This weekend may be crap, but next Saturday will be memorable

It's Friday night. My second michelada is almost gone (Michelada is beer served on ice with lime juice and salt) and I am thinking of having fun next weekend. Do you think this sounds strange? I think it’s pretty sad; Tomorrow, I will wake up at 8 and leave for Ometepe, where I will meet a group of children I am supposed to interview on Sunday, right after that I will travel back to Managua. Sound amazing isn’t it? This weekend will be so short and shitty, that even writing these lines with sarcasm is not helping…

Ometepe is the volcano island in the middle of the Nicaragua Lake. It is in fact a beautiful spot, but going there to spend the weekend in front of a microphone and a questionnaire takes away all the charm. Yes, Saturday and Sunday will be the golden crown of a terrible week: I had 16 interviews and it was hell to conduct them; I transcribed several interviews into text documents; and finally, I prepared and chaired a meeting with my project’s consultative group (representatives of SOS, Universities and other NGOs).
This week was really hard and I didn’t get as much sleep as I wanted, each day I woke up willing to stay longer in bed, but…duty was calling

I just finished my michelada and with it, the remaining drops of fun just vanished.

The next chance to enjoy the company of another human being will be next Friday, when my mother and Helena, one of her best friends, land at Managua’s airport. My mom is visiting me, and that’s great! But that’s not all, on Saturday we are going to see Richard Clayderman live. Can you believe it? The world’s most known pianist is performing at Nicaragua’s National Theatre, and we will be attending this glorious event.

Sincerely, I don’t like Richard Clayderman at all, but how often can one get the chance to hear “Ballade pour Adeline” (the most kitsch ballad of all times) performed live on a grand piano? Just to think of Monsieur Clayderman on a glitter suit playing on his white piano takes me into an almost spiritual voyage. Oh yeah!

This weekend may be crap, but Mr. Clayderman’s concert will be memorable

A backbone-massage, the fish-recipe and Tomás' two-day journey back to Mexico.

The last days with my brother in Managua were very relaxing. I was very tired of my holidays; when still in Chihuahua, I had no time to rest. I was, either visiting family and friends, going to Christmas parties, or cooking. From our first day in Nicaragua on, we were always busy driving through the country, walking around or on boat trips.

The day my sister flew back home, was also the day I returned to the office, January 4th. Tomás stayed four more days with me. Since he already knew Managua (he was here with Allison, his girlfriend, in summer 2008), we had no longer interest in sightseeing. We just enjoyed the evenings doing little; we even went to a shopping centre merely to get a massage. The two masseurs (male and female) give a 10 minute backbone massage and charge only 3 Euros! We went twice there, the second time we switched masseur only to conclude that the guy had better hands. This long-haired masseur has big, firm hands, but knows when to apply less pressure and loosen his hands – I know this may sound gay…massage

Another evening, we had ceviche at a small place opposite from the SOS Village (it was actually a garage which went through a rough adaptation), these guys serve an amazing ceviche! It was a pity that Tita was not with us; she, as a member of our family, is a connoisseur in ceviche matters.

New year 2008 fish story: Two years ago, we picked up Playa del Carmen (Mexican Caribbean) as our New Year’s vacation spot; during our stay, we tried different ceviches each day, ten days in a row! The best prepared was in Tulúm, on a palm-roofed cabin right on the highway.
New year 2009 fish story: Last New Year's Eve we were in Brussels, and also had raw seafood for dinner: Oysters and scallops with lemon juice and salt...mmmh!

If you don’t know ceviche, I describe it as a hybrid between Gazpacho and Sashimi. It consist of raw fish (white flesh), cut in small cubes and marinated in lime juice until the flesh acquires a cooked-similar texture (and the fishy-smell disappears), then chopped fresh tomato, red onion, cucumber, celery, coriander are added, Voilá!

Tomás left on a Friday, bad timing! I wanted to take advantage of his presence to party in Managua. Actually, going out in Managua is really an issue for me, I have been here for almost 4 months and went out only two times. Once to see that Afro-Caribbean concert (I hate rastas), and last week; I went to a salsa-bar (I hate salsa) with people from the Village: two youngster and their youth leader, this is the one I cannot call any longer, the one marrying my potential murderer in 10 days.

As I was saying, my brother flew to Mexico on a Friday, but arrived home on Sunday. This situation started getting complicated when the night before flying, he noticed that his ticket was to San Jose, in the American California, and not to the San José in the Mexican California. The next morning we bought a new ticket from San Jose (US) to San José (Mex), but he missed his connecting flight in Houston. To make a long story shot here is the list of airports he visited on his odyssey back home:

1. Managua
2. Houston
3. San Francisco
4. San Jose, United Stated
5. Los Angeles
6. San José, Mexico

The guy in the new pic is Austrofred, the Viennese version of Freddy Mercury

If I get killed, it was the jealous boyfriend

Perhaps you have noticed that some of my entries do not correspond to the situation and events immediately happening before writing my blog. For example: my airport blog-entry was written in Mexico City and in Chihuahua within a span of 36 hours; the stories on our Nicaraguan trip were written two weeks after Tita and Tomás left; and right now, I have decided to once more break the chronological storytelling order and write about today’s events (Jan 22nd) and not about Tomás’ last days in Managua, as I have promised on my last blog.

Sip of sauvignon blanc…

Today I conducted my last interview in Estelí; do you remember? I am in Nicaragua to interview over hundred people. After this interview I immediately fled to Managua. I wanted to go to the sushi bar I always go to, but when I was at the restaurant centre I decided to try something different and went to a “Mediterranean & fusion restaurant” (fine recipes, but awful cook). After ordering my meal, I realised that I have left my mobile phone on the taxi. Do you know what it is to forget your mobile in a Taxi in a country outside central Europe? Last May I forgot a Laptop in a Taxi in Hannover and got it shipped back to Austria although I was in Mexico, but I was sure this was not to happen in Central America…I was a little bit calmed when I called my own number and the taxi driver, in fact he answered, he drove back and gave me back my mobile phone. I no loner have a no doubt about it, I am a luck bastard…

On my way back to the SOS Village, my only Nicaraguan friend called me; her name is Ericka, you may have spotted her on my Facebook pics from Nicaragua: she’s very small (up to my waist according to Fritz)…and has an incredibly jealous boyfriend, the bad thing about it…he hates me. He detests me so much that today he suddenly asked Ericka to marry him (in two weeks), the main reason? Only to be her husband before I leave Nicaragua! The sad thing about it is that she asked me today to call her a maximum of one time every four weeks! Apparently, once a month is not too much for her boyfriend.

…two sips of white wine…Now, I am no longer allowed to call my friend until February 22nd; this was my first close encounter to Latin machismo since I experienced a very weird situation back home with my sister and her ex-boyfriend four years ago…

I will not further write about Ericka’s boyfriend. You know, I am actually a little bit scared about this guy, he could easily track down this blog…I am not kidding! He already tracked Ericka’s incoming calls to see how often I was calling her…yes he is a real psycho, no doubt about it!
People, if I am killed within the next hours, please tell the police that I was most probably murdered by the Ericka Saldana’s jealous boyfriend. If the police asks for details or distinctive signs, please tell them he is (probably) not well equipped ;-)

The funny danger

After spending the night in Managua we left for León, a colonial city north from Managua. Our hotel was a majestic colonial building with huge white walls; our room walls were actually 4 meters high. On the first day we visited the “hervideros of San Jacinto”, hervideros can be translated to “the boiling spots”. Once I read on the web that this place was like (I quote) “…Yellowstone without the security fences”, well, I have never been in Yellowstone, but I think it is like the hervideros without the amusing risk of melting your feet!

The hervideros is small area (smaller that a soccer field) near a volcano, and it is full of holes in the ground, in these earth-cracks there is bubbling clay and loads of steam comes out of them. I made no photos in San Jacinto, but I shoot some videos with my mobile; only in video one can see the “funny danger” I mean. It was funny how our young guides (local children) took the warning sings away, in order for us to pass and take a look to the risky areas of the place.

Back in our hotel, we went swimming and had something to drink, Tita was not in the mood for a drink, but Tomás and I were; he had a Gin and Tonic and I went for a Macuá, Nicaragua’s national drink, it is made with fresh Guava and Lime juice and white rum. I didn’t know Macuá until Kamil a.k.a Bert (one of the two registered followers of this blog) told me about it while chatting back in November.

The day after, Benito Rivas and his lovely wife took us to the beach, Benito is the national director of SOS Children’s Villages Nicaragua and he is from León. After a quick walk along the beach (the heat was unbearable), Benito took us to a very nice beach-restaurant. Benito asked for a grilled fish (he chose it at the kitchen), his wife ate breaded prawns - they had a wonderful appearance, Tita ordered shrimp ceviche (prawns marinated in lime juice, tomatoes, onions and coriander), Tomás had breaded fish loins, and since I was hungry as hell, had fish ceviche and lobster (5 small tails for 8 dollars, that’s less than 6 Euros!).

After this feast on the beach, we drove back to Managua; Tita started packaging her stuff, then we talked until late at night. It was sad to know this was Tita’s last night in Managua.

The next day, The Children’s Village driver, Don Isidro, drove use, the three Germes, to the airport. Tita checked her luggage, bought cigarillos from Estelí as a souvenir and we embraced her good bye. I am happy to know that I am seeing her in only three months. She is marrying Víctor, her fiancé, on April 17th in Chihuahua.

Sometime during this week I will write about the following days in Managua with Tomás, and after that, this blog will get its peculiar irony hint back. If any of this blog’s readers miss the masochism in my entries, I promise you good stuff in the coming days, well, as long as until then nothing changes in my non-existing social, love and creative life.

Time to stop writing and change the radio station: They are playing Venga Boys…

P.S. I will upload the videos (Youtube) of San Jacinto when I am back in Austria

The Germes’ road trip in Nicaragua

Tita, Tomás and I initially visited the bay town of San Juan del Sur, a small town in the pacific coast. We had dinner at a nice beach restaurant, the place was so chic that it had mini-pool located aside our table, its water seemed so tempting with the pool’s blue mosaics that Tomás and I nearly walked back to our hotel room to get our swimming trunks. We shared Wahoo Carpaccio, my sister had grilled calamari kebabs served on salad, Tomás ordered fish and chips (for the best outside Camden!) and I tried the yellow-fin tuna (very rare cooked) covered with black sesame and wasabi.


After supporting our digestive systems by walking along San Juan’s bay, we went to our hotel and tried to sleep, that wasn’t easy at all since our hotel was located in the middle of the night-life district; the clubs played their music very loud, but we were lucky: there was a general electric blackout short after midnight, so finito, the music beats were gone.


We spend the following two days in Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes in the middle of the Nicaragua Lake (one of the largest in the world). We stayed at an eco-lodge on the slopes of the Madera’s volcano, during breakfast we enjoyed the restaurant’s magnificent view: Concepción, the island’s highest volcano. At night we could even hear howling monkeys from our cabin.


On December 31st we moved on to Granada, we stayed at a charming boutique hotel, there Tita and I had a cold beer with lime and salt (Since there is no prosecco or good white wine available in Nicaragua, I am drinking beer until I fly back to Austria), after that, we headed to the pier and took a boat-ride at the Nicaragua Lake. We visited a few of the tiny islands formed by an eruption of the neighbouring Mombacho volcano.


New Year was nice, warm and full of fireworks. As far as I’ve seen, Nicaraguan men love loud crackers, those noisy fireworks start at the size of a beer can and some were as big as a 1,5 litre PET bottle (and loud as hell!), nearly all of them triggered car alarms when exploding. Nearly all “beautiful” fireworks (the ones exploding in several colours) were either lit by tourists or women.
I think I am conservative when it gets to fireworks, I prefer the spark and bright ones, rather than those blasting ones, nearly provoking tinnitus; these are treasured by Nicaraguan men.


On the first day of 2010 we hired a private car, a beautiful Russian Lada 1200, to drive us to the Masaya volcano, an active one. Being on top of the volcano made me a little dizzy, it was surely caused by the strong sunrays and the intense smell of sulphur coming out of the crater.


We arrived in Managua at night, the Sushi bar was closed, so we had only pizza and salad instead. My sister’s last weekend before flying back home had started…

Here are some pics of the road trip.

La Bamba

I’ve spent wonderful ten days in Chihuahua; I met my relatives and friends, did some shopping, visited the beautiful city centre and ate delicious food. I still recall the “gorditas de papa”, they are fried small tortillas made with corn and chili dough and filled with mashed potatoes and topped with shredded cabbage and tomato. For me, one of the best meals you can get in Chihuahua.

The Christmas dinner was sure the culinary highlight in December: For the turkey, Tomás and I prepared two sauces: Real mole and pineapple/ginger marmalade. My aunt Beticho was in charge of the ponche, a typical Mexican winter-drink made out of hibiscus infusion with chunks of guava, prunes, cinnamon and pecan nuts. We added Nicaraguan rum (aged 7 years) to make it taste funnier ;-)

Right after Christmas, we celebrated my grandfather’s 90th birthday with a huge party (over 60 guests!), there I performed a song with my brother, Tomás played the xylophone and I the ukulele.

For those who don’t know my musical side, I have huge difficulties in keeping the right tempo, actually this is major problem if you are a drummer. Well, just picture this situation: My brother and I were on a stage, it was his first performance (in fact he learned to play a song only the night before) and we had no monitors (the loudspeakers used by musicians to hear what they play), and the rule is “No monitors, no idea what you are playing”.
Summarizing it, our version of “La Bamba” was certainly the worst ever played; Tomás did an excellent job, but I failed to keep the rhythm since I was not able to hear neither the xylophone tones nor myself on the ukulele. It was a pity no one filmed it, otherwise my brother and I would be incredibly famous on youtube right now.

After the performance of the “Germes brothers”, we headed home to pack our things. Tita, Tomás and I flew the morning after to Nicaragua.