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November 2007
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Lucas “LazyLegz” Patuelli

Día Internacional Contra la Violencia Hacia Las Mujeres

By Craig Grimes

Today, the 25th November, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women so we’ve had quite a busy week. Edurne, works in for Venancias an organisation that campaigns for Women’s Rights and they have been heavily involved in organising the festivities and awareness of today in collaboration with La Red de Mujeres de Matagalpa (The Matagalpa Women’s Network).

On Thursday they held a demonstration taking to the streets of Matagalpa, stopping at various political headquarters and government departments to give their message of “Ni una muerta más. Ni por femacidios ni por maternidad forzada” (Not one more death. Not by femicide or by forced maternity). One of the main campaigns of the Women’s Movement in Nicaragua at the moment is the right for women to be able to have therapeutic abortions which is currently illegal. Therapeutic abortion is where a pregnancy is terminated as it is life threatening to the mother and/or fetus or because the pregnancy has occurred as a result of sexual abuse such as rape or incest. The other part of the campaign is about the lack of judicial will and power to prosecute people that murder women. In many senses women are second class citizens and therefore, if a women is murdered, very little attention is given to it and the issue is basically swept under the carpet. The Women’s Movement is fighting for a change in this culture so that the culprits are prosecuted.

The following day was a dedicated to activism through theatre and music. The were several performances at the Venancias Cultural Centre with great messages and humour thrown in together to provide an evening of entertainment.

Saturday 24th November was a fun filled day, in the morning we had a Carnival and took to the streets once again with banners, fancy dress and decorations. Although it rained it didn’t spoil the good humour or sense of being united to fight for basic Women’s Human Rights. I also invited a new quadriplegic friend of mine so it was a good chance for me to have a chat and listen about the issues facing disabled people in Nicaragua.

In the afternoon La Red de Mujeres de Matagalpa held a press conference at Venancias about the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Part of this was to launch a new documentary about violence against women by a Spanish director, Félix Zurita de Higes, called “Ya No Más!” Also present was the lead singer of a Nicaraguan pop group, Perrozompopo, to talk about why they were supporting the day by playing at a free concert on the day which had been organised by La Red de Mujeres de Matagalpa. You may be wondering why I was at the press conference….. the answer is simple, firstly I was invited and secondly, there was free rum and food up for grabs….. well come on, what do you expect?

In the evening there was live music at Venancias and quite frankly we sat around relaxing and drinking. A great way to spend the evening after a hard day of protesting!

25th November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The day eventually arrived and I already felt quite exhausted! At 4pm there was the launch of the film Ya No Más! and afterwards the concert by Perrozompopo. The film was very moving and many people were brought to tears, based on the real experiences of real women that have been through and are going through violent situations in their lives. At the moment the film isn’t available with English subtitles but it should be soon. I encourage everyone to watch it at least once to see the reality of what is happening everywhere in the world in the 21st century, it’s almost unbelievable. The Perrozompopo concert was a huge success and here are the photos to prove it…..

The activities, entertainment and documentary to “celebrate” and support the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women were informative, disturbing, thought provoking, worrying, eye-opening yet most of all relaxed, peaceful and fun. La Red de Mujeres de Matalgalpa should make the Women’s Movement proud, the pulled out all the stops and went to a lot of effort to publicise the issues surrounding violence against women. I for one am better educated about the subject and I’m sure that many other people are too.

Posted in Women's Rights, Demonstrations, Femicide, Discrimination, Nicaragua, Central America, Politics | 1 Comment

Traveling in Nicaragua - San Juan del Sur

By Craig Grimes

From Granada we headed to a coastal town on the Pacific Ocean called San Juan del Sur. We did this transfer with a local company at a cost of $15 per person and it was in a Toyota people carrier. The trip took about an hour and a half, passing fantastic views of the dormant volcano Mombacho and another more recently active one, Concepción on the Island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Edurne once again had arranged the hotel, this time with a friend of hers that manages the establishment. The town is small and there are some very picturesque views of the bay and ocean. We mainly just hung around relaxing, taking in the sunshine and enjoying the food.

The one thing to say about San Juan del Sur is that it is extremely expensive by Nicaraguan standards, even more so than Granada. This is mainly due to a large influx of American ex-patriots and tourists flying in, buying up land and property and driving up prices. This is not an “Anti-American” comment, merely an observation. It happens all over the world, the British, Germans and Dutch have done it all over Europe, especially in the Mediterranean and the capitalists across the world are always looking for an opportunity and a bargain.

I’m not sure that San Juan del Sur is my type of tourism, although it was nice to sit in the sun and listen to the sea, there are plenty of other places to do this. We overheard Americans saying things like “it feels like being at home” and an English guy commenting on how he should buy a plot of land as an investment. It’s almost as though English is the first language in the town and it really doesn’t feel like the Nicaragua that I’ve become accustomed to.

All in all we had a great, relaxing, expensive time in San Juan but I think it will be a while before we return. There are lots of things to see and do in Nicaragua and I still haven’t been to the Caribbean yet!

Posted in Central America, Nicaragua, Travel | No Comments

Traveling in Nicaragua - Granada

By Craig Grimes

It’s been a while since I’ve updated Accessible Everything, mainly because I’ve been off doing a bit of traveling in Nicaragua, which gives me lots of material to write about, so keep your eye on the blog.

Getting around Nicaragua isn’t the easiest of tasks for a disabled person, as, not surprisingly, there isn’t any accessible transport. I used a local transfer company to get to Granada from Matagalpa in their 4×4 pickup truck which cost $75. Edurne had already done the research on the hotels in Granada and Erik from “Go with Wheelchairs” in Costa Rica had supplied me with the names of two accessible hotels, which, unfortunately, were out of our budget range.

Edurne booked a hotel called “La Pergola“, although we knew it wasn’t that accessible we figured that we would manage. The hotel has 2 steps to get into it and before that there is the huge kerb to get up (there is also the option of entering through the gravel car park). Once in the hotel everything is level on the ground floor and it is particularly peaceful and tranquil. The bedrooms are clean and the bathroom is relatively accessible apart from the shower, I transferred from my wheelchair to a wooden chair and then onto a plastic chair in the shower! We stayed there two nights and it wasn’t that uncomfortable for me, they also have an apartment in the hotel where the bathroom is much more accessible but by no means perfect as in order to use it you have to do 180 degree transfers to the WC and shower which also has a slight step down into it.

During the first day at Granada we spent most of our time looking at various hotels to assess their accessibility, but I will write more about this in a separate article. Our second day in Granada was Edurne’s birthday so we went for a wander around and down to Lake Nicaragua in the morning. Lake Nicaragua is one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes and sharks from the Pacific Ocean even enter it for 3 or 4 days at a time, this is a unique phenomenon that doesn’t occur anywhere else in the world. Even though the water is quite badly polluted the views are still great and the fresh wind is welcoming in such a harsh hot climate.

In the morning I had arranged an excursion up the extinct volcano Mombacho and so after a quick lunch we met the vehicle and guide. The trip up the volcano was intense with steep hills and think forest. I was slightly disappointed to find a mobile phone mast at the summit which was a horrible eye sore. We briefly entered the inaccessible (5 steps) visitors centre and then went to the viewing platform to see the crater. The path was gravel and there were several steps but I managed fairly easily with some help.

After the viewing platform we started going down another gravel path, when I say down, I mean really down. This was not fun and it took both Edurne and the guide to help me through some severe terrain, Edurne and I started to get worried and asked the guide where we were going. He told us that we were going on the trail around the crater and that the path would get worse before it got better! At this point we decided to turn back, we’d only gone 40 meters or so and everyone was exhausted. Turning back was’t quite as easy as it seemed either, we have to get the driver from the van to come and help us too but eventually I got back to the car-park. Edurne and I were pretty angry as, even though I’d told the excursion company that I use a wheelchair, they’d sold me a totally inaccessible tour at $28 per person. We went to the office of the tour company and had it out with the woman that had sold us the tour. She claimed that it was the hotel’s responsibility to tell me the tour wasn’t accessible (I booked the tour through a hotel). However, luckily I was there during the telephone conversation between the hotel and the tour company and I knew that they were informed of my disability. They were also given my mobile phone number in case of any issue, problems or questions so they could have phoned me to let me know about the lack of suitability at any time. Even when the guide picked us up and saw that I use a wheelchair nothing was said. They offered us a discount of $13 per person, we still weren’t happy with paying $30 to go up the volcano for 20 minutes and risk life and limb on inaccessible paths, not to mention that we’d wasted part of our last day (and Edurne’s Birthday). Edurne threatened them with complaining to INTUR (the Nicaraguan Tourist Board) about their exuberant pricing and misleading clients and they soon folded. The guide knew that we were correct and a full apology was made, we didn’t have to pay and they gave us a free bag of coffee.

We hightailed it as quickly as possible to jump in a taxi to see if we could catch a boat tour of Las Isletas on Lake Nicaragua. When we arrived at the dock we were swamped with people trying to sell us boat trips which was pretty intimidating. Apparently the going price was $20 per person for an hour tour, but we decided to check out some other offers. We found one person that would take us for much less at 200 Corbobas for an hour (about $10) for both of us. We hopped into the boat, I say hopped, more struggled to transfer into the front of the boat and then plonk myself into a plastic chair. They offered to keep my wheelchair with them onshore but I explained that I’d rather take it as it was like leaving my legs behind!

Whilst on the boat we negotiated a bit more and we got an hour and a half trip on a boat by ourselves for 300 Cordobas, en-route we got to see some semi-tame spider monkeys that boarded our boat, sat on me and in my wheelchair! We had thought about doing the boat trip earlier in the day, but as fortune had it we had done the other disastrous excursion and we arrived late, this was the best bit as the sunset was breathtaking. My advice; take the boat trip at about 4.00 - 4.30pm, earlier in the day there are more people on the boats and there are more boats on the lake. In the early evening, you get a boat to yourself and the lake is almost empty, just a few locals fishing and coming home from work and the sky is incredible!