Nicaraguan Lobster Diving

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mera-mcgrew/my-village-my-lobster_b_1540970.html

I have not seen the whole movie yet, but have been to Puerto Cabezas (and Bluefields to the south) and it is a frikkin crazy place...very, very little police presence, a lot of coke, a lot of guns, extreme poverty.

As bad as the lobster diving is, the other choice for income is the "white lobster": recovering bales of coke washed up from when drug runners heading North in "go-fast" pangas ditch them overboard when trying to outrun narco cops at sea.

The Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast are two different worlds: different culture, different language, different food, not connected by any roads: you take a bus halfway and then get on a boat to go through the jungle on the Rio Escondido until you hit the coast.

If you ever get a chance to explore the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, it is a beautiful place, but keep your wits about you...

Sincerely,

Jim

Thanks for posting the film.  Really let's you know where your place is in life as compared to other countries ... other worlds.

This isn't just happening in Nicaragua, last summer I spend time on Roatan off Honduras and the island is full of the same issues plaguing most of the Central part of America. It is sad to see and the conversation is too in-depth to even start the conversation online. Everything in our world has become focused on money and moving into the high tech world where we have forgot how to take care of the gift of the earth. I plan on taking another trip back to Honduras in the next 3-5 years to help provide education and teach locals other ways of making money.

This isn't just happening in Nicaragua, last summer I spend time on Roatan off Honduras and the island is full of the same issues plaguing most of the Central part of America. It is sad to see and the conversation is too in-depth to even start the conversation online. Everything in our world has become focused on money and moving into the high tech world where we have forgot how to take care of the gift of the earth. I plan on taking another trip back to Honduras in the next 3-5 years to help provide education and teach locals other ways of making money.

Definitely happening in multiple places down there.

Roatan has some problems for sure, but it is a paradise compared to the mainland, and there are WAY more opportunties for people in Roatan due to the tourism industry than there are in Puerto Cabezas and anywhere else along that Miskito coast.

My Mom and wife are Honduran and the reports of violence we get from their families on the mainland are really scary. Peace Corps has pulled its volunteers from Honduras, and the murder rate is through the roof.

The State Department's website says:
An October 2011 United Nations report on crime and drugs ranked Honduras as having the highest per capita homicide rate in the world at 82.1 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Anyway, best of luck if you go back down there...here is a link to my buddy Jake's website...He's done a crappy job keeping the site updated cuz most of the updates are now posted on FB, but they do great stuff down there.

I worked with them during and after my time in the Peace Corps digging latrines, building a baseball stadium, organizing youth sports leagues and building houses.

http://www.rotaryhomesnicaragua.com/

Sincerely,

Jim

from the time my kids were young I told them, "lifes not fair, and you  don't want it to be."  Reminder that for all the crap that we think we deal with here, its nothing compared to what others face.

That is gnarly.