Sueños del Caribe Blog

I was engaged in one of my favorite pass times, trolling the internet, when I came across this blog written by one Ronald Hill.

It deals with the the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, an area which I visited a number of times, but not nearly enough, in my three years living in the country. Most social commentary in Nicaragua is poor, the product of a very small lens of perspective or heavily politically influenced. The potential for quality documentation and commentary on the plight of people in the small, but very diverse country, is huge, but few and far between are those who can offer insight which stems from both involved personal experience and wide perspective.

I recall my first visit to the Southern Atlantic coast nearly two and a half years ago and how captivated I was with the area. It was interesting to see how in such a relatively short distance just how much the country and its people could change. Poverty is abound in every corner of the country, some more than others, but the majority live day to day, consistently in a struggle against the few Cordobas they may carry in their pocket at any given time. In the little neighborhood where I lived, most were in an economic conundrum at any given time, money was a tangible representation of the constant struggle that is life and most, from what I saw, had a difficult time dealing with it.

This still applies to the Caribbean coast, once again some areas more than others, but there does seem to exist a paradigm missing from their pacific compatriots (or, the "Spanish" as they call them), one that allows them become relieved from the pressure of the situation, at least for a period of time. Basically, that laid back Caribbean attitude, where items of stress and hard ship can be dismissed by saying "alright", or one of the other words they seemed to use as a general response.

In point, both those from the Pacific and the Atlantic suffer the consequences of not always having what they need; stealing, violence, and further suffering are a direct result of these situations on both sides, but those on the Atlantic coast seemed to deal with it better.

Like I said, my time spent on the Atlantic coast is not enough, nor was not deep enough, to give any meaningful commentary on the matter, but this guy is, go read his blog if you are interested.

 http://hillron.blogspot.ca/