note:gps is slightly off
today was probably the worst day of the trip so far:
1) patrik took off back to work
2) i woke up feeling pretty sick (i’m feeling better now….not 100%)
3) without an exper navigator, i got lost driving in managua and took a slightly longer road down to rivas. that might have been a good thing (see below)
4) …it finally happened, the police bribe….well, rather, bribes. in-between masaya and the airport, we were stopped twice by the police checkpoints. the first time, the yellow-vested thieves told me that i didnt turn with my signal (i didnt….but in a country where a turn signal is a luxury, what do you want?). i paid him $20. About 20min later, we were stopped again. this time, i was accused or crossing a solid line….and had to pay $40. after dropping patrik off at the airport, i headed north (deciding to take a different road back down to rivas). about 5min later, i was pulled over again. this time, they had nothing on me….but still waited 10min, with my license, documents, etc. they tried to scare me a bit (10 cops hanging around the car…..accusing me of not having all the proper forms….etc), but in the end let me go. so, to sum up. police checkpoints here are pure evil. i think they pick certain days/roads to make their money. the cops with yellow vests suck. the ones in blue are maybe ok.
5) it’s next to impossible (maybe impossible?) to get a nicaraguan soccer jersey. apparently baseball is big here. c’mon!