Hotel Casa Catarina Masaya

Took in the biggest artesanias market in the country &amp; then wandered off to the malecon that runs along Laguna Masaya with views over the smoking volcano.<br><br>Hopped on some local buses to explore some of the pueblos blancos - Masatepe &amp; Catarina are not, in my book, "colonial gems" but just fairly neat typico towns with old buildings &amp ...

... Masaya. Masaya is a smaller town, located halfway between Managua and Granada. The most interesting feature here is a craft market, selling lots of local, handmade goods. The particular specialty of the area is hammocks -- they come in an wide variety of colors, sizes, shapes and styles for amazingly low prices. Shipping them home, however, also comes at an amazing price, so we weren´t able to pick one up. <br>

... doesnt so its pretty useless to them. <br><br>They had pushed Alan right down on the seat and pulled his cap low over his head so that he could not see anything. They had knocked my hat off my head and taken my sunglasses. They kept telling me to not look at them so I put my hands in front of my eyes to block them out. However I could make out that they were still searching for things in our bags and that the guy on Al´s left was holding a ballpoint ...

... bulls, and blindly high-tailing it from one absconding mob could easily lead you into trouble. Compounding this issue was the fact that big though they are, it is not easy to spot a bull in an onrushing throng of people. The truth of this was hammered home to me when, taking a breather on the relative safety of the footpath on a corner of the main road, back against the wall, yet another excited bunch of people came streaming up the street.<br><br>All of a sudden, half ...

... the streets, getting lost sometimes. We visited some places of interest like churches, colonial museums and more churches.... there are two churches where is possible to walk up to the bell tower and take a look at the entire city. Very nice specially with the lake view. <br><br>Since we knew we couldn't see all the city by foot, we took one of the carriage tours around the city. It takes around 2 hours. They took us to the more important places of the city ...

... pressure, dangerous for the baby... so I got on the bus (I was going to meet<br><br>Martha, the nurse, along the bus route because she lived further<br><br>down). When we get to her stop, someone else hands me a note, telling me that because they found a case of swine flu in Masaya, the course was SUSPENDED. Here I am, 30 minutes-bus ride away from home...what do you do? Really wasn't prepared to trek home on foot (it was an<br ...

... going<br>to try to not abuse it because it can alienate the other people in the<br>house who can´t speak English as well as present a barrier to me<br>learning more words. He´s pretty cool though. I think it´s just nice to<br>have some one there that is culturally very similar (Americanized).<br><br>There are four other people in the city besides me that are working<br>with FSD, but they are all working in different organizations ...

... Nicaragua it still has an undiscovered feel. In our bed and breakfast there are more from Europe than the States.We are leaving in the morning for Lago de Apoyo for a week long Spanish school....so gotta get our brains out of the present lazy state they are in. We planned on going to the meeting in the morning, but the only time the car from the school can pick us up is in the morn, and it is complicated to take a bus ...

Too long for a travel blog, something about Nicaragua they dont have the fastest internet connections, tried uploading the new few hundred photos a few times for too many long boring hours. Now I wish that it worked out, since I got my camera stolen out of my tent while cooking dinner a few meters away, so no mas photos de Central America. Anyway add it to the ongoing tally of countries that have retained my camera es numero cince. So ...

... down from the parking area to the top of the volcano several times a day; the 5 1/2 km road is pretty steep but tarmaced.<br>Most visitors take that truck. We opted for the 1 1/2 hour walk to the crater. Hiking shoes on, a bottle of water and off we go.<br>Arriving at 1100m you can choose between two hiking trails: a moderate one that circles the<br>main crater (1 1/2 km), and another more difficult trail (El Puma) which must be led by a guide. As we like to discover ...