Blogs from Managua, Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean

Nicaragua. January 24, 2012 5 a.m. and we are on the bus once again, this time much wiser than on our first trip. When we crossed the border, the money changers were very close to the daily rate posted on the net. We gladly exchanged our excess US dollars for cordobas. The rate was about 23 cordobas per US dollar. Our Nicaragua plan was to take a cab from Managua to Granada and then find a room there. We picked an older cab driver who knew of a nice, reasonably priced hotel and took us there. He also provided us with a bit of history during our drive to Granada. He explained to us that currently, Nicaragua was very safe, the economy was doing well and the people were generally quite content. In Granada he took ... read more

M - I am not sure I can describe it accurately enough but there is something very relaxing about the old colonial town of Granada. We arrived off the ferry from Ometempe at 5.30am on a Wednesday morning as the sun was rising. On the off chance we took a cab to a hotel we liked the look of on Tripavisor but as we expected it had not yet opened up for the day. For those that have read Kate’s blog, they really did squeeze three big ladies into the back of a very small car and at least two of them were sitting on Kate. As my dad would say, I don’t know what all the squealing was about, my seat in the front was very comfortable thank you very much! Anyway the hotel looked ... read more

This morning we have some errands to run. We have to withdraw a substantial amount of money because there aren't ATM's on Little Corn Island where we will be spending over a week & will need a lot of money. So, we found the ATM we need & for whatever reason it let us withdraw a huge sum of money in one transaction. Usually we can only get $185 at a time. But today we got $300 at a time! People must spend money here. Next stop the book exchange to get some new books for our Little Corn time. We turned in a couple books we've read & got a couple new ones. The typical exchange rate is: give two books, get a new book. Last stop, food. We went to a different comedor, out ... read more

With the school finished, today was our first "day off". But it was still busy. We visited a school in Managua to deliver some school supplies, then took a walk with a police guard through the barrio. The urban poverty is a lot more disturbing than the rural poverty we had just come from. We visited the business of Ronaldo's family and heard more about his amazing story. This afternoon we were tourists. We went on a cruise throught the little islands of Lake Managua and spent some time in the central square of Granada, which has the best colonial architecture in Nicaragua. Here are some pictures from our last day on site.... read more