Nicaragua

 

The girls finally made it! Their travel adventure was not quite complete however.

Just hours after arriving – we all boarded the Tica Bus headed for Nicaragua. Little did we realize what lay ahead. To be fair –the Tica Bus was not that bad. It was relatively comfortable with reclining seats and air-conditioning. They also movies playing – unfortunately, the movies they were playing were not very nice movies and it was very difficult not to watch because of how the TV was situated.

After 9 long hours – we made it to our destination. Managua! It so happened that Tica Bus operates a Hostel style Hotel so we were able to stay there and the price was not too bad. However, we were very hungry by almost 10PM when we arrived. Managua is not a city you go wandering around in at night. Especially if you do not know where you are going. We were left with little option but to get a taxi to find dinner. The taxi driver was a very nice fellow and drove us all around looking for an open restaurant – we finally found a Pizza place open and got our order to go.

Very quickly we discovered why there were so many guys at the border exchanging currencies – in Nicaragua you cannot use Costa Rican Colon's! Even though about 1,000,000 Nicaraguans have fled their country to Costa Rica – they despise the money in Costa Rica. So, we did have some US Dollars the girls brought with them so we survived until the following day and we could use an ATM.

The next day we had to use the taxi again to find the Bethel in Managua. The bus system in Nicaragua is not nearly as efficient as Costa Rica – getting around was an expensive prospect for US tourists. We did get to the branch though – and we had a lovely tour. What a beautiful thing to see Jehovah's people in action and the beautiful branch that was dedicated just recently in 2004. Nicaragua is a country still in somewhat of turmoil it seems and so the friends their have had to endure some difficulties in the not to distant past. The last 5-10 years have been better and they have seen tremendous growth in the field.

That afternoon we found out where the “Chicken Buses” ran to go to Granada from a brother at the branch and we decided to walk instead of get a taxi – save a few Córdoba's. That was a long walk in our dress clothes in the heat and humidity! WoW! But we made it. We took the Chicken Bus to Granada –about a 30-40 minute ride –not too bad.

Upon arrival in Granada – we were faced once again with the dilemma of where to go –on foot or taxi! We found a nice fellow at a mechanic shop that told us of a Hostel not too far away and we walked there. The price was not too bad and it was about as nice as we expected to find for our price range. We settled in the room dropping our stuff off and decided to walk down to the center of the city to eat. This was the part that was most difficult. All the way there – and everywhere we went we encountered mostly empty streets with a few families just sitting in their doorways. In the park were a lot of people selling things – and lots and lots of poor people. Destitute poor –everywhere. Begging –hanging on you begging for a hand-out. They were all very sad – one would like to help – but you cannot. There are too many – this is a country in desperate need of the New World. Most of the people have nothing – and little prospect of ever having anything. The city of Granada itself is interesting from an historical and architectural standpoint. It is the oldest city in All of the Americas – being founded in 1522. The architecture is a mix of Old Spanish and gothic. You can see in certain sections of the city, especially down by Lake Nicaragua where they had started to restore certain aspects – but the restoration itself seems to have failed long ago.

I am going to leave off this part of the blog for now – Kathleen will likely have her version which will probably be more entertaining too!

I did post some pictures though over at the website under the Nicaragua link.