To Latitude 0°0’0” - Stories from NICARAGUA
BLOG HOME
_________________________________________________________________________________________
And the Sandanistas live on... a morning in Leon, Nicaragua
May 22, 2010
Leon was the original capital city of Nicaragua and is the home of the Sandanistas (FSLN), Nicaragua's socialist political party (and they are still very much so alive in Nicaragua's second largest city). Throughout the city you can see murals depicting what we assumed to be historical figures from the FSLN. There is even an FSLN muesum in the city center.
We spend the morning exploring the city and because we were there on a Saturday we were able to go to a bakery in town and have a traditional Nicaraguan nacatamal from Panaderia El Trigal (recommended by the Lonely Planet). They were huge and had potatoes, veggies, pork, and all kinds of other wonderful goodies in them! We had them with a cup of coffee then were on our way to explore the city.
We had a map of the city in our Lonely Planet guide and I think from our count this history city has no fewer than 21 churches. Because we wanted to hit the road before noon and had let ourselves sleep in a bit we decided to explore on square, one church, and the market. The churches were wonderful. Some say if you're seen one mission-style church in Latin America you've seen them all, but I disagree. I love how the churches blend in to the cities and how they all sit on main squares demonstrating they are a very centric icon in the Latin American culture. Most of them were built in the 1700s and this one is no exception. I always feel uncomfortable taking pictures inside of churches, so here is one of the outside of the church. The inside was very beautiful and had paintings from the crucifiction of Jesus and a beautiful alter section.
After a visit to the church and the square we headed to the market. It turned out to be quite a disappointment. I thought it would be more items like handcrafts, but it was all more items for locals such as clothing, purses, cleaning supplies, home items, etc. It was so hot we decided just to head back to the hostel, pack up, and head to the coast (which was rumored to be much cooler).
Once back at the hostel we met a couple that had drive from Colorado to Panama and were heading back up to the United States. We sat and talked with them for about an hour. It was nice to hear their stories and talk about border crossings and road conditions. We told them about our border crossing troubles and they told us they hadn't had any problems with borders and that their trick was to pretend that they don't speak Spanish. We'll have to give that a go at the Costa Rica border!
Then we were off down the coast of Nicaragua to San Juan del Sur. We arrived in the early afternoon and pretty much stayed in the first place we came across that looked semi-clean and was charging a decent price for a triple room. Hotel Delfin was right on the water and at first we thought our USD$8 per person per night rate was a great deal. However, at night our room was super hot, which ended up being a nightmare for me and my six months pregnant body. I have to admit that they were fairly accommodating when I came out late at night looking for an extra fan because I thougth I was going to die from the heat. They also had fast wireless Internet available to their guests.
We spent our first afternoon wandering around the town and just seeing what was there. We watched the sunset from our hotel and then hit the sack after a long day.
For more pictures from Nicaragua click here (si quieres ver mas fotos de Nicaragua da un click aqui)
Total mileage driven so far 5,105
Total miles traveled so far 5,388
151 miles from Leon, Nicaragua to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
Average gas price in Nicaragua- $TBA
BLOG HOME
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The Nicaraguan coast is not all sun and games
May 23 and 24, 2010
Our first day of fun in San Juan del Sur turned in to a day of rain, thunder, and an outage of power and water.
What do you do when there is no power in an entire town, no water, no internet, no nothing... you swim of course! We rented a boogie board for Arturo and Becky and they went out to play in the waves (no playing for me and baby... too much of a contact sport fo us) and they boogied away in the big waves that were coming on to the beach because of the storm. I waded. It was incredible, the water was actually warmer than the air and the rain! We spent most of the day playing in the water until the power came back on.
About mid day I called my parents, and after realizing that there IS such a thing as registration paperwork for cars in Washington state Arturo and I decided that we would stay in San Juan and not cross the border in to Costa Rica until we had our car's registration paper. So we knew we would be staying at least two more nights
Earlier in the morning our hotel informed us that we had to move rooms by 11 because they had reserved the room we were in. However, the room they put us in was right next to where they kept their dog (and in Latin America they keep their dogs onside all the time and most of the time they keep them on cement patios), so the room smelled like dog excrement. Also, the bathroom door only stayed closed if you put a rock behind it and the outlets in the room didn't work. We were all pretty unhappy with the room so even though we had paid for a night in that hotel already we decided to go looking for an alternative.
Arturo and I found a great little boutique accommodation called Casa Romano and were able to talk them down from their normal rate of $10 per person per night to $8 per person per night, the same that we were paying at the Hotel Delfin. I wish I had taken photos of the room, it was so cute, but I did get a picture of the outside of the hotel. If you're going to San Juan del Sur you should DEFINITELY stay here! They have wireless internet (although not as fast as the internet we had a Delfin) and a clean kitchen you can use to cook. You can also rent movies and watch them in their livingroom for a very low fee. It was a warm and welcoming hotel, a huge change from where we had been staying! We were happy to be styaing two more nights here instead of at the Hotel Delfin!
The day we abandoned ship at the Hotel Delfin and moved to Casa Romano there was a crazy rainstorm. All we could think of was the fact that our room was right next to dog area (which was all cement, remember) and with the way it was constructed was prone to flooding... We were all thankful that we had decided to lose one night in Hotel Delfin that we had already paid for and move to Casa Romano. Here are some photos from the rain storm, it was really amazing!
And a video... I hope I imbed this correctly!
The next morning Arturo and I frantically tried to find a phone to call the Washington State DMV to figure out if we had the car registration or not. After quite a bit of time on hold we finally figured out that we have had our car registration all along we just didn't know we had it because it said something about not being proof of ownership on it so we figured it wasn't something really official...
decided to go and explore a nearby beach that some locals said is a really local beach that locals refer to as "La Sucia". It was about a 20 minute drive out of San Juan del Sur on a mostly dirt road. It was nice to be out exploring, however, when we got there the beach was full of foreigners who were learning to surf! So much for being a local beach! We did a bit of beach walking and enjoyed the great rocks that made up part of the beach. Arturo swore that these rocks were really a giant petrified turtle... I think he might be right!
The rocks that looked like a giant petrified turtle at La Sucia.
The beach at La Sucia in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
We headed back and relaxed for the rest of the day. It was really nice to have some down time after over 3 weeks straight of travel!
Tomorrow we head to Costa Rica!
BLOG HOME
___________________________________________________________________
Impression upon leaving Nicaragua
May 25, 2010
I will write about today mostly in the Costa Rica section, but I do want to put in a quick "kudos" comment to Nicaragua here. On our way to the border with Costa Rica, Nicaragua had a wind farm with tons of windmills. We're not sure if the energy says in Nicaragua, but we were really impressed with the fact that Nicaragua has invested in a renewable energy source!
BLOG HOME
____________________________________________________________________
Recapping Nicaragua, the country that gave us a break!
May 17, 2010
BLOG HOME
____________________________________________________________________
Nicaragua - Tips for Travelers
May 17, 2010
BLOG HOME
____________________________________________________________________
If you have any questions about how much we spent, time travels, etc. please let me know. You can email me at rebecca@elnomad.com.
