Travel off the beaten track and experience

Toxic Fumes at La Chureca Landfill Near Lake Managua Managua, Nicaragua La Chureca is the largest garbage dump in Central America. It’s located on the outskirts of Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua and covers over 4 square miles (7 sq. km). One thousand people live & work on the “City of Trash” every day. Getting here was not easy, and traipsing through burning, rotting garbage wasn’t exactly a picnic either. But the hardest part of all was bearing witness to the way of life these people have to live. They are called Churequeros . Their homes are made of trash. They scavenge through the garbage for food. Every day they search for scraps of plastic, cans, and glass to sell for recycling. This is how they make a living. There is an elementary school located on the dump with 6 classrooms. But once kids have graduated, they don’t have many options. Most start working long hours in the landfill every day with the rest of the family. The peo...

Cowboys, Bulls, and Booze Sounds like a great combination right? Well least an interesting one. We learned that the bulls (or maybe it was the cowboys, and the booze) are even less timely then most things in Central America. The festival was slated to start at 2:00pm, however they didn’t get to the Central Park until about 4:00pm. As the bulls make their way through the Central Park area they are tied together and lead by one crazy bastard on a horse. To make this poor guys job more difficult the authorities try and corral the bulls in the park briefly. They parked fire trucks across the streets, for reasons unknown. Maybe they were trying to spark some excitement, or to give the local young men a chance to test their bravado, either way it made for near suicide for the single horsemen responsible for leading the bulls through the 4 foot gap to continue down street. No your not crazy, that is a German fire truck. Central Americans are masters at taking everyone’s dis-g...