Find Places

This HowTo describes hot to find places in Nicaragua. In the examples, I am using information specific to Estelí but the concepts are very generic.

If you asked someone if there were street signs in Nicaragua they would likely say yes but the response would be much like if you asked if there were potatoes in Nicaragua. That is, sure, they exist but you have to decide what you might want to do with them. Clearly, they are not the way you navigate. This is not unique to Nicaragua--I leanred this in Costa Rica.

Rural navigation is as might be expected. Directions will tend to be relative to a river, a large building, a business, a road and the appearance of a structure. For example, there is a piece of property for sale north of Estelí. To get there the instructions would be something like "From Estelí, that take Pan American highway about 4km north until you pass Rancho Pancho on the right. Over the next ridge on the left you will see a dirt road with a white gate. ..." This sounds pretty straightforward and it generally is. The exception is when you get told to "go past where Disco Fratz used to be". This "donde fue" clause can reach very far back into the past. While a teenager may be describing the location, this business might have gone away twenty years ago.

Moving on to the city, this same "used to be" feature becomes even more common. That's the bad news. The good news is that there are generally a lot of useful and current landmarks involved in directions. The most common will be:

• Parque central -- The central park is the most common landmark. The only town I know of where this gets confusing is Matagalpa where there are two central parks that are quite far from each other.
• iglesia -- The church, unqualified by any other description, means the church that is almost always next to the central park. In addition, the front of the church almost always faces west making it a handy compass replacement.
• La carretera a ___ -- The road to ____. The only problem here is that it is quite common that while the road does exist, it is not marked.
• El Banco -- Small towns will likely have one bank. Estelí is larger and has four. Three of them are at a single intersection and the fourth is a few blocks away. That makes the appropriate descriptions "los bancos" for relative to the three and "bancentro" for the oddball.
• El hospital -- If there is more than one, this default will mean the government one.
• Policia -- The police station.
• Bus station -- Towns of any size will have multiple bus stations. This will then have to be qualified by which one. In Estelí there are two called Cotran Norte and Cotran Sur. They are about 300 meters apart on the highway.
• business -- The name of a particular business is common in addresses. It is amazing how radio advertisements for, for example, a pharmacy, will tell you they are next to a gas station or bank. Great free advertising.

The other information you need is distance. A cuadra is a block. It might be 100 meters. Or it might be there is no street for 500 meters but it is still 1 cuadra. Within a cuadra the offset is most likely to be expressed in varas. While there are over 100 varas in 100 meters I have never heard a number like that. There is usually some other way of getting there like "una media cuadra y 20 varas" or some landmark within the block.

Ok, there are the basics. Let's offer some practical examples.

• If you were looking for Telecable Estel&iacute you would be told that it is "3.5 cuadras este de el Texaco viejo". That's 3.5 cuadras east of the old Texaco station. This is, in fact, the address on their business cards and bills. Sounds simple but "viejo" is the catch. You see, there is no Texaco station anywhere near this business. It is 3.5 blocks east of the Petronic station in the center of town that used to be a Texaco station. Could you say 3.5 blocks east of the Petronic? No. That's because there is another Petronic station and you would get directed to the wrong place.
• The fire station is located directly behind the Policia de Transito. While I have never asked I would expect their location would be something like "20 varas oeste de Transito." Simple and that is because the Transit Police have a big building on the highway so everyone knows where they are. Well, everyone except you.
• So, where is Transito? You will likely get a funny look because you are supposed to know. But, you then might get told "dos cuadras sur do el StarMart" or "circa de el estadio" or some other description relative to another landmark you are not familiar with.

That gives you the general idea. The missing piece is what do you do when you are looking for something relative to a place you are not familiar with? Re-phrase you question such that it is relative to a place you are familiar with. For example, if you asked how to find Hotel El Meson you would probably get told that it was "una media cuadra este de La Renta". Probably useless. But, if you asked where it was relative to the central park you would magically discover that it was one block north of the NE corner of the park.

That's the idea. Have fun and, whatever you do, don't ask for the name of the streets. They will be sure you are a Gringo.