¡El Subway va ABAJO del rió!

The other day I was sitting at the table for lunch with el Pajaro Loco and his granddaughter, Nazaret. After a few minutes of silence, he started to tell me about his experiences as a seaman between and ages of 20 and 22. Further separating his experiences from the majority of Nicaraguans’, he told me about his travels to Houston, Galvaston (TX), New Orleans, North Carolina, and the Big Apple, where he spent six days (one of which was watching the boat which was docked in Brooklyn). He proceeded to describe the going to the top of Empire State Building (which apparently in 1958 was achieved by riding a series of elevators) and his experiences at, what I think was Coney Island. It was phenomenal to hear him talk about his one experience at an amusement park and to see his granddaughters reactions to descriptions of a rollercoaster.

“They bring you to the top of a mountain and then…WHOA!!!!!” His recreation of the screams were thoroughly amusing and it was one of the few times when I felt that I was actually conversing with him, rather than exchanging words—I could actually understand the excitement in his eyes and read his youthful personality, as opposed to simply hearing and comprehending the words coming out of his mouth.

“And the subway, it goes UNDERNEATH the river! (¡ABAJO del rió!)” he continued. It was great to hear him recount aspects of his travels, such as the subterranean transportation system that exists in many metropolitan centers, which average Americans don’t think twice about, but which are objectively amazing feats of engineering and human achievement.