Nicaragua Cont. The Day I Meet the President

This morning we took a bus tour on Nicaragua. It was weird they had all these Christmas trees up with the number 30 on top of them. It turned out that they were from the previous Christmas and the Sandinistas decided that they would leave them up all year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of them taking over power from the Somaza regime. We drove around the city and saw areas where people had simply become squatters and started building shacks then were given the property by the Sandanistas.
The first stop we made was to a archeological site called Huellas de Acahualinca.It is incorrectly believed by some that the foot prints were made by people running from a volcanic eruption, the footprints were really made by people walking to Lake Nicaragua to get water. The footprints are 6 or 7 thousand years old. There were roughly 10 to 20 people who left footprints one of the footprints looks like it has 6 toes, which was most likely created by one person walking behind another walking in the first person’s footsteps. There are also animal tracks near the footsteps but they are headed in a different direction so the animals probably came after the people and were headed in a different direction.
After we saw the footprints we went to the location of the old presidential house. It had a history of the Sandanista party and some information on Augusto Sandino who was not actually part of or the founder of the Sandanista party but a rebel against the US control of Nicaragua in the 1930’s. Sandino had been the son of a farmer and went on to fight against the US Marines in a guerilla war, in which Sandino’s soldiers had the advantage because they were familiar with the terrain of the jungles.
We had to get dressed up for dinner because we meet with ex-president of Nicaragua Enrique José Bolaños Geyer. Don Enrique had gone to University in the US and received a degree in Engineering. His family wasn’t really involved in politics they were more concerned with business. Geyer was a cotton farmer who had his property confiscated by the Sandinistas. As president Don Enrique fought against the political corruption of previous administrations. Don Enrique told us about how Central America didn’t really have a revolution to gain independence from Spain that gained its independence because Napoleon named his brother King of Spain.
Don Enrique also explain the benefits of a canal in Nicaragua and how there is more water for a canal and how a canal in Nicaragua would be able to handle ships almost twice as large as the ships the Panama canal will be able to when it is done being expanded. The goal for the Panama Canal expansion is 130 thousand pounds while a canal in Nicaragua would be able to support a boat weighing 250 thousand pounds. Even without a canal we Vanderbilt used Nicaragua to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific it took half the time it would have take to travel around South America.
Don Enrique also discussed how he had high hopes for united Central America similar to the EU. He said that Nicaragua needs help with that in order to bring this about and increase the power and prestige of all of Central America. He said the per capita GNP of Nicaragua is about $1000 while the per capita GNP of Costa Rica is $9000. Don Enrique said that $40 per person in Nicaragua per year for infrastructure improvements is what would be needed it increase the GNP of Nicaragua to a level similar to other Central American countries. He also said that a customs bank or CAFÉ integration bank would be required to distribute customs revenues to bring greater equity in Central America. Don Enrique if Central America chose to follow the same path that Europe did a unified Central America would be possible.
After our dinner with Don Enrique I went back to the hotel and swam and then went to Karaoke, I started getting tired so I headed back the hotel alone and called it a night.