The city of Managua is a big place.  Too big to walk everywhere and I wasn’t adventurous enough yet to ride the local buses.  Taxis seemed the most logical option for me but I struggled with telling taxi drivers where I wanted to go.  Very few spoke any English and as noted before, my Spanish is, shall we say, somewhat short of flawless.  After sitting up on the mountain with a six-pack and thinking deep thoughts, I came up with a BRILLIANT well thought out plan, a technological wonder that would make men and women weep and children cheer for its simplicity.  Well…kinda.

Taxis are an interesting means of transportation in Nicaragua.  You can flag one down along most streets and they seem to be everywhere.  Some have the company name on the door, others have the company name AND the word “Individual” (see photo above).  Taxis designated Individual mean you, and only you, are in the taxi from the time you are picked up until you arrive at your destination–you pay the whole fare.  Taxis without the Individual designation (colectivos) can be flagged down by anyone at anytime along the way whether you’re in it or not.  Thus, the empty taxi you started out in might have seven of your closest friends in it, whom you never met, by the time you arrive at your destination–the fare is ostensibly split making it more cost effective for the locals.

People flag the colectivos down at anytime regardless of the number of occupants.  They simply cram themselves in.  Some sitting on laps, possibly yours !  Some have air conditioning but it seldom works.  Although I did not utilize the colectivo taxis, I have no doubt there is a national law requiring deodorant.  Think of the sixties when folks tried to see how many people could be crammed into a Volkswagen Beetle at once….  I’m not quite that adventurous so I only took “Individual” taxis or used the private car services available with a phone call…usually safer, newer cars, that are better maintained and have functioning air conditioning.  The car service vehicles are unmarked and often have English speaking drivers.  They are only slightly more expensive than the “Individual” taxis but I had good experiences with them.  In fact, one driver gave me his card and home cell phone number and was quite willing to take my calls anytime.  Thank you Samuel Salazar !  Although I took a curbside taxi from the airport when I arrived, Samuel’s car service took me back as I had an early flight and he was very reliable.

Because the taxi drivers almost universally spoke only Spanish, getting to my desired destination was an adventure.  I had a brainstorm, an epiphany…put technology to work !!!  By using the wonder of screenshots through Trip Advisor and Google Maps of where I wanted to go, I could simply show them.  The beauty of using the Trip Advisor (small map with the street address clearly listed on the screen at left), it was a foolproof plan regardless of the language barrier.  I was proud of my technological creativity and anxious to give it a try.  As an aside, note the lack of street addresses (no house numbers and street names).  The translation of the directions on the left are to go to the Rotonda Ruben Dario (a large traffic circle landmark in Managua), 1 block south, 3 blocks east, 1/2 block south !!!  Other such postal addresses might be “the green house across from the soccer field.”

When I decided to move to the small hotel from my initial rooms on the planet Solar (see earlier post), I flagged down a taxi.  Predictably, the driver spoke no English.  The hotel, I suppose, was such a small one that it was not a national landmark in Managua so he had no idea where I wanted to go.  Anxious to test my brilliance, I handed him my phone with the screen shot displayed and he looked at it carefully.  What could possibly go wrong?  He held it up, he held it down, he shaded it with his hand, he stretched his arm to full length and squinted.  Final I gave the name of the hotel.  He said “Ah…hotel” and he handed me the phone back.  In flawless Spanish I said, “Si” and we were off.

Now I’m no geographical genius but I had carefully studied maps of Managua to get a sense of where on the planet I was.  I was pretty sure the taxi driver was heading in the wrong direction but what did I know?  He took more back streets than I knew existed and seemed very purposeful in his driving.  I was pretty convinced I would become a statistic on the U.S. State Department website.  However, just about the time I was ready to pull the emergency stop cord (there wasn’t one), he pulled up in front of a hotel.  A hotel.  Not my hotel.  This place looked like even pimps and hookers would have higher standards.  What a shit hole.

The taxi driver proudly pointed to the building and said, “Hotel !”

I said, “No señor. No mi hotel.”  At first I thought he had simply taken the dumb Gringo for a ride to his cousin’s sister’s brother’s hotel and the whole family would come out to greet me.  I wondered how on earth did we end up here.  For no reason in particular, a statistic I had read popped into my head…UNICEF and others estimate the adult literacy rate to be about 78%  (Costa Rica, by contrast is 98%; the United States is 99%).  That means that about 1 in 4 Nicaraguans cannot read.  I think I found the one in four.

With that realization, I read the directions from the phone screen to the taxi driver and his face lit up with a smile and he said, “Si” quite happily and we were off.  I got the sense he had absolutely no idea where I wanted to go to begin with and didn’t know how to ask.  I didn’t know enough Spanish to tell him.  By reading him the directions, he took me directly to the door of the hotel.  Lesson learned.  Back to the drawing board…maybe not so brilliant an idea.