of Panama's internal affairs by the U.S.A. Annual payments were increased to 430,000 dollars by the Treaty of 1936, and to almost two million dollars in 1955. Riots in Panama in 1964 against the U.S.A. retention of the canal resulted in renegotiation of the treaty. In 1978 the Senate of the U.S.A. approved a new treaty. The U.S.A. agreed to gradually withdraw troops to relinquish the canal on December 31, 1999, and to stop intervening in Panama's internal affairs. Both countries agreed that from the year 2000 no foreign troops would remain in Panama,"provided Panama has an adequate trained defense force." If the canal were obstructed the U.S.A. "retained the right to use military power to keep it open."
The U.S.A. in 1994 had at least 12 military bases in Panama. A high percentage of the military forces that protect dictators and other government leaders throughout Latin America were trained by the U.S.A. military in Panama.
In 1981 Panama's President Torrijos was assassinated. In a short time General Manuel Noriego became dictator. In 1987 Panama's former chief-of-staff accused Noriego of murdering Torrijos. The U.S.A. accused Noriego of selling illegal drugs, although Noriego had been paid some 322,000 dollars by the C.I.A. as a spy for the C.I.A. Noreiga said that the C.I.A. offered him far more if he would invade Nicaragua, then under control of the Sandinistas. Noriego annulled elections in 1989 when it appeared that his opponent would win by a landslide. In December 1989 Noriego declared war against the U.S.A. Paratroopers and other troops of the U.S.A. invaded on December 20. Some 3,000 to 4,000 Panamanians were killed. Noriego was captured on January 3, 1990. He was tried in federal court in Miami. In April 1992 he was convicted on eight counts of racketeering and trafficking in drugs. Late in 1989 Endara, who was winning the election, was installed as president. In elections in May 1994 Balladares was elected president.
Candidates for election are reported to spend an average of 38 dollars for each vote, among the highest in Latin America. A candidate who spends a lot expects to get it back if he is elected, from the public treasury or interest groups.
Panama City's January average high temperature is 32 degrees C, the average low is 23 C. In July the average high temperature is 31 degrees C, the average low is 24 C. The rainy period is May through November.
THE CANAL. Since the isthmus has a big curve, the canal runs northwest (Caribbean side) to southeast (Pacific side). Each lock is 305 m. long and 33 m. wide. (1,000 & 108 ft.). Some oil tankers and aircraft carriers are too big to pass through the canal. It takes about eight hours for a ship to pass through the canal, using its own power plus electric towing locomotives at the locks. Each lock has two parallel locks, so a ship can pass in both directions simultaneously. A ship passing from the Pacific to the Caribbean enters near Balboa. It is first raised at the two Miraflores locks to the level of Pedro Miguel Lake. The ship passes through the Pedro Miguel Lock to the Gaillard Cut (canal) and big Gatun Lake. The ship is then lowered at the three Gatun Locks to the Caribbean near Cristóbal and Colón.
TRAVELS. I first arrived in the harbor of CRISTÓBAL on an old tanker in 1945. We anchored in the big harbor with freighters, other tankers, hospital ships, and submarines. Men in dugout canoes paddled from ship to ship in the harbor, selling bananas, either a whole stalk or by the dozen. The Balboa, local currency, has long been equal to the dollar of the U.S.A. We changed from sea watches, 4 hours on and 8 off, 7 days a week, to 8 hour port watches. We had more time off. Many of the crew and the Navy gun crew were soon drunk. We had about 15 Navy gunners for our bow and stern 5-inch guns. However, during "General Quarters" drills many of us had a job on those guns. I was "hot shell catcher." I had to have my hand in just the right place and keep my arm flexible, so the heavy shell wouldn't hurt when it was ejected at great force. I went on shore liberty by launch, with the fireman on my shift. Though it was around noon the prostitutes greeted us. I saw some of our crew in the bar nearest the dock where we landed. We walked many kilometers in the busy town. Souveneir shops sold picture post cards, trinkets with Panama written on them, wallets and shoes made of alligator leather, uniforms in tailor shops, French perfume, oriental porcelain and rugs, scarce silk stockings, and Swiss watches. Most of the old masonry buildings had balconies or arcades over the sidewalk, providing shade and protection from hard showers. The Hotel Washington, on the sea, was popular with our ship's officers. Cash Street was then the main red light district. The narrow street was lined with buildings, each with small rooms on the ground floor. Through the open doorway we could see that each room had a double bed, a stand with a washbasin and pitcher of water, wash cloth and towels, and a straight chair. In the doorway or in a chair in front a black woman sat. As we approached young women held up three fingers (indicating their price of three dollars), older women held up two fingers. I returned to Cristóbal 25 years later with my family. We couldn't find Cash Street, and many of the older buildings had been torn down and replaced.
After a few days at anchor we went to the docks to discharge our cargo of fuel oil. We sailed to Aruba, then returned with a load of gasoline for Cristóbal. Our old generator burned out, so we waited two weeks in the harbor for a replacement generator to be brought down by military cargo plane. Another oiler and I took a bus to Panama City. The road ran over the hils and through the rain forests east of the canal. A few huts with thatch roof and walls were half-hidden in the thick trees, vines, and other plants. Once the bus made a sharp turn and stopped suddenly. A young woman was urinating in the road. When she finished the driver continued uphill. PANAMA CITY seemed large and crowded. We wandered around all afternoon and evening. We took a bus to look at the ruins of Old Panama, a few kilometers northeast, near the Abajo River. Trees growing among the ruins were taller than the highest remaining stone tower of the cathedral. Flowering plants and trees grew where a convent and stores once stood. Returning to the city, we went to a movie, the English words had Spanish subtitles. We wandered out on a peninsula to the old Spanish fort. Once we heard music and walked to it. On a second-floor balcony we saw a small band, with guitars and men and women singing. When they finished a song we clapped. They greeted us from above. My Spanish wasn't good enough then to carry on a conversation, so we left after awhile. A woman once opened an upper window and dumped a pot of urine on the street just ahead of us. It missed but we stayed close to the middle of the street after that. Many neighborhoods had no sewerage system, streets had awful offal. After awhile we grew tired and began to look for a cheap hotel. We found several but they were all full. We found a small park and lay down on an empty bench, opposite a noisy bar. Once a man was thrown out of the bar onto the street. We finally got to sleep. A kind policeman woke us up and made it clear that we couldn't sleep there. After less than an hour of wandering we noticed a big home near the water, and climbed up to its flat roof for a few hours of sleep. We returned to Cristóbal by train, along the canal. The clean first class coach had ancient gas or oil fixtures converted to electric.
I saw signs advertizing the first bullfight in Colón for a long time. An oiler and I each paid two dollars for a ticket. In the big indoor arena the first bull, like a Brahmin with long horns, came out. The assistants, each with a red cloth, charged at the bull, then ducked. They threw stickers into its skin. Soon it was quite mad. A "famous" bullfighter from Colombia ducked its charges. Assistants finally roped the bull and pulled it out of the arena. Five more bulls came out, one by one. The famous bullfighter often took refuge behind heavy barricades. After an hour the crowd got mad, calling the fighter names in Spanish. The most polite was cobarde (coward.) Each of us sat on a square seat cushion. Soon the air was full of seat cushions and brown beer bottles, thrown at the bullfighter. The bottles were a greater danger than the bull. A brave drunk jumped over the wall to fight the bull. Police, using a rope, made a lasso and pulled him out of the arena as the bull noticed him. People stood to cheer the drunk and the bull, and to curse the bullfighter. Finally the police told everyone to go home, and chased us out.
I arrived in Tocumen Airport, PANAMA CITY late in 1969, with my wife and two young sons. On the flight from Guatemala City we had great views of the volcanoes in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. We phoned a pensión, they had a vacancy, so we took a taxi to it, near the National Palace and cathedral. Our room in an older home had a high ceiling and ceiling fan. The balcony with wrought iron railings, outside looked out upon a busy street. A store was on the lower floor. The next day we took a crowded chiva or small bus to downtown to inquire about passenger ships south. None was convenient for us. I cashed a traveler's check, paying the usual Panama tax of 5 percent. We walked to the Pacific waterfront, watched crabs on rocks, and looked at the statue honoring Balboa. The city is often hot and humid. However, there is usually a breeze. Streets are noisy, with much traffic, many vehicles have no muffler, and drivers often test their vehicle horns. After a siesta we took two buses to the Canal Zone. Buses didn't have pull cords for a stop, one shouts parada (stop) to the driver. The contrast is startling: the crowded, dirty city with many buildings in poor condition suddenly changes to a park-like atmosphere with neat streets, mowed grass, trimmed hedges, and neat frame buildings. It is like a better military post, it is a military post. In the nice cafeteria our dinner included "pure" pasteurized ice cream, then rare in Latin America. In Panama City we visited the cathedral, completed in 1760. Its twin towers are covered with mother-of-pearl shells that glitter in the sunlight. Independence Plaza is in front. The main shopping street, Avenida 7 Central, begins nearby. The University of Panama is in the foothills, near the Canal Zone. The old city seawall can be seen in several places, Las Bovedas is the best-preserved. It once had dungeons for prisoners, and provides a good view of the bay and ships. Avenida Balboa runs a long distance at the sea coast. A statue of Balboa shows him standing on the round Earth.
Returning to our neighborhood, soldiers would not let us walk within a block of the National Palace. The week before, when the strongman, Col. Torrijos, was attending a horse race in Mexico City, Col. Silvera decided that he wanted to run the country. Silvera's junta took command of the National Guard, or the army, in a coup. Two days later Col. Torrijos slipped back into Panama, the air force supported him, planes circled the National Palace a few times, and several National Guard officers decided that they owed allegiance to Torrijos. Silvera escaped but two other colonels in the coup were captured for a "trial."
We bought second class train tickets to COLÓN, buying milk and empanadas from a vending machine for lunch. The train was only half an hour late. The track is near and just east of the canal. We passed ships in the canal, palms, jungle, hills, and the lakes. The Chagres River drains Gatun Lake, reaching the Caribbean a short distance west of Cristobal. We walked around in Cristobal, the seaport, and adjoining Colón, the "Gold Coast." Colón, on a peninsula, looked about the same as 25 years earlier, but streets were paved and had sewers. High balconies extended over the sidewalks, some sidewalks had mosaic tiles. Calle Frente or Front Street still had souveneir shops, it also sold duty-free watches, Japanese cameras, radios, and binoculars, plus expensive dresses and silks from Hong Kong. The masonry buildings with sidewalk arcades and high ceilings looked more prosperous. Though warm and humid, the constant breeze is pleasant. The city, then with 60,000 people, was clean for Latin America.
After traveling seven weeks in South America, we returned to Panama on the Italian Line ship Donizetti, sailing up the West Coast of South America. We anchored in the harbor of Balboa, Canal Zone, early evening. We went through immigration. I counted seven other ships waiting to go through the canal. At 2:30 A.M. we started through the canal, going first to Miraflores Locks. I went back to sleep in our room, then woke up at 5:00, to see our ship entering Pedro Miguel Lock. An electric train on each side, bow and stern, held us in the center of the lock while the double gates were shut. Water rushed in to raise us to the level of Lake Gatun. When water levels were equal the gates at the upper end were opened and we left. I returned to bed for a nap while we passed through Gaillard Cut, with hills and the jungle on both sides. We waited two hours to enter Gatun Locks, which has three locks. Lake Gatun is 26 m. (85 ft.) above the Pacific but only 23 m. (75 ft.) above the Caribbean. The green Caribbean has a tide of little more than a meter, but the blue Pacific tide is five or six meters. Near Cristobal on the Caribbean I counted 14 ships at anchor and 10 at the docks, flying flags of many countries. Most of them were awaiting their turn to go through the canaal.
In the early afternoon we left the ship. A friendly policeman recommended a new moderately-priced hotel. We had a nice air conditioned room. There was no hot water, it is unnecessary in a warm climate. We walked around in the pleasant city a few hours. Children played with carts or skooters, they made drums by hitting lids or buckets with sticks, and girls played with a big ball. People were very friendly, common in smaller cities of Latin America for foreigners who speak Spanish. The Alliance for Progress provided money for a new building to house several unions. The next day we took the train to Panama City, and a taxi to the airport. Traffic moved slowly but the Alliance for Progress had provided money to widen the main street, Avenida Bolivar. We passed a steel mill, plywood plants, and a paper mill making toilet paperbadly needed in Latin America. In a suburb there was much construction of homes. Panama has become an international banking center, with many large banks. Some are said to "launder" money from the sale of illegal drugs.
REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA
Population 3.5 million (2.1 % per year natural increase); area 51,200 sq. km. (19,700 sq. mi.); GDP $17.0 billion; average income $5050; literacy rate 93% San José, the capital, has around 350,000, plus more in the suburbs.
HISTORY. Columbus visited it in 1502. When the Spanish arrived some 27,000 Indians from three different tribes lived in the area. One advanced tribe came from Central Mexico, another came from Colombia, and the other from Brazil. They refused to become slaves, but fled to the mountains. The central plateau, with the "eternal spring" climate was settled by small farmers. They were isolated and independent. On September 15, 1821 they declared independence, and did not have to fight Spain. Cartago was the capital but in 1823 the capital was moved to San José. In 1856 they were threatened by an army of an adventurer from the U.S. A., William Walker. The next year Walker was defeated by several nations. In 1889 Costa Rica held the "first completely free democratic election in Central America." A dictator ruled a short time beginning in 1917. In March and April 1948 a civil war was fought for six weeks. Costa Rica then abolished its army, although there is a militia (civil guard). It has been a democracy without military problems since then, although some rebels from Nicaragua invaded in 1955, and again in the early 1980s. Many refugees from the war in El Salvador also moved to Costa Rica. Since 1993 there have been kidnappings and problems involving illegal drugs.
BACKGROUND. The population grows rapidly. There are many immigrants from Nicaragua, other neighboring countries, and the U.S.A. The population has increased 89 percent from 1971 to 1995, only 24 years. Like most of Latin America most people are Roman Catholic, although many rarely attend any church. The constitution provides freedom of religion. Most people are of European descent. On the Caribbean coast there are Blacks, speaking an English Creole, rather than the Spanish of the majority. The Blacks were brought from Jamaica to work on banana plantations. A fungus destroyed banana plants in the 1930s. The industry moved to the drier Pacific coast. Most of the Blacks stayed on the Caribbean coast to work in the cacao, palm oil, and fishing industries. It was unlawful for them to live on the central plateau until the late 1940s. Some Mestizos, part Indian, live in the cattle growing Guanacoste Province in the northwest, with a unique dry climate. It was taken from Nicaragua after defeating William Walker. The other seven provinces have a moderate climate with adequate rainfall. Growing high-quality coffee is the main industry.
The rainy season, May to November, is called "winter," although there is little temperature difference. The altitude largely determines the temperature. San José's January average high temperature is 24 degrees C, the average low is 14 C. In July the average high temperature is 25 degrees C, the average low is 17 C.
Costa Rica is a rare country for Latin America, since it values education and public health more than the military. It has more teachers than soldiers. Water in the main cities is fairly safe to drink. Under Spanish rule the usual pattern of aristocratic big plantation owners and many slaves never developed. Since the few Indians escaped, the Spanish had few people to enslave. There are only four social classes--fewer than in most Latin American countries. The wealthy plantation owners even have sympathy for the small coffee growers and factory workers. The U.S.A. is the main buyer of Costa Rica's bananas, coffee, and cacao. Germany, the U.K., Canada, and Japan are important customers.
Voting for any citizen age 18 or over is mandatory in the elections held on the first Sunday of every fourth February, for the president, the 57 members of the Chamber of Deputies, and municipal officers. Those who do not vote are subject to a stiff fine. Elections in most "Christian" countries are held on Sunday. Costa Rica and Mexico have had a free trade agreement since early 1995. Costa Rica's democracy works well. Candidates for election are reported to spend only about 10 dollars per vote, among the lowest in the world.
Costa Rica has had many problems since around 1980, with overcrowding caused by refugees and the high birth rate, high oil prices, inflation, and more street crime. Purse snatching, pickpockets, and robberies have become common, especially in San José and Limón.
Much information is available for English-speaking tourists. The Tico Times is a complete daily newspaper. Publications with tourist information include Guide Magazine of Costa Rica (monthly), See Costa Rica (monthly), and The Cost Rica Grapevine Tourist Guide for Night People. Some of the larger tourist hotels have a gambling casino. Tourism in 1993 earned more money than bananas. Many tourists want to see wildlife in the national parks. Parks are a great asset in any country.
TRAVELS. Before landing in SAN JOSE one day in January 1982 my wife and I saw three of the main four volcanoes that ring the city: Poás, Irazú, and Turrialba. One had a plume of smoke. Immigration and customs was fast and efficient. We took an interurban bus to downtown, and walked a few blocks on narrow, crowded sidewalks to our hotel. Since it was "high season," we had reservations. I changed dollars to colons, at almost 40 per dollar. Inflation was bad, a year earlier there were only 8.4 colons per dollar. (In late 1995 the rate was more than 174 per dollar.) Suddenly it was dark. San José is only 10 degrees (700 miles, 1120 km.) north of the equator. In the pleasant cool evening we walked around. The many night clubs, advertizing strippers and topless or nude girls, were busy.
The next day we moved out of the nice hotel popular with North American tourists, into a pensión, popular with Latin American tourists. After a few days we moved into a better room, where the dresser drawers could be opened. The bath and toilets were not far away. The city is easy to walk in. The center is at the intersection of Calle (Street) Central and Avenida (Avenue) Central. Streets run north to south, avenues run east to west. Most people have white or light brown skin, many have brown or blond hair. Ticos and ticas, or Costa Ricans, are known for their friendliness. We walked many kilometers in the small city. Central Park is a good place to meet local people, especially if one speaks Spanish. Children study English in some of the six years of primary school. We often ate lunch of tropical fruits or fried banana chips--something like potato chips, only better. The popular Gran Hotel San José has a pleasant patio bar. The Swiss Chalet is a popular lunch or dinner place. One evening we rode buses to Guadelupe, a suburb in the northeast, and walked to the Cocina de Leña, where meals are cooked with wood fires. Sometimes we ate fresh fruit and ice cream in a "soda," something like an old-fashioned soda fountain. We explored supermarkets, much like those in the U.S.A., only smaller, and with more pastas of all kinds.
In a theater we saw a delightful comedy in Spanish, La Fiaca ("Burnout"). Most of us could empathize with the leading man, who refused to get out of bed to go to work one day. He wasn't sick, just bored with the routine of getting up early and rushing to work. The next day we enjoyed a private tour of the National Theater, "the pride of Central America." Built in 1897, it has much gold gilt and many wall and ceiling murals. It has horeshoe-shape tiers of private boxes, and seats more than 1,000. The reception room has a parquet floor made of 30 kinds of wood. The dressing rooms and backstage can handle a big production. Under the stage 12 men operate a capstan to raise the floor of the stage. It is on Avenida Central, which changes its name in the west to Paseo Colon, and in the east to Cuesta de Moras. Another evening we saw a political comedy with actors from Chile. They said Chile's military government (in 1982) wouldn't permit any political satire, so their play was limited to more democratic countries.
One evening we took a taxi to La Galera, a large ballroom with bamboo on the inside walls and ceiling. Though scheduled to start at 8:00 P.M., the 8-person band began at 9:00 to play, and a man and a woman sang, rhumbas and popular songs with a Latin flavor. We learned long ago that hora latina is not exact, as is hora inglés (Latin American and "English" time). When we weren't dancing, along with the cute girls and handsome youths, we sipped rum and Coca Cola. Another evening we took a bus to Leonardos, a large, popular discotheque, with moving multicolored lights. As in the other crowded dance hall, couples in quiet corners kissed and "made out." Few young people have a private apartment or car, they must live with parents. My wife and I left our piña coladas to dance the fox trots. More popular with the crowd were "Latin America rock," and soft rock. We also enjoyed the Tunel de Tiempo, another discotheque. Many Ticos and Ticas also danced to the Latin American music. All three dance halls were nicely furnished. In city parks in the evening one often sees young couples kissing in the shadows.
San José's Central Market has areas for hardware, leather goods, pots and pans, ceramics, fruits and vegetables, meat, and small restaurants. The narrow aisles are crowded with people. We visited the University of Costa Rica in nearby San Pedro, and talked with some of the students. The buildings are modern, in good condition. My wife, a physician, spent most of the time in the School of Medicine, then only about 20 years old. We walked east to the National Park, with big trees and a monument honoring the defeat of William Walker. The former home of the president is nearby.
One day when my wife and I walked downtown a man warned us quietly in Spanish that we were being followed by "bad men." We window-shopped in a store for half an hour, hoping that they would go away. They didn't. I warned my wife, we walked toward the two young men, looking into their eyes. One felt my rear pocket, the other tried to grab my wife's purse. They were unsuccessful. I turned around to better identify them, as they also turned around to look at us. I reported them to a policeman 30 meters (98 ft.) away. He said he was a "traffic policeman," and couldn't help us.
The LaSalle Museum of Natural History is in Sabanao Park, at the west end of San José. It has a great collection of Costa Rica's plants, animals, snakes, birds, fish, and shells. Some of the specimens are from other countries. Most of them are displayed in a setting like their natural habitat. The small zoo, in a national park, has a good collection of Costa Rican wildlife. It includes jaguar, peccary, tapir, boa constrictor and other snakes, parrots, vultures, and several types of monkeys. The National Museum of Costa Rica is on a hill, formerly army headquarters, before the army was abolished. The several big wings include Pre-Colombian art of carved statues of men and stylized jaguars--the most powerful animal known to people in the area. There are also jade carvings, and gold objects made by local Indians. One wing has religious paintings and artifacts, another has Costa Rica's history since independence. The pretty gardens have big carved stone heads, something like that carved by Mexico's Olmecs. The Gold Museum of the Central Bank of Costa Rica also has a big collection of jewelry and other gold objects made long ago by local Indians.
My wife an I rode to OJO DE AGUA, a swimming resort some 20 km. (12 mi.) from San José, with guide Antonio. Water gushes out of an underground river, about 22 degrees C (72 F). There are several pools and a small lake for rowboats. When the hot sun began to burn our skin we left, riding through the nice suburb of ECASU, with embassies or consulates of several countries. Another trip by local bus was to HEREDIA, about 10 km. west, where we visited the National University. On Friday afternoon there were only a few classes, students began the weekend early. Many live in San José and commute by bus.
We went on a tour in a minivan to VOLCAN(O) IRAZU, altitude 3,432 m. (11,257 ft.), some 30 km. (18 mi.) east. We passed many coffee fincas (farms), and stopped in CARTAGO, the first capital, now the 2nd-largest city. It was almost destroyed in earthquakes in 1814 and 1910, but rebuilt each time. The Church of Los Angeles has a famous rock in a grotto underneath, and a small black statue of the Virgin above the altar. A peasant girl, while gathering wood on January 2, 1635, said that she saw an image of the Virgin on a rock. This occurred three days in a row. She told the village priest. He carried the rock with the image in a procession, to the church. The image disappeared, then reappeared. They decided that a church should be built where the rock was found. A church was built in 1715, rebuilt in 1727 after an earthquake, badly damaged by earthquakes and rebuilt four times, and destroyed in 1910. The church is said to have been destroyed because a priest "misbehaved." A pretty garden now grows among its ruins. The rock was moved to today's basilica.
In the minivan we climbed past fields of potatoes, carrots, and onions. At the Continental Divide a statue marks the northern end of the old Inca Empire and the southern end of the old Mayan Empire. We then climbed the mountain, with 5 craters. One crater is more than a kilometer across, with a blue-green lake. The most recent major eruption was in 1863. A small plume of sulphurous gas is steadily emitted from one hill. We saw both the Atlantic and the Pacific from the rim of the crater. Descending, we stopped for a nice lunch at Linda Vista ("Pretty View"), "the highest restaurant in Central America," elevation 3,048 m. (9,997 ft.). Many fence posts are from the poto tree, which sprouts and grow into a tree. It becomes a "living fence."
We went on another tour in a minivan to VOLCAN(O) POÁS, northwest of San José. We stopped at a coffee factory. The ripe reddish beans are picked by hand from low trees. After sticks and leaves are removed the beans are soaked in water 24 hours or so to remove the outer skin. After drying in the sun the beans are polished in sluices, roasted, and graded. Leaving, we passed many fields of coffee plants. Some types need shade, others need the shade of tall trees in the field. Coffee sold at retail in Costa Rica for only 25 to 50 cents U.S.A. per kilo. We also passed many fields of sugar cane and banana plants.
ALAJUELA was the birthplace of Juan Santamaría, hero of the war against William Walker in 1856. We stopped to look at La Agonia (The Agony) church, then headed north. We passed many hillside farms owned by immigrants from Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. They grow beef cattle for hamburgers in the U.S.A., and dairy cattle to make a tasty cheese that lasts a long time without refrigeration. Our van climbed to the top, elevation 2,740 m. (8,987 ft.). Clouds parted so we could see one of the largest craters in the world, more than a kilometer across. We met some 30 volcano specialists from all over the world, they were at Irazú the day before. We had great views of the surrounding country. Leaving, we passed a farm with a large field of chrysanthemums. In SARCHI we stopped at a factory that makes two-wheel carts with solid wooden wheels. They are hand-painted bright colors, and are often used locally, pulled by oxen. Tourists buy them to decorate the yard.
My wife and I wanted to go to PUERTO LIMÓN on the Caribbean coast. We called several hotels and pensions. All said they had no vacancy for the weekend. The manager of our San José pensión suggested that we go anyway, that "you can always find a room." We made the mistake of believing him. We first stopped in a small supermarket to buy bread, cheese, and fresh fruit. A typical supermarket in Central America and Mexico has a refrigerated meat and fish section, many tropical fruits (including, in season, tough-skin green but delicious oranges, and big plantains or cooking bananas), vegetables, fresh tortillas (often packaged), many packages of macaroni and other pastas, dried beans and peas, bread, and cookies. There are few dairy products except a kind of cheese that does not require refrigeration. Little frozen food is sold, since refrigerators with separate freezer compartments are rare. Tortillas are rarely found south of Panama--in South America.
We took the "jungle train" to the coast. (In the late 1980s a hurricane washed out the tracks, they were not repaired, so the train operates no longer.) We arrived at San José's Pacific Terminal half an hour before the 11:00 departure, but most of the seats were taken. We were lucky to get two seats together on the narrow guage train, tracks are less than a meter wide. We had lunches of bread, local "Swiss" cheese, bananas, canned juice, and our water bottles. The railroad was built by Minor C. Keith, of the U.S.A., to make it easier to ship coffee from the highlands. It required 19 years to complete the track, over mountains, digging tunnels, building bridges and high trestles, and an elevated roadbed through the swamps. Many workers died of malaria, beriberi, yellow fever, dystentery, and accidents. More people may have died while building the railroad than died while building the Panama Canal. Keith planted bananas along the track to raise money. He founded the United Fruit Co. to sell them. Workers came from Belize, Jamaica, the Netherlands West Indies, and China. Most of them died or left, except the tough Jamaicans. Our diesel engine pulled 7 passenger cars and 2 freight cars, all were made of wood. We climbed up to the Continental Divide, then descended, stopping at 56 stations during the 7 hour trip. We took off sweaters as the weather got warmer. The misty clouds were left far behind, and the hot sun came out. Many passengers got on or left the train. Boys selling fresh fruit, sweets, cold drinks, and almost everything else squeezed by the crowds standing in aisles. Women carried baskets of fruit and vegetables to markets. Coffee trees grew almost everywhere except at the lower altitudes. The potato, vegetable, and berry fields of the highlands changed to banana, then to cacao and coconut trees as we descended. The stone houses of the highlands changed to frame, with a porch in front, built on high stilts. Many of the homes had once been painted a bright color. Some huts were made of bamboo, with roofs of coconut thatch. In the lowlands most people are Blacks, speaking a sing-song creole mixture of English, Spanish, and something else. We passed several miles of sandy beach east of the track, a jungle canal on the west, and coconut trees and banana plants everywhere. We arrived in Puerto Limón long after the sun left. A few street lights pierced the total blackness.
We took a taxi to the main hotel. It was full. The next three hotels were also full. The national sports contests were being held in Puerto Limón that weekend. I was beginning to eye park benches when we saw a dim neon sign of the last hotel in town, Hotel Nuevo Lemón (New Lemon). It was on the second floor, shops were below. They had one room left. However, there were four beds and we would have to pay for all four. How much? Three dollars for the room with four old army cots. It had only a dim single bulb, no other furniture or fixtures. There were only two toilets for everyone, and one was plugged up. The one sink had no mirror or hot water. There were at least 40 guests in the rooms and 20 more young people on cots or blankets on the porch that went all around the building. The hotel wasn't fancy, but we took it. I asked for a towel. The kind lady manager said they once provided towels, but they were all ripped off. However, she would loan us her family's towel, a tigerstriped beach towel. It was damp. I hoped it had just been washed, and that it was not damp from something else. It smelled okay. My wife and I left to eat bass in a nice restaurant.
Local women, including those who are not prostitutes, are known for being aggressive. If they see a man they like, they stare into his eyes, conveying an unmistakable message. Elections were scheduled in only 10 days. Several politicians had each hired a loudspeaker truck to drive through town, playing "music" and plugging the candidate with maximum decibels. Horns of many cars had been modified to make a sound like the names of the three leading presidential candidates.
We returned to our room. Soon there was a knock on our door. "We need a cot." Okay. Several radios and a TV blared on the porch outside our room. I had just fallen asleep in the bathtub that was called a "cot" when it crashed down. I propped it up with our suitcases. The TV was turned off at midnight and the radios were turned off before 2:00 A.M. However, a nearby rooster soon began to crow. The next morning I waited for most of the people to leave for the sports competitions before I shaved. I held my little hand mirror with one hand and shaved with cold water with the other. When I was half-finished the manager and a lady guest said they had an emergency. They needed to fill the washing machine and do a washing quickly. I was using the only faucet. Perhaps I could shave in the shower? I let them hook up a hose to my faucet and waited while they filled the machine, then I finished shaving.
My wife and I walked around the town, typical of some in the Caribbean and South Pacific, straight out of a Somerset Maugham story. It had rotting frame buildings, overhanging balconies, rusty metal roofs, trash, and coconuts everywhere. A park near the waterfront is home for sloths. They live in trees but slowly come down to the ground every week or so to "go to the toilet." We inquired about a boat trip on the canal, but all boats were filled. We took a local bus to Matama, some seven km. (4 mi.) north, to inquire about a boat. The bus was packed, I stood. A man bumped me as he departed. I soon discovered that my wallet was missing. I had stupidly carried it in a hip pocket, easy to pick. Luckily, I had most of my money and papers hidden inside my trousers. No boat was available. We walked on to Moin, a seaport for tankers and other bulk cargo. We took another bus back to Puerto Limón, where I reported to police the theft. I looked at 800 "mug shots" of local thieves but didn't find mine. The policeman said he probably came from Nicaragua.
We took a late afternoon plane back to San José. I talked with a militiaman at the airport while waiting for our plane. He had been busy, training new recruits. They needed more men at the border with Nicaragua to keep Nicaragua's Sandinistas, Contras, and refugees out of Costa Rica. Passengers lined up to be searched, the body and handbags, for weapons. We had a great view from the small plane of the jungle, rivers, then mountains and coffee fields below. The low plane fare included a bus ride from the airport to downtown San José.
We hired a taxi to take us some 140 km. (87 mi.) northwest to CONDOVAC BEACH in GUANACOSTE PROVINCE. The land became drier as we headed west. We stopped to buy bananas and oranges at a fruit stand. Oranges are usually eaten by cutting a cap at one end. The orange is then squeezed to get the juice, and the pulp and peeling is thrown away. The fruit stands also had lemons, papayas, mangoes, watermelons, coconuts, and much more. Most of the coffee fields have tall trees with orange blossoms to provide shade. We passed the road that leads down to Punta Arenas, Costa Rica's leading seaport on the Pacific. We continued past Monte Verde National Park, with a rain forest, mountains in clouds, and many birds and other wildlife. Occasionally the rare quetzal is seen. We made a side trip 18 km. (11 mi.) up a road, to see Mari Cultura, a farm for fish, crabs, and other sea life. As the climate became warmer and drier it reminded me of southern Texas. We passed big farms or ranches with dairy or beef cattle. Many of the beef cattle are Brahmin, herded by sabiñeros or cowboys. We saw two big iguanas, one was nearly a meter long. Iguana tail tastes like chicken. Breadfruit trees were plentiful, and a tree with tiny leaves, like mesquite. The guanacoste, a large tree with spreading limbs and dark green leaves, provides good shade for cattle. We stopped for lunch at a nice hotel with an open veranda, tile floors, ceiling fans, and an arbor growing above part of the patio. We rode through the big town of LIBERIA, reminding me of towns in the southwestern U.S.A. Ranchers come to town for shopping or selling cattle. We then took a dirt road to our beach.
We stayed a few nights in a nice resort with time-share condominiums, a pool, and a restaurant. The half-moon bay with clear blue water was bordered with coconut trees. We regularly swam in the early morning and late afternoon when the tropical sun wasn't so hot. Waves were usually small. We watched pelicans chase flying fish in the air and dive for small fish. Big green parrots chattered in trees near the beach. We took an excursion in a boat, visiting nearby beaches Hermosa, Coco, and Azul. All were beautiful and almost undeveloped. On the return ride to San José we saw many jojoba plants, they look something like dwarf maize, their seed produces an oil. Rainbows often shone in the mist above rivers to our left, near Monte Verde. While we ate watermelon at a fruit stand we watched the owner's parrot, it kept repeating Margarita, my wife's name in Spanish. I was glad to return to the cooler plateau, with San José. A few days later we flew home.
[Excerpt, P. 137-148]
REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA
Population 4.2 million (2.7 % per year natural increase); area 132,000 sq. km. (50,800 sq. mi.); GDP $6.4 billion; average income $1570; literacy rate 74% It is the largest country in Central America. Around 45 percent of the people live in rural areas. Unemployment in 1987 was 20 percent.
HISTORY. Before the Spanish arrived there were a few fairly advanced Indian tribes living near Lake Managua, and rather primitive tribes living near the Atlantic Coast. In the 17th and 18th centuries Spanish colonized part of the area near the Pacific and the cities Granada, Léon, and Managua grew. The British colonized part of the Atlantic coast. British pirates and others such as Francis Drake and John Hawkins, used the port of Greytown, at the mouth of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. They often robbed Spanish ships of their loot of gold and silver. Most of Central America declared their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. When the Republic of Central America was dissolved in 1837 Nicaragua became independent.
Conservatives in Nicaragua wanted the national capital to be in Granada. Liberals wanted Léon to become the capital. Liberals asked William Walker, an adventurer from Tennessee in the U.S.A., to help them. Walker graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, wandered awhile in Europe, practiced law in New Orleans, and became a newspaper editor. He tried to form a dictatorship in Lower California (Mexico) but was caught and brought to trial in California for violating neutrality laws. When a jury acquitted him he went to Nicaragua, headed a transportation company, then, with a small group of men, seized the country. In 1856 he declared himself to be "president." Some Southerners of the U.S.A. helped Walker, who wanted to set up a Central American dictatorship, using slaves on plantations. Several Central American countries raised an army to fight Walker. Commodore Vanderbilt and others opposed him. He was deported in 1857. When he returned he was killed by a firing squad in Honduras in 1860. Liberals and Conservatives, after shifting the capital between Léon and Granada, compromised on Managua.
During the Gold Rush in California in 1849 Commodore Vanderbilt of the U.S.A. had small ships to carry the "forty-niners" from the Atlantic, upriver and across Lake Nicaragua, to the Pacific and California's goldfields. Vanderbilt and others proposed that the U.S.A. build a canal through Nicaragua. The U.S.A. paid Nicaragua three million dollars for an option to build a canal. The Walker Commission, appointed by President McKinley, studied routes for a canal across Nicaragua and Panama. They recommended Nicaragua. The army and Commodore Vanderbilt agreed. However, lobbying by the U.S. Navy and bankrupt French Panama canal builders who wanted to sell their assets, resulted in a choice of the Panama route.
Conservatives in Nicaragua ruled for 30 years, persecuting Liberals, until 1893. In that year Zelaya, a Liberal, won. Things changed. He persecuted Conservatives. With the help of the U.S.A. Nicaragua acquired the "Mosquito Kingdom" on the Atlantic from Great Britain. Zelaya encouraged revolution in other Central American countries. Civil war broke out in Nicaragua, Zelaya went into exile. In 1912 the U.S.A. sent in marines to "protect its embassy" and to help the provisional president, Adolfo Díaz. When the marines left in 1925 fighting between various groups broke out. The U.S.A. sent in many troops. Henry Stimson (later to become Secretary of War of the U.S.A. during World War II) in 1927 negotiated a compromise, providing for new elections. A Liberal leader, General Augusto Sandino, refused to accept the compromise. He led guerrilla groups fighting the marines and the National Guard until he was assassinated in Managua in 1934. When a Liberal, Sacasa, was elected in 1933, troops of the U.S.A. were removed. When fighting broke out again in 1936 General Anastasio Somoza, head of the National Guard, trained by the U.S.A., declared himself to be "president." Somoza or either of his two of his sons ruled as "president" until the revolution of 1979. Anastasio was assassinated in Leon in 1956 by Rigoberto Lopez Perez, a poet.
The Somoza family became rich. They acquired many industries and much of Nicaragua's best agricultural land. The Somozas were careful to maintain friends among Nicaragua's wealthy, and in the Congress of the U.S.A. An earthquake in December 1972 almost destroyed Managua, and it did much damage elsewhere. The Somozas pocketed many of the millions of dollars of aid that came from Europe and the U.S.A. The Sandinista Front of National Liberation (FSLN) became more successful in guerrilla war against Somoza's National Guard. Early in 1978 Pedro Chamorro, editor of La Prensa, a leading newspaper, was assassinated. The Somozas were blamed. Strikes and fighting broke out. On July 19, 1979 Somoza fled from Nicaragua. He was assassinated in Paraguay in 1980. The Sandinistas began to form a government.
The Sandinista junta tried to maintain friendly relations with the U.S.A. Congress approved aid of 75 million dollars to Nicaragua. When President Reagan took office in 1981 he cancelled the last payment of 15 million dollars. President Reagan claimed that Sandinistas provided aid to El Salvador's guerrillas. In March 1982 President Reagan authorized covert operations against Nicaragua. He asked the C.I.A. to start with a commando force of 500 Latin Americans, operating out of Honduras, near the border. Their job was to destroy bridges, power plants, and other critical targets in Nicaragua. In 1983 the Contras, then composed mostly of former leaders of Somoza's National Guard, began guerrilla actions against Nicaragua. President Reagan asked for aid to the Contras. Congress approved 24 million dollars for the Contras. In 1984 the CIA spread mines in Nicaragua's harbors and sponsored a manual how to sabotage and assassinate government leaders. In an election held on November 4, 1984 Daniel Ortega, a Sandinista leader, was elected president, getting 63 percent of the votes. Several international monitors certified that it was a fair election and that the army was not out on streets during the election.
Few of the leaders of the Sandinistas had experience as government leaders. They made mistakes. The Sandinistas turned to Western Europe, Cuba, and the Soviet Union for help. The U.S.A. by executive order began an embargo of Nicaragua and most exports to or imports from it on May 7, 1985. Later the U.S.A. mined some of the seaports. The embargo violated Article 19 of the charter of the Organization for American States (OAS). The World Court in The Hague in June 1986 found the support of the Contras by the U.S.A. to be in violation of the United Nations Charter. The court asked the U.S.A. to pay Nicaragua for damage done by attacks by the Contras. The European Parliament (EU) in March 1990 adopted a resolution that the U.S.A. pay Nicaragua for damage done by Contras. The U.S.A. refused to follow any of the rulings. In 1985 Congress refused the President's request for military aid to the Contras. However, in October 1986 aid for the Contras of 100 million dollars was approved.
When it was learned that members of the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran to raise money for the Contras, it was a major scandal. Ads in newspapers in Latin America tried to recruit soldiers for the Contras, promising them new uniforms, equipment, a deposit in a bank account of 15 thousand dollars (more than their normal average lifetime earnings) and a salary of 1,800 dollars monthly, according to an article in Mexico City's Excelsior for October 31, 1987.
In August 1987 the leaders of Central American countries signed a treaty, Esquipulas II, asking for an end of outside help to Contras and for negotiations between the Contras and Sandinistas. On September 22, 1987 President Daniel Ortega announced that the Nicaraguan army would stop offensive actions against Contras. Also in September the opposition newspaper La Prensa was permitted to again be published, and the Roman Catholic radio station was again permitted to broadcast. The parties agreed to elections to be held in February 1990. The Contras continued to fight. In January 1988 President Ortega ended the state of emergency in Nicaragua. The same month President Reagan authorized the C.I.A. to send many planes loaded with weapons to be sent to the Contras. Hurricane Joan in October 1988 did much damage in Nicaragua. A peace treaty signed in August 1989 at a summit meeting of Central American leaders required that the Contras disband within 90 days. At least 50,000 Sandinistas, Contras, and civilians were killed during the war. Far more were displaced from their homes as refugees. The many badly injured included 9,800 children as of late 1987, many more were injured later. Nicaragua continued to suffer from a shortage of everything. Violetta Chamorro, owner of La Prensa, won the 1990 election. The embargo was immediately lifted, and President Bush asked the Congress of the U.S.A. to send 300 million dollars in aid to Nicaragua. The Sandinistas continued to have power in the Assembly. Humberto Ortego, brother of Daniel, continued to head the military until he resigned in 1995, in a peaceful transfer.
BACKGROUND. Nicaragua is hot and tropical but two mountain chains run mostly north to south, with a plateau between them. Cordillera Isabella, the highest, is 2,440 m. (8,003 ft.). The Atlantic coast is low and humid. The Miskito Indians who live there speak English or an Indian language. The rest of the country speaks Spanish. Most people are Mestizo, a mixture of Spanish and Indian. Skin color varies from white to brown, with some blacks on the Caribbean. Lake Managua, in the west-central, 61 by 26 km. ((38 by 16 mi.) in size, is drained by the Tipitapa River. The river drains into Lake Nicaragua, 160 by 72 km. (100 by 45 mi.) in size. Lake Nicargua is drained by the San Juan River, which empties into the Caribbean, at the southern border. The rainy season is May to October.
Half of the people work in agriculture. The main crops are cotton, coffee, sugar, corn, rice, bananas, and other fruit. Cattle is important because the meat is exported for badly needed hard currency. Rural people have a lower standard of living than city people. Industries include food processing, oil refining, chemicals, clothing and textiles, and mining gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, and zinc. Industries owned by the Somoza family were nationalized. We were told by Europeans and North Americans living in Nicaragua that industries were nationalized only if money or assets were being taken out of the country, or if the firm was not productive. Unions were very active in politics and negotiations with management, insisting upon things that are considered to be a "management prerogatives" in many countries. However, strikes were unlawful, as in most socialist countries.
The Sandinistas nationalized the huge estates of the Somoza family. Production was low, partly due to a shortage of labor during the war. They began a program of giving land to peasant families. A "dead furrow" or fallow land was left to separate strips owned by each family. Nicaragua measures land in manzanas, one equals about 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres). Each family was given about 40 hectares. Later this was reduced to 28 hectares. Land was reportedly distributed only if the farmers agreed to help the Sandinistas fight the Contras. Since many farmers could not afford the equipment, seeds, and fertilizers to farm efficiently, the government encouraged and organized cooperatives. There were two types of cooperatives: (1) credit and service coops where farmers share equipment, and (2) Caesar Sandino coops where land and equipment are owned cooperatively.
Sandinistas began a program of building health centers and training midwives and brigidistas or village health workers. Many could not read or write. A program was started to vaccinate and innoculate everyone for the major diseases. Many schools were built and a "literacy crusade" was begun. More teachers were trained, some only had a few years of secondary school. There was a shortage of paper, blackboards were used extensively. Villages have up to six years of primary school, cities also have three plus two years of secondary school. Most kids also work, selling what they can. The goal, not yet reached, is to provide four years of school for all children. The government claimed that the number of illiterates was greatly reduced.
The military and the war required up to 60 percent of the national budget. In 1981 and 1982 the military got only 8 or 9 percent of the budget. Sandinistas said this shows that they had no plans to help rebels in neighboring countries militarily. Nicaragua's military budget shot up when the Contras were organized.
Rubén Darío (Garcia Sarmiento) is still Nicaragua's favorite poet. He was born in Metapa (now Cuidad Darío) in 1867. After years of wandering and writing in Europe, South America, and the U.S.A. he returned to Nicaragua, dying there in 1916. He founded Modernism in Spanish-language poetry. Ojo y Alma (Body and Soul) is perhaps his best work.
Protestant Evangelical churches were active in Nicaragua, as in all of Central America. Many priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church throughout Central America in the past 30 years have spoken out against injustices against the poor as much as they dared without being killed.
TRAVELS. In October 1987 my wife and I arrived in MANAGUA with a group from the American Public Health Association. At the airport we changed each dollar for 9,000 cordobas (CDA). We were taken in a small bus on almost-empty roads and streets, through the city of nearly a million people. It was hard hit by a flood in 1876 and earthquakes in 1885, 1931, and 1972. Many blocks have only weeds where buildings once stood. There is no real "downtown" area, it was destroyed. We stayed in the nice pyramid-shape Hotel International. It is the country's only air conditioned hotel. The hotel has big tanks of water, so we didn't suffer during the regular shutoff of city water from 6:00 to 9:00 A.M., plus two days a week for each part of the city. The concrete bunker above our hotel was built by Somoza and equipped to last out a long siege.
We saw few vehicles on streets. Gasoline, requiring a ration coupon, was sold only in the mornings. Nicaragua owed a lot of money, it could no longer buy oil except from a few "socialist" countries. Its oil refinery had barely enough crude oil to continue to operate. Automobile licenses were either "state" or "particular"--private. There was a shortage of buses. It was lawful for any car or truck to pick up passengers and negotiate the fee for them to pay. Some truck owners had installed benches. At bus stops people lined up in orderly queues, rare in Latin America and many Lesser-Developed countries. Nicaragua badly needs a massive influx of bicycles, like Cuba. Many homes made of concrete blocks were reinforced evey two meters with heavy pillars made of reinforced concrete.
Our group met with the vice-minister of health, a physician. He said there was a shortage of physicians, since more than half left the country when the Sandinistas took over. The beginning classes at the two medical schools had been increased from 120 to 550 students. Medical students served only a year when drafted for the military, other men served two years. After six years of basic science and medical school graduates serve a year of internship and two years of social service or military service. Most of the expenses for students were paid for by the government. The Contras made health centers and health workers a prime target for attack. Each toilet room in the building had a barrel of water and a small bucket to dip water for flushing.
We talked with many other health workers, both Nicaraguan and volunteers from Western Europe, the U.S.A., and elsewhere. Abortions were illegal but very common. Many women were killed or badly injured during an abortion by a poorly trained woman. Strong pesticides and poorly trained users were a major problem. Diarrhea was common, the local health workers taught mothers how to prepare oral rehydration with boiled water. We visited a university and its nursing school. Graduates of a secondary school were trained for three additional years. Brigidistas were young women health volunteers from villages. They had a week of training, sometimes more.
Nurses have a somewhat low status in Latin America, but even lower in Arab countries, because they work closely with the human body. Graduate nurses started at 130,000 CDA per month and were paid up to 550,000 (14 to 61 dollars).
We met with the minister in charge of water and sewers. He said the goal is to have a standpipe with two faucets and potable water for each 20 urban families, within 200 meters (656 ft.) from their homes. They learned that water is wasted unless people have to pay for it. Meters are installed at each standpipe. They use puppets in schools to teach children how to avoid wasting water. Treatment of sewerage is only a distant dream. Lake Managua has become a big cesspool, receiving untreated sewerage. A Japanese group was studying how to remove mercury and some of the other poisons from the lake.
We spent a few hours at the Ministry of Culture, located in the several buildings on the grounds that once was one of Somoza's homes. The swimming pool is no longer used. The grounds have many malichi trees (named after the local Spanish name for Napoleon's first wife, Josephine), with limbs that spread out like an umbrella, providing lots of shade. The ministry operates a print shop for educational booklets and manuals. Some buildings had classes in art, music, or folkdances.
We met a few hours with the director of the Social Security and Welfare Institute, with four departments. He said that the latifundas or large farms were being converted into small co-ops, and salaried farm workers would soon be covered under the government's pension plan. The Social Welfare Program included child day care centers for working mothers, plus community centers for thousands of street children. The department operated a large medical rehabilitation program for adults and children injured by the war. They also helped more than 250,000 refugees displaced by the war, floods, and earthquakes, plus Mosquito Indians who were moving back into Nicaragua.
Doria Maria Tellez, Minister of Health, met with us for several hours. Although she is a small woman, wearing olive drab trousers and shirt, she was quite impressive. She told of her life as a guerrilla in the hills for several years, often having only rice and sugar to eat. In 1979 she led the soldiers who captured the National Palace. She said, in Spanish:
"Nicaraguans are small, after 300 years of malnourishment. Nicaragua is not a poor country, but it has been made poor. A society can be rich if it has potable water and good food and housing. Nicaragua needs a massive education program, to teach people that children don't have to die. Infant mortality was reduced from 200 per 1000 births in 1979 to 60. [It is 8 in the U.S.A., less in Western Europe.].... Democracy is not to sit back and bet on a race horse, or to vote every few years. It is to ride the horse, to participate. Life is like a checkbook, with years, days, and hours. Sometimes we spend them and have nothing to show for it. We get university degrees but we never learn how to live, to appreciate people. Why is the world divided between people who have everything, and people who have nothing? The cost of the war is great. We only want to live in tranquility. Why does the rich U.S.A. waste its resources fighting us? I try to understand what is taking place in the U.S.A. but it is difficult. We love people. We love life. We'll die doing what is right. "
We saw street vendors of peanut brittle candy, other candy, and roasted ears of corn. Signs had pictures of six deceased leaders of the revolution. Billboards advertized Coca Cola and Pepsi. Most of the grafitti was political: "FSLN" (Sandinistas) or "peace with dignity," or anti-Yankee. Lake Managua is beautiful but the water is badly polluted and full of agricultural and industrial poisons. Bird Island, according to an Indian legend, was built in memory of the son of a chief and daughter of an enemy chief. They were drowned there while eloping. Momotomba, one of 20 active volcanoes in Nicaragua, emitted smoke on the northwest side of the lake. We saw the National Theater, built in 1977. Its paintings were "stolen" by Somoza's wife. In Revolution Square kids asked for money or plumas (ball point pens). The "new" cathedral, which had two tall towers, was not rebuilt after the 1972 earthquake. The Moorish-style National Palace was used by the Ministry of Finance. Central Park is nearby, at the north end of the city, at the lake. President Ortega lived in Government House, near the tall National Bank. The monument to Carlos Fonseco had an eternal flame. He founded the Sandinistas in 1961, naming them for Carlos Sandino, killed in 1934 at Plaza España, near our hotel. Nearby, a Buddhist priest seeking peace had been on a hunger strike for 20 days.
Sandinistas established 30 grades of labor, from a monthly minimum of 16,000 CDA to minister or top professional at 600,000 CDA (two to 67 dollars). Income tax was paid on monthly earnings above 100,000 CDA (11 dollars). Many professionals and managers sold things in the huge black market, earning more than their salary. Vendors were licensed but prices were not regulated. Managua also had six large public markets. Each had a small library and an arts and crafts center. Basic necessities (rice, corn, beans, toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper) were heavily subsidized and rationed, but scarce. We saw two supermarkets, crowded with customers. However, the food choices were few. Homes and apartment buildings set out plastic sacks of garbage and trash to be picked up. We often passed the embassy of the U.S.A., in a suburb, with double fences, heavily guarded. Some members of our group joined the regular Thursday afternoon pickets in front of the embassy, protesting help for the Contras by the U.S.A. and its C.I.A. Police wore brown shirts, soldiers wear green (camouflage in war zones), and security guards wear blue.
Nicaraguans were well dressed, clothing is important in Latin America. Nearly all wore shoes. Girls wear dresses, only a few wore trousers. We often saw couples holding hands, even in daylight hours. Women, girls, boys, and sometimes men, carry things on the head.
We visited several hospitals and health centers. For children the main causes of death were diarrhea, TB (tuberculosis), malaria, measles, and whooping cough. Adults died from TB and protein malnutrition. Patients often sleep two to a narrow bed, head to foot. A mother or father usually stays to care for a sick child, sleeping in a nearby chair. A few hospitals have a "parents room" or "relatives room" with cots for those caring for a patient. Most hospitals have fewer trained nurses than beds or physicians--common in socialist countries. Auxiliary nurses do much of the work. Babies were usually breast fed, to prevent diarrhea. Medicine was scarce due to the embargo by the U.S.A., it came from Western or Eastern Europe or Cuba. Dentists said they only pull teeth, they have no anesthetics or other supplies for drilling teeth, because of the embargo. We saw many doctors from Western Europe but none from the Soviet Union, and only one doctor and a few nurses from Cuba.
We visited a day care center. Groups of 10 to 20 children each clapped hands and shreiked in delight when we took flash pictures of them. Teachers with three years of secondary school and on-the-job training received a monthly salary of 200,000 CDA (22 dollars), the director received 20 percent more.
Half a dozen boys stayed near the entrance of our hotel. They were aggressive beggars, holding our arm as long as they could. One day a delegation of nine from the Soviet Union was scheduled to visit. The boys were kept away from the hotel for a few days, they presented a bad image of the country. We sometimes saved bread for the boys. They ate it like starving animals. When we walked in the evening we carried flashlights to watch for open manholes in the poorly lighted streets. We had also been warned by local people to stay in a large group, there were some robberies. We regularly read Barricuda, the Sandinista's newspaper, plus La Prensa, the Conservative Party's newspaper. We didn't know then that La Prensa was financed in large part by the CIA. El Nuevo Diario was founded by members of the union that had represented La Prensa's employees. Eight of the nine movies I saw advertized in El Nuevo Diario were made in the Soviet Union.
We met Victor Borge, Minister of Interior. He announced earlier that day that Nicaraguans were free to go to neighboring countries to seek work. He liked to quote from Rubén Darío's poems. We drank exotic tropical juices, including deep red pitaya. Tamarinda juice is beige but tastes like carob. Grenadilla juice was one of our favorites. Fanta was the most common "pop." Near the bus station I watched dozens of black market vendors, selling watches, wallets, booklets, mirrors, combs, candy, pastries, and more. I paid 200 CDA to use the mens room. There was no water in the wash basin. I complained to the lady attendant. She immediately led me next door into the busy ladies room, ignoring what they were doing.
We rode to TIPITAPA, a resort town some 25 km. (15 mi.) distant, on Lake Managua. Its very hot sulphur baths were popular. Before the Revolution it had a casino . On the paved road we passed fields of corn and maize, a market selling fresh fruit, men and women carrying things on the head, and carts with rubber tires. The carts were either pushed by men and boys or pulled by men or horses. All were loaded with firewood, often scarce near cities and towns in Lesser-Developed Countries. A large military base adjoins the airport, to protect it. We visited the health center built four years earlier by Cuba. All services were free. Medicine was sold at cost. They trained bigidistas and midwives, and had a busy program of vaccinations. A health team visits homes. The physicians and nurses complained that many women suffer and often die from botched abortions. They distribute birth control pills and condoms. The roofs were made of corrugated asbestos, like some homes and many commercial buildings in Nicaragua. We walked down the dirt streets of the town, chatting with people. Boys tended a pig, tied with one leg. Others played with a bat and ball, or the most common toy we saw in Nicaragua, a wooden ball at each end of a cord--they are clacked together, day and night.
We rode 28 km. (18 mi.) southeast to MASAYA, population 60,000 in the city, more in the area. We rode through a wealthy suburb of Managua, Camino de Oriente, with the Barricuda's offices. We stopped in MASAYA NATIONAL PARK to drive up a steep road to the volcano. The last eruption was in 1774, but in the 1950s toxic gases harmed nearby coffee fields owned by Somoza. Steam rose from the big pit and we smelled sulphur. We walked past rich black soil and lava rocks to the big cross erected by early Spanish to counter the Indians' belief that the volcano was a god. Somoza often dropped political prisoners from helicopters into the hot pit. Grafitti was mostly either political slogans or names written by lovers.
Billboards asked drivers to drive under 45 km. (28 mi.) per hour to save gas, and to refrain from using the horn (a problem in Latin America) unless it was necessary. Each of the many roadside crosses marks a fatal accident site. Cowboys herded at least 100 longhorn cattle along the road. We passed cattle, coconuts, coffee trees, and fields of corn, maize, beans, tobacco, and sugar cane. A boy climbed one of the few trees to saw off its limbs for firewood. In Masaya, the "City of Flowers," people dressed in their best clothes for Sunday, common throughout Latin America. We first stopped in the Artisans Market, in a small building overlooking Lake Masaya. Artists and craftsmen displayed their paintings, wall hangings, carvings, leather goods, pottery, woven handbags, small woven rugs with designs, hammocks, and other things for sale. Rocking chairs made in Masaya are popular in Nicaragua. Our group bought several items for bargain prices. We selected an item, got a bill for it, paid at the cashier, and took the receipt back to the salesperson for the merchandise. The big "free" (of government control) public market had grain, meat, fish, dried fish, fruits and vegetables, canned goods, pottery, shoes, clothes, bright-colored parrots in cages, and much more for sale. Caps and T shirts for sale had lettering USA or US Navy. A woman wore a T shirt reading Washington D.C.
Masaya is known for religious parades, like a carnival, honoring San Jerónimo, on Sundays in September and October. In late October we rode downtown to the plaza to watch the religious parade. Many people wore masks of animals or characters in fairy tales. Floats included beauty queens, farmers, and people from nearby villages, dancing. Several groups represented "evil" Contras. A gusamo (worm) represented President Reagan. Vendors carried up to 15 ice cream cones upright in a glass-enclosed case with a cutout in thick wood for each cone. They also sold painted wooden toys, baloons, candy, gum, chichi helado (flavored ice), pastries, and cotton candy. Several bands and dancing girls passed. When the parade ended we left, passing a fort on the hill overlooking the city. Somoza's troops used the fort during the Revolution to lob shells into the city. Concrete walls in the city and the fort had many bullet holes.
We rode 70 km. (42 mi.) northwest to LEON, population 250,000, the 3rd-largest city. A volcano, Cerro Negro, guards the north end of Lake Managua. From the highway we saw crop-dusting planes, a few factories, white cattle grazing on a steep hillside, and an army camp. Men on horseback herded cattle. Cotton plants were unusually tall, 1.3 meters (4 ft.). Crops included corn, maize, beans, and bananas, plus coffee and papaya trees. Some fields had a red tractor, some had overhead sprinklers for irrigation. Villages had small homes made of adobe, concrete, or rough frame. Some people lounged in hammocks. Many farmers live in isolated homes, not in a village. We stopped in LA PAZ, where one of our group had lived for a month. The plaza has the usual statue. Some new buildings had a roof of corrugated asbestos, others had a red tile roof. Carts with solid wooden wheels, pulled by oxen, were loaded with firewood.
In Leon we first visited the medical school. It had the usual pictures of Sandino. We saw no pictures of Lenin, Marx, or Engels in Nicaragua. Groups of 10 students, with an instructor, studied cadavers, preserved for up to eight years without much odor. Over half of the medical students are female. The temperature was around 35 C, and humid, but there was no air conditioning. Electric lights are rarely turned on, there is a shortage of electricty. There was a shortage of medicine and supplies. Each student had a manual but there were few textbooks. The microscopes were old models from the U.S.A., as were the refrigerators. The one photocopy machine in the school with 800 students was often broken. We visited a hospital with many patients wounded in the war. Typical was an eight-year old. He saw the Contras kill his parents, they then cut off his right arm and broke a foot.
Leon, a university town, is "the intellectual center of Nicaragua." The cathedral built in 1610 was destroyed by an earthquake. The new cathedral, built in 1971, has the tomb of Rubén Darío, poet, with a sad lion sleeping on the lid. It also has a painting of William Walker, the adventurer from the U.S.A. of the 1850s. Many of the children asked to be photographed. They wore white shirts or blouses and blue pants or skirts, and said they were from the nearby Catholic school. The city had 17 active churches before the 1972 earthquake. We stayed in the Hotel Europa, not as nice as our International Hotel in Managua. However, other than the constant drip of the shower and toilet, we were comfortable. The patio is lined with plants. The bar served rum and Coca Cola. We often ate the main Nicaragua meal of rice and brown beans. Much of the rice is imported from the U.S.A., it was sold to the Soviet Union, then brought on Soviet ships. Boys and girls carried plastic buckets of water on the head. Few homes have running water. Streets are paved with cobblestones or concrete tiles, roofs have red clay tiles.
We rode a few hours northwest to MATAGALPA, in the hills. It has 110,000 people, and was in the war zone regularly attacked by the Contras. We saw many Soviet trucks filled with Nicaraguan soldiers. Some slept in hammocks in the rear. We passed many new buildings for primary schools. Two walls were brick, and two were louvered to let in light and air. At bus stops people waiting sit in shade of malichi trees on old tires stuck vertically into the ground. Some wait for hours, hoping to squeeze into one of the rare buses. In each river women and girls washed clothes, and children bathed. Most of the carts with solid wooden wheels are used to haul sugar cane to mills. Harvest was many weeks away, but cotton would be picked soon. Many adobe homes are given better protection against earthquakes by using horizontal poles in the adobe. Roofs were made of straw, corrugated asbestos or sheet metal, or clay tile. Homes often had an outdoor clay oven, protected by a shed or tarp. A child played with a &quo