Much danger, street unsafe, walk fast ... Oh and Welcome to Nicaragua

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Ok, thanks. Sure this wasn´t quite the welcoming we were expecting and after the bus driver, taxi driver, local security guard, restaurant waitress and two separate police officers all felt the overwhelming need to provide this introduction to the capital of Nicaragua we did begin to wonder. Had we made a momunmently silly decision, were we in real danger and just where were all the other gringos. There had been loads of them at the border crossing from Costa Rica, but it seemed that as the bus made its way further into the heart of the Sandinista Homeland their numbers had simply melted away, perhaps it was the heat. Whatever the reason we were alone in the heart of Managua and for the first time in almost 11 months and 19 countries a touch scared.

Now I´m man enough to admit that, but after a few beers and some fantastically good local food we began to wonder. Should we really be scared. Is this place as dangerous as people make out and if so is it any worse than half the other places we´ve been.

It´s an interesting question and one that we felt definetly needed further scrutiny. So without allowing our fears, justified or otherwise, to get the better of us we set out on foot to explore the city. Well what the last earthquake left behind anyway and in one of the most seismicly active areas on the planet that unfortunately isn´t much.

What it did leave were some fantastic buildings, open parkland, statues galore and a small but quite interesting arboritum (Where it appeared that we may have been the only foreigners in a long time if the overjoyed reactions of the ranger were anything to go by). What it didn´t leave us was scared. Not once. The people of Managua (and Nicaragua in general so far) have been friendly, helpful and just plain happy that some weird foreigner has chosen to visit them. With all the choice in the world, their just happy you picked them. Sure they´ll overcharge you, try to take you for a ride and generally expect a tip for just saying hello, but gosh darn it you´d do the same if someone with the equivilent of your countries GDP in their back pocket came sauntering into town.

The only real problem we did encounter, however, is that Managua and Nicaragua in general seems to have taken the modern US approach to city design. A dreadful sprawl that leaves anyone without a car stranded, walking miles before reaching an intersection that has as much thought for pedestrian traffic as the Berring Straight. Horrific Mega Malls that exclude all but the richest with their air conditioned food courts and acres of shoes, always with the shoes.

Acually it leads one to question, why is it that the further left wing a countries government claims to be the larger the gap between rich and poor. We've seen it across the world, but right here, in a country that spent so long defending itself from the most vile actions of US capitalist intervention are they desperate to emulate their former enemy.

We expected the poverty, but not the exclusion.

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Comments

[Clint Holmes]

Iglesia La Agonia
Good times! Are you planning on making your way up to Honduras? If so stop by Comayagua for a day while your on your way to San Pedro Sula or Copan.

[Linz]

Nice to see someone taknig a look around Managua!
Good to see someone checkin out Managua! Im in Leon atm and have only spent 2 nights in Managua travelling through but got the same warnings and wondered if they were true... I havent really found many warnings to be true provided you dont act like a fool in places. I cant say Managua interested me, cities just never really do aye, but yeh... from talking to tonnes of others in Nica you probably are the first to check it out on foot in freakin ages! Nice one.

[Nate]

Correct
Visited Managua this year and have never seen a more hopeless place and I have been to many countries. Your last paragraph hits the nail on the head.