Nicaragua Part Two

Miscellaneous thoughts.

Bone up on your Spanish. English is not readily spoken here and waiters and cabbies that usually learn some English from contact with tourists have not, in general, done so yet. Even a few simple words and phrases are extremely helpful. Counting to ten in Spanish may be your most used tool as most locals can not count to 10 in English.

If you have any need to call home buy a Nica cell phone ($20 buck) and a phone card. You can call home very cheap and cell coverage is very good.

Visit Granada! Stay overnight, or longer, and explore this wonderful colonial city. It is very similar to Patzcuarro and thus worth a visit.

Visit Masaya Volcano outside of Managua. This crater is producing smoke and gas continuously and it’s really fun to get up close. I swear if this was in the USA the area would be cordoned off 5 miles in every direction, for your safety (read as ‘so you don’t sue us’) Warning, if you suffer from respiratory sensitivity this may not be a good place to visit.

Cabs are cheap, use them. Busses between cities are really cheap, use them.

We met far more Canadians that Americans. It was weird………someone is maybe afraid after what Ollie North did there a few years back….??? I don’t know. Maybe we have a different way of infiltrating……instead of sending guns we are sending people and one day Canada will be empty and we will have taken over Nicaragua.

I missed the photo op…….vision two ox pulling a one axle cart loaded with firewood. Next place that cart on the Pan-American Highway. Finally, line up 4 tractor trailers behind it with no place to go. This is Nicaragua.

Timeshare sales, street vendors, trinket hawkers, beach peddlers etc…………….If this part of travel irritates you like it irritates me then Nicaragua is the place to be. With the exception of a 2 block beachfront area in SJDS we were never approached by anyone hawking anything. I can not tell you how fantastic this really was. For the few street vendors we did meet I can say that they were friendly and welcoming. No push, no sales pitch, no chasing you down the street, no bothering you during a meal.

Conclusion
So while I initially hesitated to leave the friends and familiarity of Zihua I can say for certain that I have no regrets in visiting Nicaragua. Zihua will always hold its comfortable atmosphere breed from many trips. We miss our Zihua friendships as well. But there is a new romance budding for our family. Nicaragua, your charm has captured us!