Managua Hotels
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In Nicaragua
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Nicaragua Part II
Three Rules of Survival
1. Don't eat food from street vendors.
This is an obvious one due to the fact that sanitary food preparation is quite often overlooked. ie- unwashed hands, machetes that have been used to cut things you don't want to think about much less your food, flying crawly friends, fridges aren't as plentiful on street corners as stop signs...
I suspended this rule in light of the fact that it is cheaper to buy your meals from said vendors than to buy and prepare your own meals. Our hosts apparently went off in a daily scavenger hunt for the next meal, whether it be fresh baked tortillas and "cuajada" (a type of unprocessed cheese, from what I understood, or the curds?) to meat on a stick with a plate of rice and veggies.
Coffee? Try the woman down the road making it the old fashioned way- choreada: Boil water over a fire (I suppose fires on the sidewalks are legal since everyone was doing it), pour it into a cloth sack that contains your coffee grounds and voila! Coffee to go!
Fruit salad? Only 50 cents for more fruit than you can eat! Just don't ask if the fruit's been washed first.
I didn't get any intestinal disorders, but as a friend recently put it: "You've been living here for almost 2 years. Your stomach's made of iron."
2. When driving, stay alert.
The department in charge of has a fear, apparently, of long, straight stretches of road. The nation's drivers getting complacent? Thrown in a rotunda or speed bumps the size of hills! Rotundas were placed every 10-15 minutes that didn't lead anywhere but the same road that you were on before you began driving in endless circles trying to figure out the right turn off. As for the speed bumps, maybe the buses didn't have shocks, but it was a veritable roller coaster ride... I have to hand it to Nicaraguan drivers, they're pretty talented...
3. Don't Panic
Our bus from CR dropped us off at a gas station that was obviously not the main bus stop since it was headed to another city and was too large to get into the main bus terminal. My travelling companion, V, had changed money at the border so we had local currency. In large bills of course. V, never having travelled very far, was at a loss and looked to be on the verge of tears. We were supposed to be met at the station, but had no idea where that was.
Step 1: Take a deep breath.
Step 2: Break the large bills at the nearest store. Tip- Buy snacks to sustain you, because your ride might show up any time between the next hour to the next week.
Step 3: Ask for the closest pay phone and your coordinates to the nearest degree. If the coordinates are unknown, street names and local landmarks will work.
Step 4: Call your hosts and pray for deliverance.
We followed the steps and made it to our destination within an hour. Of course it was a lot funnier once they had picked us up and we were safely on our way.
Overall, I really enjoyed this vacation. The nice thing about staying with locals is that they know the best places to go and you don't have to worry about figuring out arcane bus systems and maps. We did the touristy things like visiting the craft markets, parks and museums. One day, we happened to catch the grand opening of a new exhibit in the national museum featuring typical mask dancers. At the markets, our hostess was a great haggler of the caliber one only reaches when one is a true "local". We also took a boat ride around the islets of Lake Granada. One night, we danced under the stars at a restaurant overlooking Lake Tiscapa. I felt like I really got the flavor of life in Nicaragua.
If you're thinking of visiting, do. It's quite inexpensive and I spent less than $100 the entire trip (but then again, I stayed at someone's house, not a hotel). The downtown area of Granada has picturesque old buildings with red tile roofs that the government has protected as historical treasures. Managua, the capital, is a bit hard to navigate since there is no central area due to a hurricane in the early 70's that devastated the center, but it's bustling along the main roads with restaurants, bars and shops that are open past 6pm (here in CR, these only exist in touristy areas and large cities like San Jose, but even then they close around 8). And there are lots of outdoorsy stuff, beaches, forests, lakes, etc for adventure vacations, but we stayed in the cities.
Two thumbs up. On a scale of overall whoopee: I'd go again.
Latest Comments (1)
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vacations (reply)
Jun 19, 2008 14:23 EST by maverickranger
My grandparents actually recommended going to Nicaragua. We decided to stay in the States this summer though. Nevertheless, New York was a ton of fun.
So how are you planning to spend your last couple of months in Costa Rica?
~Jen
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