Behind the Masks of Nicaragua

Today I will post the blogs for the Panama, Puntarenas and San Juan del Sur - sorry that I have been a bit slack lately.

We tendered into San Juan del Sur, and were met by our guide, Evelyn. The infrastructure in Nicaragua doesn’t cater to a large influx of tourists so the buses that were used in Puntarenas yesterday, drove overnight into Nicaragua, ready for our use today. Our tour took us into the towns of Rivas, Masaya and Granada, as well as to two volcanoes in the centre of Lake Nicaragua ... one of which is still very active. 

Once again, the markets in Masaya sold a large variety of ‘interesting’ crafts - check out the photos. I am not really a craft market shopper, but I love to walk around and look at the  things on offer - I look at them and wonder where I would put them at home - I don’t want to inflict another key ring or magnet on my friends!!

 And then there is the issue of limited packing space....how would we get some of the wooden and feathered items back into Australia... problem solved.....luckily there was a DHL office in the market offering to package and post our purchases back to Australia - if we found anything to buy......even free postage for the chicken basket or leather cane toad musician didn’t tempt me!!!

The Nicaraguan culture has a spiritual and superstitious basis and masks are central to their beliefs as they fend off the bad spirits. The markets sold a lot of scary papier mache masks.....with a range of ugly features..... the walls of the restaurant where we had lunch was covered with  masks...... there was a cultural dance display in the central park in Granada and once again the main characters wore large masks to disguise their identify and frighten the bad spirits away.

This is a very poor underprivileged third world country, with a strong history of governmental corruption and internal fighting ..... it breaks my heart to see the lives especially of the young children and realise that the millions of relief funds that pour into this country never reach the people who need them - but rather are siphoned off by officials who are more interested in helping themselves than the citizens of their country.... a very confronting day...

Contrasting homes.... the haves

and 'have nots'!!

Cheers