Joy Ride – Granada, Nicaragua Lake Nicaragua Park in Granada, Nicaragua

    Early in the morning no one is about except tourists with cameras, construction workers getting a jump on the sun, security guards walking to work talking on their cell phones, vendors loading little carts with bananas, potatoes and pineapples for a day of selling. On the boulevard in Lake Nicaragua Park, at the end of the Calle Libertidad, a few men operate leaf blowers and primp the grounds for the real barrage of tourists  in October, November, and December. I  watch a trash truck overflowing with bags coming closer, remember my morning rides on Saba, on winding dangerous roads, on the way for a day of cistern building a number of years ago. As these men and boys pass, they hang off their truck, wave, laugh, happy to be riding on a cool morning instead of walking. It is not safe to take deductions too far but these guys don’t seem unhappy. ” Here we are, ” they say, ” take our picture. ” And so, I do. They wave at me, as they go by. Picking up refuse seems to be bad only if you see it that way.