MADMAN SEEKING ADVENTURE

view across cathedral square


GRANADA, NICARAGUA: JANUARY 31
Staying with Gillian and Joe for ever isn't an option. The bike waits. Joe would enjoy riding the bike. He rode a Vespa all round Europe and the Middle East. He would garage the Vespa for a few years where ever his journeying took him, return when the bug next struck.
Gillian met Joe in Kenya. He was flying tourists over the game reserve in a hot air baloon. He retired from professional balooning aged 65. A couple of years ago he canoed down the San Juan river. Now he needs a new adventure. He would make great company for Ming and I when we ride across China. And he is younger than me by six months.

PERFECT BEACH

GRANADA, NICARAGUA: JANUARY 30

Gillian and Joe take me today to the perfect Pacific beach. The beach is protected on each side by rock reefs and from the front by a small island. The sand is soft, the sea is clear. A fishing skiff floating to moarings would be to the beach as an olive is to a martini - delightful but not truly neccessary.

We swim and later drive to a small fishing village and eat freshly-caught snapper at a wooden table overlooking the sea.

Joe's father used to say that even a blind hog could occasionally find an acorn.

Joe drilled for oil on his ranch in Texas. He named his oil company, THE BLIND HOG OIL COMPANY. It was a one-acorn search.

PERFECT URBAN ARCHITECTURE

GRANADA, NICARAGUA: JANUARY 30

I am a very privledged guest in Gillian's and Joe's home in Granada. No need for corridors, no need for air conditioning. All rooms open to patios or the road. Through-drafts keep the air moving and cooled by water in the patios. A big room on the first floor between the two patios is open front and rear to stupendou views of the cathedral and volcano. That New World meld of Islamic and Hispanic architecture has never been equalled, let alone surpassed.

SYBARITE

GRANADA, NICARAGUA: JANUARY 29
I am staying a few days in luxury. Gillian and Joe are my hosts. Gillian is a Brit. Joe is from Texas. They have resurected a colonial house a block from the Cathedral. The house has two patios. The rear patio has a pool. I swim sedate lengths between sips on a gin and tonic.

RELATIVES

MONDAY, JULY 23
The English have a different attitude to family that do the Spanish. To the Spanish, family is important however distant the relationship. Our Spanish cousins welcomed us with immense warmth a my great grandfather´s bicentenary celebrations in Morella last November.
Today I am invited to lunch by distant English cousins of my generation.
My brother gave me their address.
My cousins are kind: two brothers and their wives - both wives are from Uruguay.
We lunch in a panelled dining room.

I feel scruffy in my cargo trousers.

However a man without his baggage has few sartorial options.

I hope to meet with Chilean friends in Santiago.and I have friends in Granada, Nicaragua.

The distance between Santiago and Granada is immense.

Maybe I will feel less vulnerable and more confident once I have my bag!