Coming out of the airline terminal in Managua, you immediately know that you are far from that comfort zone known as home. The temperature is not bad. If you are dressed for a Florida summer, you can walk about without sweating much at all. We were here in July, the rainy season, and the sky is mostly cloudy, with a nice cool breeze. I am told this is because of a giant inland lake that generates an almost constant wind. It seems like the only let up is during the rain...and even during the rain it can be windy. Mostly, the only time you sweat is when the wind is blocked or you are exerting yourself. Florida in July, on the other hand, merely the act of looking out the window is enough to make you perspire.
The next sensation is the sound of traffic on the busy highway between the airport and our hotel. Belching diesel trucks, motorcycles, the constant beeping of horns, and strange bird sounds. All that we needed to do was cross that road to our hotel, and the task seemed insurmountable.
Fortunately, we had arranged to be picked up by our hotel, the Best Western Mercedes, and an elegantly middle-aged man came strutting though the post customs area saying "Perkins?". He found us and whisked us and our belongings past the eager throng of men wishing to earn a tip by carrying our bags to the curb. He and his driver easily packed the missus and I into a large van and took off. I relaxed, saying to myself that the hard part was over until the driver reached the street full of small motorcycles, giant trucks with men hanging all over them and the occasional cart being drawn by a horse. The horse cart on the highway is an interesting thing. Usually it is made from an old truck axle, with two old bald tires, with a large rough wooden box on top, driven by a grizzled older man, and pulled by a horse that has given up any hope of finding a carrot at the end of a stick.
Our driver took one look at this endless parade of vehicles, and pulled right into it, honking and pulling across the median, on the wrong side, honked again and pulled easily into the hotel parking lot. Once I was able to start breathing again, I realized that I had made a huge mistake thinking I was ever going to drive a rental car in this country.
It turns out that I had no clue....
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