Random Thoughts and Cultural Observations from Central America.
There are very few obese people here in Mexico and Central America which eliminates my thoughts about Coca-cola because that’s pretty much all the drink. Further south we go the fatter they get. We’re in Nicaragua now and I have started seeing bigger people again. Rural Mexico is just emaciated I guess - the people, the dogs, the cows, everyone.
Very few people don’t have tattoos down here. . . . except for foreign travelers.
I haven’t seen anyone with weird body piercing, except for one women from Sweden that had about 5 rhinestones in her belly button.
You don’t see many people smoking, other then in the hostels which are filled with foreigners. I still love two people speaking completely different languages try to find common ground in Spanish or English.
Men carry the infants around here when in public so they are carried to look out on the world not nestled like a women who holds a baby inward. They also like to sandwich small kids in between two adults on a motorcycle or bicycle.
We saw a funeral procession yesterday which was interesting. It consisted of about 125 people walking down the road to the cemetery led by a white Toyota pick-up truck which carried the flowers and the deceased in the bed. The one way we could tell it was a funeral procession was they were carrying large, black umbrellas with advertising for the funeral director.
I loved seeing a three generation power struggle all done without words. Grandma and baby wanted to play and the Mom wanted to get out the hammock for the two to nap. Grandma and the baby won with a triumphant giggle as they walked away. The Mother just hung up the hammock and went back to her kitchen duties in the taco stand.
We are in El Salvador - 12/9/2011 - and we’re finally seeing Christmas lights and activities, albeit very little. Now in Nicaragua on the 17th we are seeing more. Last night in the middle of a traffic rotary there was a well lite, green and blue Christmas Tree with a large manger and a bunch of people hanging around looking at the manger. A bit strange - guess we just don’t hang out in our rotary’s.
You see a lot of random fireworks explode in the sky. Many of them just make a loud bang but every once in a while they actually work. Apparently the closer to Christmas we get the louder the evenings become. They actually like fireworks for any occasion. Births, deaths, weddings, birthdays, any little thing that happens in a village is a good reason to be loud.
Finally saw another RV (from France no less) and also went Volcano climbing with someone else wearing Merrill’s.
There’s no hot water down here.
The have VERY gentle hand-shakes down here. Not sure why.
Grocery shopping is always fun. They bag their liquids like milk, cream, etc. There’s no such thing as a milk or oj container. I get to the counter knowing I’ve spent $75 + or more and they say $31 and I feel like I hit the jack-pot.
All of the food packages are much smaller. All of the vegetables are smaller. The food is not on steroids like in the United States and it’s reflected in the size of the people. Small Oreos = small people.
Toyota Dealerships down here don’t work on anything prior to the year 2000 because I think there are too many old Toyota’s down here they’d go crazy.
There is a major issue with trash everywhere. In El Salvador where the people are very proud and clean, they burn it on the sidewalks but most places they just wing it out the window. It’s disgusting!
Soda is everywhere! Especially Coke - altho the more south we go the more Pepsi we see but no where like the Coke products.
You see a lot of Cowboys here in Nicaragua usually hanging on the side of the road with their herds which can be anywhere from 1 -20 but usually right around a dozen cows. At first I thought it was unusual to see cow herds in the road but they graze on the very edges of the road so they just go any place they want. It’s kind of like Moose - it’s best to slow down.
Horse and buggy is the major means of transportation for most locals. There are cars, but they are interspersed with horse riders, carts led by donkey’s and lots of bicycles too.
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