Somewhere in this lakeside Central American town, there’s a woman who lives beside a yellow car. But it’s not her car. It’s her address. If you were to write to her, this is where you would send the letter: “From where the Chinese restaurant used to be, two blocks down, half a block toward the lake, next door to the house where the yellow car is parked, Managua, Nicaragua.”Try squeezing that onto the back of a postcard. Come to that, try putting yourself in the place of the letter carriers who have to deliver such unruly epistles. How, for example, would they know where the Chinese restaurant used to be if it isn’t there anymore? How would they know which way is “down,” considering that “down,” as employed by people in these parts, could as easily mean “up”?How would they know which way the lake lies, when most of the time—in this topsy-turvy capital, punctured by the tall green craters of half a dozen ancient volcanoes—they cannot even see the lake? Finally, how would they know where the yellow car is parked, if its owner happens to be out for a spin?
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OK… I assume the post is pretty screwed up there. I mean, they may know where the house is… but how does it get sorted? “They mentioned this place so I’ll take it…”
Its cool in a way to see a civilization be supposedly unorganized like this. But at the same time… its hard for me (an outsider) to fathom. I ran across a page of some good photographs of the city. But no other mention of the fact they don’t have/use street numbers and names. The Wikipedia Article talks more about the tourist attractions and the fact it was devistated in a couple earthquakes.
Tags: Geography, Interesting, Oddities, Weird
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