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Published: January 18th 2015
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Well, after a long absence, I'm back to another adventure. Without going into many details, the time was just not right until now. But, I finally said to myself, "If you don't do it now, when will you?" And my business was in good enough shape that I could leave it in the capable hands of my new assistant for awhile.
But not too long! So I figured I'd do a short trip, covering more of Central America (hoping to do the whole stretch from Cancun to Panama City eventually). Previously, I´d done the Costa Rica circuit with Tucan Travel. So, I´m doing the one-week San Jose to Panama City section of the route--with a couple of extra days at the beginning and end. A brief glimpse of Nicaragua at the start, so I flew into Managua, Nicaragua Thursday, Jan. 15, about noon.
Arriving in Managua, it immediately felt really good to be back in a Third World setting. Something about it attracts me, even though there is poverty, chaos and uncleanliness everywhere. Something about the freedom, I think, but also just the experience of being in the totally "other." Nicaragua is one of the poorest Central American countries,
much behind Costa Rica and Panama.
But one other thing also attracted me to this country. In grade school, there were three foreign countries that I studied through the years: Norway, Nicaragua and Belgium. So, I felt a bit of affinity with this country.
Now there's a reason most tourists skip Managua and just breeze through to Granada, and I discovered it in the half day spent in that city. You go there for history, but not much else. The city was the compromise choice for capital in the struggle between Leon and Granada (where all the real history is).
It's a chaotic city, streets running in every direction, most of them apparently unnamed and no street signs. Usually I have no fear doing a walking tour to get a feel for a place. But here, you wouldn't get many blocks away from your hotel before being completely lost. I met a fellow traveller from Maryland about the first minute at the hotel, who'd booked a cab to get a city tour a half hour later, and I agreed to join him.
But that's not all about this city's lack of attraction. It's be wracked by
earthquake, hurricane and war, and there seems no will to rebuild it. Is there any pride here in this city? We were hard-pressed to find it. Except for a few parks. The Salvador Allende waterfront park (Managua is on the shore of Lake Managua) was a pleasant exception. Large and colorful, and evidence of care. But Allende? Don´t know whether the Chillean Marxist leader ever set foot in Nicaragua. But he's a hero here. So is, of course, Sandino, who led the leftist revolution to overthrow the Samoza dynasty. We also went to a Sandino tribute exhibit.
But, check out the capital area. On the north side of the central square is the president´s house. But Ortega doesn't want to live there. So it sits vacant. On the east side of the plaza is the old cathedral (now replaced elsewhere), which is completely falling apart. It hasn't even been turned into a tourist attraction. It will soon be termed a "Ruins", I suppose. On the south is the parliamentary building which, presumeably is used regularly, but there was little evidence of that at 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. Apparently we were too late to take a tour. On the
West side is a nice little park, with several monuments and where, we were informed, the hookers hang out.
And that´s about it. We did go up to the extinct volcano in the centre of the city and caught a nice view from its rim (thought the weather wasn't great--clouded over and began sprinkling while we were there.) I might add that the geography of Nicaragua, and most of Central America, is all about volcanoes. Extinct ones are everywhere, at least in the southern part of the country and lead to some of the attractions that most tourists take in. A half day in Managua was just about right.
After a Friday morning directors meeting (via Skype) of the association I head up (CAROP), I headed to the bus terminal for the supposedly one-hour trip to Granada. I got on the chicken bus, and was assigned the shot-gun seat, which was great because I got the best views along the trip and was able to take a few pics. It stopped at almost every possible stop to take on or let off passengers and we finally got to Granada about 12:30. But it was a great cultural experience,
especially since I know virtually no Spanish, and they virtually no English. (I should mention that my American colleague in Managua knew some Spanish and the taxi driver some English, so it was a really good combo that I happened onto.)
Granada is a very colourful, much cleaner city. Evidence of pride everywhere. It is tourist central, apparently. After settling into my hotel, I followed the suggested walking tour of the city. The weather was warm and a bit muggy but not really super hot. First stop, the touisit lakeshore area, Granada being on the edge of the gargantuan Lake Nicaragua. But where were the tourist? It was bare. I grabbed a lunch from the only beach vendor who was open, mostly catering to the tourist officials and staff, who seemed to be doing nothing else because there were no tourists there. I must say it was the best presented and tastiest meal I've had here.
The tour took me past numerous churches (cathedrals), interesting homes, and the magnificent central park, which is a feature of most Latin American cities. It is truly a colourful city. And there is lots of history here, including a pirate take-over in
the distant past. In the competition with Leon for supremacy of Nicaragua, Granada represented the conservative, right-wing element, Leon the leftist. No statues of Allende or Sandino here, but I did see those of Chamoro and Cordoba.
Well, I only really had time to do the once over of the city in the afternoon. But for this guy, that was about enough. I did some of it again in the evening, when I went out for dinner. Indeed, the main tourist area had come to life, and there were more tourists than I´d imagined earlier. All-in-all, a beautiful city.
If I ever do the earlier leg of the Central American tour, from Antigua to San Jose, I believe the tour stops here for two days. That will be great, I´ll do the half day trips to the outlying areas: the islets archipelago, the Appoyo volcanic lake, and some hiking on the local volcano. Definitely a worthwhile place to visit.
Saturday was a travel day. I got on the Tica Bus at 7 am, bound for San Jose. My idea was to see the countryside of southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica, as I travelled down to meet
my tour group later today. Tica Bus had been recommended over the other options. I´m not sure why!
I got assigned "seat 54", the very back seat beside the bathroom. Not the window seat, either. And the bus had curtains over all the windows-I suppose so people can sleep, do they care about the scenery? I did see a bit though, including a glimpse of Ometepe Island, a star attraction on most Nicaragua tours.
Two hours later we hit the border. One hour of waiting while the bus official cleared us all for exit from Nicaragua. Fortunately, I could buy a little food there, which had to last me the day. A two-minute bus ride took us to the Costa Rican customs where, we all had to take our luggage and individually go through customs. The line was long, and the overhead sun made me eventually unpack my hat, though probably not soon enough. Fortunately, it was not unbearably hot, there was a bit of overhead cloud from time to time and an occasional breeze. Three hours, 35 minutes later, we were through customs, and just a couple of minutes under four hours, we were back on the
road, 2-1/2 hours behind schedule. We rocked and swayed and bumped our way to San Jose over 5 hours later, with nary a stop to stretch our legs. Arriving in San Jose at 7:30, I was sore everywhere. By the time I got settled into the hotel and out to dinner, the only decent meal I had all day, it was probably 9 pm.
Not the greatest travel day ever, but I did drink in more of the local experience and see some of the northern Costa Rican landscape.
I apologize that technology is not letting me upload the photos I´d planned. Hopefully, I can add some later.
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