Scalped!

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013--Leon

The new price that the hotel representative said he would be sending "in a moment" for the hotel in Manauga had not arrived this morning.  I wrote back.  He wrote back with an e-mail apologizing and saying it was attached.  It wasn't!  What a mess. I've written him back again asking him just to put it in the text of the e-mail rather than trying to attach it.  It would be a good hotel at a great price if I can ever get this straightened out, so I am hesitant to book elsewhere yet.

I got a haircut this morning at a barber shop half a block from my hotel.  I had used Google translate to write down four directions:
Cut it close around the edges and on the back
Angle out quickly from the close edges
Round the corners in the back
Just trim the top rather than cut too much off

Well, the barber read my notes, and I still came out of there almost scalped!  Even worse, what little I had left he had glued down flat with gel which made it look even worse.  It's going to be a haircut that will last some time.  Fortunately, it looked better after washing out all the gel and letting it dry naturally.  The sad thing is that it is still a better cut than I have been getting in San Antonio where I've decided I must find another place to go for my future cuts.

Every Nicaraguan town is filled with pharmacies.  I'm thinking that anyone must be able to establish one and that there is no requirement for a registered pharmacist to be on duty.  Either that, or there is a school of pharmacy cranking out pharmacists here like nurses from the Philippines.  Anyway, it is quite common to find 2-3 pharmacies within a block!  I'm sure I pass at least 4-5 pharmacies in the 3-block walk from my hotel to the center of Leon.  How do they all stay in business and provide an adequate income for their owners?
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Around 16:00 an e-mail arrived with an attachment showing the hotel reservation in Managua at the price I expected.  What a relief.  I had been considering just staying here in Leon one more day to give me time to make a reservation elsewhere.

I returned to the French bakery tonight for one last sandwich--a salami one on multi-grain bread with fresh vegetables.  It was good, but the one with pesto and mozzarella cheese earlier this week was the best.  I tried to get that one again today, but there was no pesto.

I finished reading another book--Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman.  It is one of the best written books I have read in some time.  It was listed as a top book in 2007 by The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune.  It's an interesting book in that 2/3 of it is what is happening in one person's mind--a 17-year-old boy who is shy while experiencing his first crush and is imagining and experiencing all kinds of thoughts and feelings.  I gave the book 4 stars (our of 4).