Tamarindo

Now it starts getting dark and cold in Europe, so why not spread some happiness with some pictures from my journey. It may feel good to know that there are actually places on planet Earth that are not depressing in the month of October.

I visited a few beaches in Costa Rica and Tamarindo is one of them. During low-season there are plentiful of cheap accommodations all over the country and Tamarindo is full of (ok, not THAT full during low season) merry backpackers and surfers (I still can't do this thing, damn!).



Almost as nice as the beach in Bornemouth, England
-or is it not?







Although its rain period, the weather is OK and most electric showers in England (at least the one's in the houses I've been living in) would be jealous of the water temperature.

What the h**k are you guys doing???

The time is up for voting on the Mexico-pictures and I seriously wonder if you are all having a go at me. How on earth can the cow-picture win???

Anyway, look out for Central American pictures soon. I have some nice ones.

Pictures and result on http://mewpictures.blogspot.com/

Costa Rica

Costa Rica is painful. Mention the country Costa Rica to any Swedish person and he will not associate it with beaches, jungle or national beauty, which normally is the case. Instead, Costa Rica is remembered for the humiliation that occurred on June 20 1990, when the tiny country's football team took a 2-1 victory against the Scandinavians, knocking Sweden out of the World Cup in Italy. It was in fact so unexpected and so surprising, with such high stakes at the same time, that the loss can only be compared to one other game in the country's football history (Japan-Sweden 3-2 in the 1936 Berlin Olympics).

I have now arrived to Costa Rica, the arch enemy.

Managua

Another stop-over was the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. Managua is an interesting place although few tourists linger here longer than it takes to transfer between bus terminals or the occasional overnight in case of late arrivals. Managua can both enchant visitors as well as freak them out.
Whatever you choose to see or do in the city you are bound to come across worried citizens who like to advice you to take care and tell you how dangerous it is. This is particularly true if you are strolling around close to markets or bus stations. Also, taxi drivers are keen on telling you to not walk, that you will get robbed or attacked and that you must take a taxi because this area is "very dangerous" or "muy peligroso", as they say. If you have visited Managua and still not understand the word "peligroso" you better give up as you will never learn Spanish.
There are the occasional story about someone getting killed on this street a couple of months ago, that many robberies occur here or that as a tourist you attract many thieves. Anyway, many sounded a bit exaggerated so it is tempting to ignore most warnings. Especially when a taxi driver who worked for one of the "secure" taxi companies did the cross sign when I chose to hail a taxi from the street instead of paying his inflated fare, I thought it was probably just as likely to get robbed by him.

The historic centre (downtown area) was destroyed in an earthquake back in the 1930s. The area was never really reconstructed and the city instead expanded towards the outskirts. Today there are some government buildings and monuments in the area but people normally dont go here as, yes you guessed it, it is dangerous.
On this plaza, bounded by government buildings, museums and a cathedral, there was apparently earlier a beautiful fountain. But as it was built by another reigm, it was removed by after the change of government. Now it is just a big boring concrete block with a flagpole in the middle. Nicaragua is very poor and I with governments like this, I think they deserve it.

Looking out over downtown Managua. The city is relatively big but there are few skyscrapers and Nicaraguans like to retain trees. Most of the buildings are invisible below the treeline. In the background is Lake Managua, where the city first was founded as a small fishing village.

I hate the cheese-people

That Americans have difficulties understanding the difference between Sweden and Switzerland is nothing new under the sun - but here it is at least ten times worse. Everywhere I go people have no clue about my origin.

In Spanish, Sweden is written "Suecia" and Switzerland "Suiza". If I attempt to pronounce this with my splendid Spanish you may understand that there are some opportunities for misinterpretations. It is especially evident when you come across people who never realised that it is in fact two different countries; there is need for thorough explanations.

I Googled some base facts about Switzerland in case you too are uncertain:

Switzerland is a country that only exists because of the most direct passageway through the Alps. The area was historically controlled by The Romans and then various Germanic Empires but some Cantons finally gained more of less independence as a strategic location controlling the north-south traffic.

In Switzerland today they make cheese and breed sheep and goats in the Alps. Sportswise, the country can only compete internationally in downhill skiing. Switzerland became member of the UN only in 2002 and until then was isolated in the world politics and refused to take on board many of the world-wide accepted protocols regarding for example both human rights and children's rights. In Switzerland they also gather around the ballot boxes every other month for public votes whenever the government disagrees and it is a type example of an inefficient and bureaucratic democracy.

Switzerland's mosts prominent contribution to the world was to host the UEFA Euro Cup in 2008 together with Austria. Swiss citizens also enjoy being mixed up with Swedish and hence are parasiting on top brand names such as ABBA, Absolut, IKEA, Volvo, H&M, Skype and Nobel.

By this time, I am really really sick of Switzerland and I am very happy we don't have cheese-people working for Scotts.