Managua

Apparently there are quite a few people who share my opinion about you...self-annointed patriarch of this forum? YES!, Angry Pirate...Pollo and Managua deserve each other? YES!, Lorenzo.

You guys are a tough bunch. Grand Pollo has provided some good information, although I agree he is a bit opinionated. We mongerers are different and like varying experiences. It drives some of the vererans crazy when I go to the tourist spots to sightsee and waste valuable mongering time, but that is what I enjoy (plus the photos provide an explanation to the "What did you do while you were there?").

One of my favorite things about ISG is meeting other mongerers around the world. I met a couple hilarious guys in Bangkok that knew the city inside and out, mongered with the legendary Nibu in Peru--where I took a $6 skank at a casa and overpaid for a 10+ from a strip joint, and last year had a ball mongering with DodgerBulldog in Guatemala.

I'll be around the first couple weeks of April if anyone wants to hook up for some laughs and cervezas.

Do not know the chicken, nor have I been in Managua is 7 years (or Costa Rica in 20), but I can say that IMHO Costa Rica is for kooks who cannot handle anything other than Latin Lite. I thought that in 1987, on my one and only visit, and I cannot even imagine how much I would hate it nowadays. Why not just go to TJ or Nuevo Laredo?

Managua (all of Nica) is NOT for those lacking third worlds acumen or cojones. It is not for those who want to associate with other gringo sex tourists on a regular basis. It is not for those whose Spanish is limited to "kwanto senyora". It is not for those seeking a scenic capital (it is hideously ugly and even makes Panama City seem attractive in comparison).

Rio is a World class city with tremendous, if expensive, mongering. While MGA cannot compete with Rio from a mongering perspective, where can? Certainly not Buenos Aires or Cartagena (two of the most en vogue mongers venues at present)!

[QUOTE=Mountain Guy] and last year had a ball mongering with DodgerBulldog in Guatemala.[/QUOTE]MG,

I think you were very gracious not to mention that I missed a turn which caused us to detour for about 30 miles into parts unknown, while leaking oil. Twice.

But in the end, we got the job done, didn't we? It was fun.

Obviously others disagree, but I think making friends while sharing our hobby certainly adds to the experience for me.

Hope we cross paths again someday!

Db

[QUOTE=Surfer]

Managua (all of Nica) is NOT for those lacking third worlds acumen or cojones. It is not for those who want to associate with other gringo sex tourists on a regular basis. It is not for those whose Spanish is limited to "kwanto senyora". It is not for those seeking a scenic capital (it is hideously ugly and even makes Panama City seem attractive in comparison).
\[/QUOTE]
You are correct in all points, though outside the capital the country is very scenic. The observation of someone's first or second posts are flames is even funnier when the person with two posts has posted the same thing twice.

In comparison to the DR which has priced itself out of common sense, Nicaragua is an oasis however without language skills and an understanding of the type of environment there it is a waste of time for the calculator/translator set with guide chulos at their side.

I like the fact that it is generally safe but at the same time I have to travel with someone armed to go shopping occasionally.

If you are ever there when I am we can meet. I suspect you won't be a liability. I next arrive near the end of Semana Santa.

Note I didn't flame Loernzo as much as point out he got clipped by a greater degree than the place he called already normally clips tourists (Bellmary's in Ciudad Jardin) . I even went back there late last year to see if they mended their ways and they tried clipping again, when my other driver asked them the price and I pretended to not understand them. They dropped from $50 to $40 to $20 as I left but still offered $14 to him if he came back. That is reportable to the members here as a fair warning.

It is not the best choice for the unfamiliar, and the fewer the better if they don't know that. CR is an hour away but who pays those prices?

and Granada is attractive. Was NOT saying all of Nica is ugly, just Managua.

I would enjoy meeting another "self appointed patriarch" (I've been called much worse in the Colombia forum LOL!) who does not pull any punches with the clueless. Luckily for you, Nica has never been the flavor of the month (sparing it from the invasion of kooks that has befallen several cities in my beloved Colombia, Cartagena and Medellin in particular).

Never had much interest in the DR as I view it as Kooka Rica on an island.

I will help RESPECTFUL and articulate newbies who RTFF before asking questions. I have met MANY members, though I CAREFULLY research their posting history on ALL boards before agreeing to meet, and have made several great friends that way. Can only think of two that I regretted agreeing to meet.

I DO think it is time to return to Nica sometime this summer (best waves) and would enjoy meeting a knowledgeable (and irascible!) Latin lover like yourself. I will PM you.

Suerte Compadre Pollo

You know how to reach me.

I am there April, May, July (early), August , October, November and Xmas so there are lots of opportunities. I have over a week in April so I will drop into Morena and find out if maybe ISG members can ID themselves somehow, and check out the others - a few new ones cropped up last trip but I was there for only about 2 1/2 days and encumbered so shopping or browsing was out.

I see Fenix has a sign now, mounted on a truck but parked outside, not sure if they intend to drive around or what or if it was just handy to put it on a truck but they are calling themselves a nightclub now. That normally denotes a strip joint. No idea how or where they'd have strippers but I will go in and check.

I see the people who knocked off the owner (shot, stabbed, beaten and lit on fire and then dumped in a river, no less) of Aquí Polanco got long sentences in the pokey. I assume operations are still as strange there, may drop in as well for a looksee.

The previous comments on Claudia (I) were interesting, they had over a dozen girls up to Jan 2 and we will see if they are cutting back or not.

Fellow mongers,

Stay away from the so called mongering scene of Managua: IT SUCKS!!

Go to Rio instead...

[QUOTE=Grand Pollo]When are you there? Luis doesn't use the e-mail but does have a phone and speaks English. Let me know the dates and I'll ask him if he's interested.[/QUOTE]

Grand Pollo,

Do you know if Luis is still available? I can speak basic Spanish, but it would be more convenient having a driver that knows where the spots are. Could you please PM me with his phone number or ask him if he wants some business the first couple weeks of April?

I am planning to be in MGA mongering at the beginning, middle, and end of my trip, and off sightseeing the other parts.

MG,

Another option is Delbis ( mobile 505 638 5212 ). He has is own car ( A/C a must in MGA, very hot and polluted ) and speaks good english. Took me for a day tour to Granada and the volcanoes for 100 usd only. Invited him for lunch at a restaurant in Masaya where he takes foreigners for a fee. People in general are so poor in Nica that I felt happy to oblige.

[QUOTE=Mountain Guy]Grand Pollo,

Do you know if Luis is still available? I can speak basic Spanish, but it would be more convenient having a driver that knows where the spots are. Could you please PM me with his phone number or ask him if he wants some business the first couple weeks of April?

I am planning to be in MGA mongering at the beginning, middle, and end of my trip, and off sightseeing the other parts.[/QUOTE]
I haven't seen him since before Xmas but I will ask my driver to call him to see if he is doing that. He isn't cheap, at least $50-60 a day though on season (Semana Santa is definitely on season) a rental car would be near that anyway. Big risk that for the week he may be doing the vacation thing. I'll check.

Before I check either reply here or PM me with when exactly and where staying and if you want all day every day so I can advise him . Hmmm... with this info PM me.

My driver is occupied with me same time. Or you could use him.

Note more than $50 unless maybe a bit like $10 more for gas paid at the end of the day which I have done marks you as a rube to the nth degree and don't pay that - to anyone - he does try to drive a hard bargain. He has driven me as far as Pochomil and south of Nandaime as part of the fair non rube/gringo price of $50 plus $10.

GP's price of $50 is more reasonable. I liked renting a car EXCEPT for driving in MGA with its unmarked right turn only lanes and other traps for the unwary. Got stopped by MGA';s finest, and that was a story, twice a week on average. Gringo driving expensive car (4X4) is too lucrative to let pass for them. Maybe danny boy has cleaned that up (yeah right!). Police corruption is a constant in CA (leftist governments are no better, and no worse, at controlling it).

In fact I paid 140 usd, now that I think of it! It was of course way too much, I realised that but I did not want to bargain. I'd rather pay a bit more and not be obsessed with looking for the best bargain all the time, like some fellow mongers on this forum....

Inflating prices that way? so be it: why not to share with these poor people some of our wealth?

[QUOTE=Surfer]GP's price of $50 is more reasonable. I liked renting a car EXCEPT for driving in MGA with its unmarked right turn only lanes and other traps for the unwary. Got stopped by MGA';s finest, and that was a story, twice a week on average. [/QUOTE]

I didn't recommend $100 so who thought that was fair?

The transitos do like to catch gringos and get those multas to meet the quota. For the cost of a rental car getting someone to get those impossible directions right a car and driver is a great deal at the right price as we both agree is around $50.

I have driven my drivers car away from town, north and south. Just to get that sunburn on each arm equally.

I never rent cars in foreign countries. Way too much stress for me, plus some of the taxi drivers are great sources of information. When I was in Cuzco, Peru, I was told there were almost no mongering spots, but a local taxi driver that I befriended earlier that day took me to a half dozen places tucked away in residential neighborhoods.

Grand Pollo, I PM'd you with my initial days. Thanks again for your help.