Georgia on My Mind

Anyone who has been following the news lately cannot be unaware of the ridiculous calamity currently unfolding in Georgia. Oddly, no one has been asking the obvious question; why did the Georgians march into South Ossetia knowing that it was under tacit Russian protection? Having suffered centuries of Russian domination and brutality, didn't the Georgians know better than to antagonize their much more powerful neighbour?

The Georgian president is not actually the fool that current events make him appear. With a large US military base in their country and Washington pushing hard for Georgian membership in NATO, the government in Tiblisi must have felt confident of American backing in a confrontation with Moscow. Certainly, the White House was consulted long in advance of Georgia's action and gave their approval. But why would they assume that Moscow would not react?

For years, the Russian government has been warning the west that extending NATO into eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics was unacceptable and would have consequences. No one listened. After all, post-Soviet Russia was an impoverished and weakened state that needed western good will too much to rock the boat. So went the conventional wisdom among western nations, less so in Europe after Moscow turned off the energy tap a few years ago, but it still has currency in Washington.

This past week, Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement that will see US missles based in Poland, a stone's throw from the Russian border. Moscow has had enough. The Russian actions actually have very little to do with Georgia and everything to do with Russian-American relations. What we actually saw happening in Georgia was Vladimir Putin giving George Bush a hard slap in the face and telling him to back the hell off. It's a shame that the hapless Georgians had to suffer for the message to be delivered.

Life in Margaritaville

Having lived in many different parts of the world, my experience has been that interesting places attract interesting people and San Juan del Sur more than most. Misfits, oddballs and just plain characters abound here. One local compares it to living in a bad Jimmy Buffet novel, "Going down to Big Wave Dave's to see Three-Finger Bob play guitar while BJ, the Monkey Lady, dances on the bar." Some came looking for a life less ordinary, others hoping to put some misfortune behind them. A few, like myself, have a chronic case of wanderlust.

For the expats who live here, the power outages, dirt roads and many things that you simply cannot get form an invisible barrier keeping out the plastic wrapped, push button world that they came here to escape. It is a very open little community that does a good job of generating its own fun and everyone is invited. Last night there was the weekly poker game at someone's beach house and one of the beach bars showed a free movie, but we chose to join a group for a sunset yoga class, followed by supper, a salsa dance class and open mike night at a local club. The town's growing tourist influx adds a welcome liveliness to the town and sustains a modest nightlife, although no one is anxious to see Matthew McConaughey return, but the people who live here just hope that it doesn't change San Juan's funky, laid back, ragged at the edges personality too much.

The Return of XP

I have been a reluctant user of Microsoft products for years and was running Windows XP on my laptop until a few weeks ago, when I had a system crash that required a reinstall of my operating system. Unfortunately, when I pulled the XP install disc out of its case it was scratched beyond use, so I opted instead for Ubuntu Linux 8.04. Sadly, in spite of all the geek love that Linux receives on the Internet, I have never been able to make it work for me. Over the past several years I have installed several different flavours of Linux on various systems and always found myself returning to Windows due to insoluble problems. Linux has made huge strides over the years, but this time was no more successful than the others.

On my laptop, Linux would not go into Suspend Mode or shut down properly and there are a variety of other, lesser but still annoying issues. A month of Internet research and tweaking has not resolved the problems, so a friend is bringing me a new XP disc from the US this week and I will regretfully return to Windows, at least until Linux gets to the point that it is usable without the assistance of a full-blooded geek to fix all the glitches.

Shopping, the Hard Way

In some areas, Nicaragua remains far behind the first world and, sadly, customer service is one of them. In Managua the other day, I walked into in a kitchenware store to buy a few utensils. A sales clerk immediately attached herself to me and shadowed me around the store as I picked out the items I wanted, taking each one from my hands and placing them at the check out desk.

Within a few minutes I was finished and stood in front of the cashier with my cash in hand. Then I watched as my purchases were examined, an invoice created on a computer and printed in triplicate, my items were checked against the invoice by the cashier, who then handed the invoice to another staff member who checked each of my items against the invoice before carefully wrapping them and placing them in a bag, while another cashier went to find the cash box so that they could make change for me. By the time I finally got out the door, paying for my purchases had eaten up twenty minutes. I was the only customer in the store at the time. God only knows what happens when they are busy.

Canada vs The World

Back on July 1st, a ball hockey game was organized by a couple of local bars to celebrate Canada Day in San Juan del Sur, with some expat Canadians taking on a team recruited from the various other nationalities in town. A basketball court was the venue and the game was hard fought, although chaotic since no one really knew the rules, occasionally lapsing into slapstick comedy. The outcome was a predictable walkover for Team Canada, but the internationals demanded a re-match and this week, in the spirit of the Olympics, the second game in this historic series was held.

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As the teams lined up for the face off, I was wondering who would be the referee, but it was obviously the barefoot, bikini clad girl at centre ice, who has never seen a hockey game in her life. Dropping the ball, she sprinted for the sidelines as sticks flailed.


The first period ended with a 4-1 lead for team Canada and both teams retired to the barbecue for beer. Periods were shortened to fifteen minutes for this game, since it was unlikely the most of the players could last a full twenty. In the end, the internationals suffered a 10-7 loss to the Canadians' superior skills.


The teams lined up for the traditional handshake and then returned to the barbecue for burgers and more beer, later moving to the bar sponsoring the winning side for in depth post game analysis.

A Home in the Sky

The absence of new posts here for the past several weeks is the result of a virus that had me bed ridden on and off for a couple of weeks and then by too many things happening at once, leaving too little time for writing. In spite of my usually robust good health, occassional lapses come with the territory in places like Central America. I am told that parasites are a common problem that should be tested for regularly. Something to which I can look forward.



A new home is the biggest recent change, moving from my tiny apartment on a hill overlooking the town to a slightly larger cottage on another hill with a fabulous view of the bay. The old place was fine for one person with very basic needs, but a bit cramped and uncomfortable now that we are two of us plus a dog. The new place makes me feel more settled, like I really live here rather than just being on an extended vacation.



Pretty, fully equipped and well maintained, the new house is everything we could want and comes with twice weekly maid service, too. The wraparound terrace, shaded by overhanging trees, is naturally where I find myself spending most of my time and gives me a clear line of sight to the wireless modem down the hill for work. Birds and brilliantly coloured butterflies flit about the place in the day. At night fireflies wander among the trees and all that can be heard is the surf far below. The only negative to living up here is the heart bursting climb from the town, but now four wheel drive has solved that problem.