Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tuesday, Sometime in the Afternoon: Little Corn Island, Nicaragua:INTERNATIONAL ADDITION

Trash would be a very easy subject for "putting that wherever". I try very hard to avoid the topic because we are all aware that Baltimore has lots of trash in it and people put it just wherever. All of the time.  Every city has this problem.  If a city doesn't have this problem it's because they are either a) not a city or b) in Northern California. That said, never have I ever fully recognized the awfulness of human waste (I mean, I recycle, and watch documentories on PBS about the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, and listen to NPR, and call 311 out of concern for the community) until we recently visited Nicaragua.  Sure, trash was everywhere in the cities.  Tons of trash, burning in vast wastelands inbetween stretches of dry jungle. This is expected in a developing nation. But on Little Corn Island, miles and miles off of the coast of the mainland with a population of 1,200, the trash still found us.  Piles and piles of it. And all of it plastic. There were points on the island, a little ways away from things, where you'd find a treasure trove of colors and shapes tangled with seaweed and driftwood.  Tubes, bottles, and once full containers of things that are alien to the Little Corn paradise. The picture below barely does it justice.  So this is your public service announcment B-more:  DO NOT PUT THAT TRASH WHEREVER. That shit is going to wind up on a tropical jam-land where some awesome island people, who just want to surf, eat coconuts, and make you pico de gallo, are going to have to clean it up. And to my good friend, Penator: You win.

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