August 7, 2007
Flew all day yesterday, arriving in Nicaragua at eight in the evening.

Kathy and I are sitting in the massive-open air lobby of the Convento Hotel (it was a nun convent in the old days) in old town Leon, Nicaragua. It is raining and delightful. Andre Previn is playing in the background and we are sipping a Chilean Cabernet which Kathy got for only five dollars. I say this not to gloat, but rub it in. Ha.

I'm also wearing my brand new Panama hat which Kathy bought for me in Equador. It has a special "superfina" Montecriste weave.

This morning Kathy and I paid a taxi driver named Mario to drive us to Granada (named after Granada, Spain) to see the place where William Walker took over the country. The American soldier (the Nics call him "El Diablo") of fortune caused them fits in the 1850s. I believe Ed Harris played Walker in a recent movie.

The taxi driver brought his wife, they got into a snit fit, and we drove to Leon in silence and the heat, sweating like pigs. Got here about two, had a delightful lunch in the restaurant and took a nap. Life is good.

"And they do live like this in Nicaragua!"
—BBB