If you were to write a Topsy & Tim book about visiting the Post Office (or 'correos' as it is called) in Nicaragua the book would have to be about 3 times longer than one for visiting the PO in the UK (even taking in to account that there is no queue at the PO here, compared to the usual half-mile long queue in the UK.)
This morning we went to the correos in San Juan del Sur. We would have missed it were it not for the friendly (and armed) guard standing outside who must have spotted the wedge of postcards we were clutching, since it is very approximately the size of a cupboard-under-the stairs - I'm not kidding. With our pigeon Spanglish we were able to communicate our need for 12 stamps for Ingleterra. Not a problem. We were told they would cost 14 cordobas each. Fine, so we started counting out our money and the lady
started hunting through her desk drawer for some stamps. Yes, this is the Post Office... Eventually, she managed to cobble together 12 sets of stamps which added up to 14 cordobas each. One of our postcards is decorated with 7 (yes, SEVEN) stamps. Silly us; when we had written our postcards we'd left room at the top for a couple of little English-sized stamps, but we should have learned our lesson - in Central America they like to make stamps as big as possible. I think the largest stamps we've seen so far were in Mexico where they were about 2" square. So, if you are the lucky recipient of one of our cards from Nicaragua, you may not be able to read what we have written and you may not be able to admire the pretty picture, but at least you'll be able to start your very own stamp collection!
BTW, if you do get one of the cards, would you please drop us an email as we'd be intrigued to know if they do actually make it to the UK.
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