Nicaragua

The Cathedral in León, Nicaragua; the largest in Central America

It has been a bit of a whirlwind but in just 7 days I traveled from El Progreso in Honduras, south to Nicaragua where I visited León, Managua, and Granada; then back North to see San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. A bad cold sapped my traveler´s energy a bit but I persevered to check out Nicaragua´s colonial cities. León and Granada both have the stone-paved roads and old churches that I saw in Antigua, Guatemala. But unlike the air-brushed beauty in Antigua, in Nica I got the sense that real people lived and worked here in these cities. It meant that things like trash, street dogs, pollution, markets, and general life were out in full view.

Parque Central in Granda, Nicaragua

Nicaragua was not too big of a change after 5 months in Honduras. The poverty is about the same, although the border town in which I entered was very underdeveloped. The Córdoba is worth a bit more than the Lempira but not by much. The food is better in Honduras, perhaps because they don´t make baleadas in Nicaragua. I only spent a total of 4 nights here and I didn´t get a grasp on what Nicaragua is about but I caught a glimpse. The national sports are baseball and boxing. The country is gorgeous but with many environmental problems. Definitely a place I´d love to go back to, but next time without the head cold.