Choosing the band

On Saturday, Elder and I went to Managua to check out two possible bands for the wedding, Chekere and Los Hermanos Cortez. Chekere was playing at an outdoor festival held by the Colombian Embassy to celebrate their bicentennial. Those Colombianos know how to throw a good party (Uri, you should be proud) and we got some good dancing in.

The band was great for the five songs or so that they played. But then it started pouring. And when I say pouring here, I mean torrential downpour of buckets of water. They had to stop playing because their equipment was getting wet (despite being covered by a tent), but the party kept going with DJ music. We had no choice but to keep dancing, since the dance floor was protected under the tent and if we even approached the tent edge, we'd get sprayed with rain.

But eventually, we did have to leave. We waited til the rain abated a bit, and braved our way through the muddy, puddly field to the exit. Elder even carried me over a few puddles since I was wearing sandals. Once we got to the exit, I thought we were home free.

But boy was I ever wrong. I soon felt silly for having Elder carry me over a few tiny puddles, because now we saw that there was going to be no way out except by wading through a river of fast-flowing muddy water. Elder decided to take off his leather shoes at this point to avoid further damage, and wade through the street barefoot. I rolled up my pants over my knees and plunged on in. The street up to where we'd parked the car was totally flooded. Thankfully it didn't quite get above La Poderosa's tires, but it was close.

We drove out of there and changed clothes and shoes at a restaurant where we got dinner and killed some time til the next concert, which wasn't really a concert but a fancypants wedding at the Hotel Intercontinental. Los Hermanos Cortez snuck me in via the service entrance and I got to sit behind the stage to watch them play.

But they didn't end up playing til after 11pm! Apparently this is the new fashion among rich Managua weddings. I was exhausted by the time they started, but in the end it was nice because I got to spend an hour and a half with the band, chatting with Doña Mari and her husband Orlando Cortez, who founded the group 50 years ago in Leon.

They were also great, so I had a tough decision ahead of me, but first and foremost... to bed! We spent the night at our good friend Roberto's house in Managua.

In the morning, we got to spend some time playing with this lovely little girl, Amelia. We invented a game to sneak up on Tio Elder and surprise him! Amazing how he was surprised every time, even when our counting 1, 2, 3 was clearly audible from right behind him. Amelia did not tire of this game and kept holding her arms up to me, saying "ota vez!" ("again!" in baby-Spanish-speak). It reminded me of my niece looking up and saying, "try again?"