Car horns are to Managua what live jazz is to New Orleans.  During our stay in New Orleans this year we enjoyed some of the finest local musical talent the world has to offer.  Live music was on practically every corner, in every bar and restaurant, and pleasantly heard at live events adding a festive air to business openings, backyard parties, and celebrations large and small.  In Managua, car horns are the music that is everywhere.  From short, high-pitched tweets from taxi drivers looking to attract your attention and business to the huge deep air horns of the fancy buses with mirror tassels hanging, the cacophony of sound is inescapable.

In the area of Pennsylvania we lived in, car horns are like nuclear weapons…everyone has one but no one ever uses them.  Not the case in Nicaragua.  The ubiquitous car horn is used constantly.  It seem to convey messages in secret code like, “Hey, how are you?”  “Nice wheels.”  “I’m coming through whether I fit or not.”  “Get the @#$!@ out of my way.”   “You @$$hole!”  and variations thereof.  You simply hear them all the time.  When you look at the perp, it’s hard to tell what he’s blowing his horn at.  Perhaps the horns are in Spanish…