Back to School

My first day at Spanish class. Six students arrived to be introduced to the instructors; three Canadians, two Australians and a Finn. I drew Margarita, a beautiful twenty-six year old Latina with a megawatt smile. Half of the instruction is the old-fashioned but necessary rote learning of conjugations, etc. The rest is simple, halting conversation, picking up words and pronunciations as you go. None of the teachers speak more that the most basic English. From first impressions I think I will make rapid progress over the next four weeks.

Before coming here I had worked assiduously for months with a computer-based language learning programme that billed itself as the fastest possible way to get results. I got nowhere. Three days here has given me more Spanish than all the time I wasted on the computer. .

The school organized a hike this afternoon to the top of a headland just north of town. Tourism only started here about four years ago, but development is accelerating and the changes are easy to see from a vantage point. A luxury hotel with attached condominiums is nearing completion on the hills above the town. At the north end of the beach and separated by a stream from the main part of town is a neighbourhood of grand houses and gated communities surrounded by high walls, some topped with razor ribbon. We walked along its well paved streets and I was told that all of the services here are up to date and reliable, unlike the rest of town. The expats I have met or overheard gripe about the government having the country in a tailspin and the limitations of this place, but in the next breath invariably boast about how incredibly cheap they are able to live here.

Local people regard Daniel Ortega as the people's president, concerned with the plight of the impoverished majority of Nicaraguans. On the hike I spoke with a New Yorker who is shopping for property here. Beyond the headland was an area of vast private villas he described as “the Beverly Hills of Nicaragua”. Half an acre with a spectacular ocean view goes for about $100,000. Our climb took us past a series of developments, each one more extravagant than the last. Reaching the top and looking down at the town, with its crumbling streets and decrepit buildings, it was easy to understand why the last election put Ortega back into office.