Rx Bandits' last show (in Seattle)

Rx Bandits have always been one of my favorite bands to see live. Coming out of the short-lived 3rd wave ska movement with heavyweights such as Reel Big Fish and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, one would have expected them to suffer a similar fate once the music world decided it didn't want to hear ska anymore.

Instead of folding, Rx Bandits worked to develop a more progressive sound, while maintaining the brass hardware (trombone, sax, trumpet) indicative to the ska genre. The horn-inspired prog rock was fantastic to see live, with the music lifting the crowd off their feet to dance, clap and sing along to the music. I made a point of seeing RxB every time they came to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I think the horn players weren't happy with the direction the band was going because every year I saw them, they seemed to have one less horn player.

I saw them in Seattle at El Corazon, which is a dive reminiscent of OC's Chain Reaction. The crowd was good, but pretty young and not that up on all their old numbers. The oddest thing was that at this show, they had forgone their last horn player, leaving the guitar players to play out the melodic horn lines. Not the best RxB show I've seen but a proper sendoff for a band that had been one of my favorites to see live over the last 5 years.

Here's a great vid of them doing a little cultural diplomacy in Venezuela:

Nica Lodging On The Cheap

So far Elizabeth and I have avoided paying more than $20 a night in anywhere that we've stayed in Nicaragua. The expectations are obviously a bit lower here in Nicaragua (no hot showers etc) but you really can't beat the value, here's the rundown of each of the private rooms that we stayed in:


El Chelero Hostel, Granada ($12 shared bathroom $18 private bath/night): great value, especially when you consider the lack of cheap eats in Granada. Pros: Central location, nice and helpful staff. Cons: A bit dingy and with the bare, I mean bare minimum of things you'd expect at a hostel (sometimes you have to take a bucket shower, if you don't know what that is, you probably won't like Nicaragua)

Santa Cruz Hostel, Ometepe Island ($16/night for cabin w/ private bath): This was an awesome find, we had initially set out for Little Morgan's, which had fantastic reviews, but was unfortunately full when we arrived. Pros: Cheap bike rental & breakfast and nice rooms. Cannot stress how awesome the staff was, the hostel itself really nicely laid out as well. Cons: none really.

Joxis Hotel, San Juan Del Sur ($18/night w/private bath) We've naturally bargained on all of our lodging options but San Juan showed us the most price inflation of anywhere in the country. What started off as $26 a night we got down to 18 after promising not to use the AC. Pros: nice top balcony, good location, Cons: a bit dirty, overpriced food and some rowdy guests that had late night prositutes (yes hotel staff, you SHOULD control that).

Lazy Bones Hostel, León ($20/night with shared bath) Again, not only our first, but second options were full when we arrived. Lazy bones was a nice alternative and with the best mattresses we've had the pleasure of sleeping on. Pros: Real swimming pool to beat the León heat, cheap breakfast and the cleanest hostel we've been in. Also had amazing cheap BBQ down the street for only 45 Cordobas. Cons: a little pricey, especially for the 3 privates where you have to walk 100 yards and down a spiral staircase for the bathroom, staff had attitude as well. The first private we had was right next to a bathroom, luck of the draw I guess.

I'm back at Chelero in Granada right now, I should also add that they were nice enough to hang on to our larger bags while we traveled the country two weeks.

Iguana Soup

Our new friend from León, Anri had made a comment about Iguana Soup being good for hangovers. Though we weren't in need of hangover recovery we wanted to give it a go. 60 Cordobas ($2.50) got us a huge bowl of soup with plaintains and potatoes and surprise, surprise a crab hanging off the side of the bowl. The iguana meat was the bottom torso and was a fairly good-sized lizard.

The taste wasn't too distant from chicken, although it was definitely gamier. I'd say it's like if chicken had more of a venison flavor, not bad. My only regret was not bringing the camera....

On Moto Wipeouts and Volcano Boarding in León

When I tried to bargain down the price of our Volcano boarding trip, Anry, the manager of Mas Adventures smiled and said "I know 28 dollars is a lot for Nicaragua but trust me, it goes to a good place." He then described how Mas Adventures supports a local community that has seen tons of tour buses fly by but little in their own economic benefit. But what really surprised me was when he suggested we borrow his motorcycle to catch the sunset from nearby viewpoint. "You know how to drive a motorcycleright?" He watched Betty safely drive us around the block before giving us directions to the viewpoint.

We drove through the outskirts of León before hitting a dirt path that curved through the jungle. All of a sudden, we were climbing up a gravelly slope and the next thing we knew, the bike was going down. I jumped off the back as the bike began to list but Betty, like a dedicated skipper, went down with the ship. She had cuts on her feet and leg but was otherwise ok. We walked around the former military barracks that had been used to oppress and torture members of both the Somoza and Sandinista oppositions.

The following day we went Volcano boarding, which was a bit harder than snowboarding or surfing. The trip also involved a visit to an Iguana Ranch (these were Soup Iguanas!) and a nice hike up the volcano.