Seismic arrival

Miami airport
Originally uploaded by justinwolfe.

Our plane from Miami to Managua was delayed by the late arrival of our flight crew. Still, they loaded us on to the plane as if we'd take off on time. Only once we were settled did they bother to tell us we'd be sitting there for an hour...without snacks or drinks. All that extra time let my mind wander to the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Nicaragua on Friday. It struck just off the southern coast, near El Astillero and was apparently felt as far away as the rolling cattle lands of Chontales. We saw it briefly on CNN at an airport bar, but the news team quickly turned back to the vital analysis of shark attacks and Tom Cruise's recent psychotic episodes.

Nicaragua has suffered numerous quakes, most famously in 1972, when Managua was leveled and nearly10,000 people were killed. The capital never recovered from Anastasio Somoza’s theft of recovery aid and failure to rebuild the old center. Subsequent presidential administrations promised to right Somoza’s wrongs, but the downtown remains a wasteland. I figured Friday’s quake couldn’t be that bad, since otherwise the plane would have been buzzing with rumor and concern. Sure enough, we arrived to find people more shaken by Nicaragua’s faltering political system than this recent temblor. I’m not sure this marks an auspicious start to six months in Nicaragua, but it’s hardly boring.