Country Article / Postcards

"Hey, Mister, Wanna Buy a Piece of Pre-Columbian Pottery?"

Date: 01/21/2006

Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006
Managua, Nicaragua

"I have some pre-Columbian pieces in the back," my new friend offered quietly in Spanish.

I followed him to the back corner of the wooden shed, where he lifted a dusty tarp to reveal a table of clay pots. Pre-Columbian? How would I know. But these pots sure did look old.

A friend who collects pre-Columbian pottery gave me a quick lesson last year in identifying pieces of that age. She told me to look for certain markings, colors, designs...and mold spores. "Don't ever wash a piece of pottery if you think it may be really old. You don't want to clean away the mold."

"Where do you find these?" Lief asked the shop proprietor. "In a place we know," came the response.

The man and his three small sons took turns showing me each of the two-dozen pieces currently in stock, most chipped and broken. I chose two, small enough to be packed and carried home.

"1,000 cordobas," the smiling Nicaraguan suggested. That's about $60.

We were running late for a meeting in Managua...no time to haggle...but we hesitated just long enough for the man to sense he might lose the sale. He picked up two small round pieces of clay from another table and, as he held them out to us in his palm, explained, in Spanish, that these were family seals. Bell-shaped, each had a unique grouping of marks on its flat bottom. I'd never seen anything like them.

"1,000 cordobas for the two pots and one of the seals," Lief countered.

Done. We chose the seal with the most elaborate set of markings, shook hands with the man and each of his little boys, handed over the cordobas, and headed back out into the sun and onto the highway into Managua.

This little would-be antiques shop (it's a tin and wooden shack with a dirt floor) sits alongside the road you travel from Granada to the country's capital, on the right, shortly before you come to Masaya. Look for the big clay pots and old wooden chests out front.

Back in the SUV, we joined the other cars, buses, dump trucks, back hoes, Caterpillars, and even bigger SUV's also headed northwest to Managua. By the time we reached Masaya, we were crawling. Rush hour in Nicaragua.

This must be a recent development. I've driven this highway many times, at all times of day, and I've never experienced what we experienced this Thursday afternoon. The Nicaraguans have spent nearly two years widening and paving this highway, which is now two lanes in both directions...and each lane each direction was jammed.

The price of prosperity.

In Granada, we'd noticed other costs. The square is crowded...vendors for the tourists are on every corner.

On the other hand, there are new restaurants, new hotels, new shops. We stayed at La Gran Francia, on the far right-hand corner of the main square as you come into town. Beautifully restored, charming, decorated and furnished in the Spanish colonial style, the service is as pleasant as the surroundings. This hotel would be nice anywhere. In Granada, it's an achievement. It wasn't too long ago (maybe a half-dozen years) that the nicest hotel in town had rusty bathroom fixtures and questionable linens on the beds. Those were the days of the backpacker. You still see kids in T-shirts with heavy bundles on their backs...but you also, today, see families and couples...and, of course, lots of International Living readers.

We're in town to spend time with a small group of VIP readers at Rancho Santana. As I write, they're assembled downstairs in the lobby of the InterContinental. Lief, Dan Prescher (from our Mexico office), and Lee Harrison (our Roving Latin America Correspondent) are on hand to act as drivers. They'll transport our little troupe from Managua to the south Pacific coast, where we'll settle in to enjoy life at the ranch...and at the beach.

More later. I'd better run,

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living