Oriental Market

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013--Managua

Breakfast has been interesting at my hotel.  It is a buffet.  But every day there have been slight variations that seem strange.  On Friday, we had sour cream to go over the beans and rice; I haven't seen that since then.  Also on Friday, they had butter and jam to go with the toast, but neither has been evident since until today when only butter showed up.  Yesterday, there was no juice, although there had been juice every day up to then; it was back today.  They have had pancakes every day, but on Sunday while I was there, they had run out of pancakes and no replacement pancakes were made during the time I was eating.  Usually hotels with a buffet tend to have essentially the same things day by day and keep the items refreshed as long as the time period for breakfast continues.  I have NOT been dining at the end of the period either; I've been there around the middle of the 3 hours they serve the buffet.

My outing today was to the Oriental Market, the biggest market in Nicaragua.  And it is TRULY big covering several square blocks.  What I have noticed is that Nicaraguans still do most of their shopping at markets.  That's why the malls are so small.  And that is why even smaller cities I visited often had 2-3 markets in town.

On the way there, however, there was a disturbing incidence.  I had stopped at a bus stop just to watch the crowd get on a bus and to observe the bus number in case I wanted to try to take a bus with the same number back for my return.  I heard a slight sound of anguish and turned just in time to see a woman on crutches fall to the sidewalk after having tripped over its broken pieces.  She was right in front of me, but I didn't speak Spanish and new I couldn't comfort her or help her without talking to her.  And to be honest, I also have to admit that the thought flashed through my mind that this could be some kind of tactic used to get a tourist to start assisting someone so that others could rush to assist and pick the pockets of the tourist as they all helped lift the person.  Fortunately, a man eating nearby rushed over and helped her.  He turned her slightly, and she had a large knot on her forehead and was bleeding.  I knew there was nothing I could do and felt awkward just standing there, so I continued walking to the market and hoped that she would be okay.

The Oriental Market is probably the top shopping destination in the whole country.  It was interesting going through it.  I had to keep my directional orientation in mind at all times so I would be able to find my way back out in the general direction I had come from.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have known where I was as I exited or which way I needed to go to get back to the hotel.  The market was crowded, but not to the point where people touched each other.  There was room for everyone to pass close to each other.  I never sensed any danger there, although the guidebook warns against pickpockets.

Anything can be bought or done at the market, it seems.  I passed a section that had maybe 10-12 barber shops.  I passed at least 5 small casinos filled with slot machines and their players.  There were electronics, clothing, kitchen utensil, fruits and vegetables, etc., sections.  There were pharmacies, hardware stores, etc.  The market had it all squeezed into small, individually-operated spaces covering maybe 12 square blocks.

It was interesting to see, but there was nothing I needed to buy.  Therefore, after maybe an hour of exploring, I headed back out in the direction I had entered, found my way to the street I had followed getting there, and returned to the hotel.  The rest of the day was spent on the Internet and reading.