Generic Travel Photos

Another Weapon Against Tyranny

I didn´t intend to get another photo of this church, but the van stalled and died directly in front of it. So I blocked the graffiti and took another one. The composition is better for this one but the lighting was better in the other one.

Not an uncommon position for Oggy

Hammock

Now I have everything

I should write a tale about how I installed this hammock, not only the details but also the philosophic implications. I bought 2 hammocks because I couldn´t decide between the one you see here and a traditional loose cotton weave...and then I found a third hammock that was made of jersey cotton and seemed more plush, like a combination of the two...but this particular hammock with the tight weave seems the best one with the least stretch. I don´t have much room to droop. The problem was the heat soaking into the foam mattress would not dissipate for hours after I laid down. Even then no air could reach the underside of Oggy´s tortured body. So, I thought a hammock would be an improvement and even allow me to leave the piano on the bed.

Rear Hook: One hole was too high to put the nut on so I drilled another through the curtain holder

But hanging it required some serious thought, and it turned out I over-thought the whole thing and bought a bunch of eye bolts and carabiners and rope, but in the end only needed to drill one hole in the back and hang an S hook from the front.

Front Hook: Merely bent the lip low so I can put the hook in. Double strength so it will hold anyone.

The rear hook was an epic feat of engineering as the rear metal is a stamped box with no access to the inside area except through the tiny area where the door latch enters when I close the door. But it was big enough to glue a nut to the end of a coat hanger and push a washer (arendelas) and the nut (tuerca) into the boxed area and blindly thread the nut...but it worked because I am Oggy and nothing can stop me.

Eventually, someone will try to determine how I did this...and they will conclude that I put the nut and the washer through this latch hole glued to a small coat hanger...threading it blindly onto the hook...and they will be right. But they won´t know I did it all in the dark next to a coffee processing plant in Esteli, Nicaragua...

There is just enough room to hang the hammock and be freely swinging. Not enough room to play the guitar while in the hammock but I can´t have everything. I have moved to the higher altitude so the heat isn´t as bad here but soon I will know if this is viable.
Traveling with this much crap really wouldn´t be so bad if I were just going from Point A to Point B but I´ve managed to find a project that will involve some hopping around and dwelling indefinitely in pueblas and cities and that is when everything gets tedious because I have too much shit piled around to do any specific living. Like, trying to find my sewing kit and do some impromptu embroidering was painful. And Installing this hammock would´ve been so easy had I not done it on the side of a cigar factory

In other news, the gasoline companies in Nicaragua add a red dye and also water to their gasoline. Yes, water. A trucker told me that and it explained why the performance had gone haywire recently. Not only was the altitude messing with the mixture, but the mixture included water...and red dye...and crappy octane gasoline...and the attendants will not reset the dial to ZERO...in order to sell you 400 Cordobas worth of gasoline at a cost 500 Cordobas...because the dial says 500, which includes 100 from the previous customer. And other times, they will simply hope you don´t confirm the dial says the amount you paid for, such as asking for 500...and they merely pump 400 and ask for 500. But the water in the gasoline really irks me...and I think there is a water remover additive I can look for.

It occurs to me that the idle issues came with less than 1/4 tank of gas...much of it probably water...stalling the engine randomly...and at high altitude.