Twenty-four hours on a bus really isn’t that long. At least not for me. Not sure how I got blessed with the ability to sit contentedly for so long, but I’m certainly not complaining. I went directly from the capital of Panama (Panama City) to the capital of Nicaragua (Managua) in one foul swoop, hoping to lose as little time as possible. Managua was pretty much what I expected: dirty, chaotic, and loud. But it was a friendly kind of insanity and I think I wouldn’t have minded spending a little more time there. I headed from Managua straight to Granada, the “colonial jewel” of Nicaragua. It’s the oldest city in the Americas and is located right on the edge of Lake Nicaragua. Because of the large number of tourists that come to visit, it’s been well cleaned up without totally losing the presence of the locals. This is where I decided to set up my base for exploring Nicaragua.
My first full day in Nicaragua, I took a day trip to León, about 3 hours north by bus. León is home to the largest church in Central America which was my primary motivation for going to visit. The best word I can use to describe the church would simply be “big.” I was surprisingly unimpressed actually. The façade was cracked and dirty, very much in need of a restoration project. Inside was much cleaner, simple clean white walls and then tons of adornment. Typical glitzy statues, crucifixes, pictures of saints, all that jazz. Around the inside are paintings of the stations of the cross. Apparently, they’re a big deal in the art world, but I’m not exactly a connoisseur of artwork and didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. If nothing else, I can check that cathedral visit off my list even if it was slightly less exciting than it was cracked up to be. Maybe if I were Catholic, I’d understand what more of it meant, buuuut…I’m not.
My second stop in León was at the Museum of Legends and Traditions. In the spirit of one word descriptions, this one was “weird.” Housed in the old prison/torture complex from the Samosa era, this museum is filled with creepy life-sized paper mache dolls depicting the legends and folklore stories of the local people. Basically all the boogiemen and Bigfoot types. All of these figures are housed in the cells where the inmates were housed and tortured. Looking past the Nicaraguan Grim Reaper and the giant woman cutting her own breast off (toma tu tete), the walls are covered in pained depictions of inmate life. Understandably, this wasn’t somewhere I cared to spend a lot of time and I made a relatively quick pass through the entire complex. Touring a torture facility filled with grotesque dolls while I was the only person in the whole place really didn’t strike me as a good way not to have nightmares.
My next day in Nicaragua, I decided to spend a little more time exploring the city of Granada. I climbed up the belltower of one of the cathedrals to get the best view of the city. From there, I could see down to the lake, the bright yellow cathedral at the center of town, and zillions of matching tiled roofs. It was finally clear enough that it was worth the climb up the incredibly tiny stairs to spend 15 minutes just watching the streets below.
That evening, I’d scheduled a tour to the nearby Masaya volcano. We started in the town of Masaya, known for its sizeable artisans market. After that, we drove up to almost the edge of the main crater and spent a couple minutes admiring the view from the top. Because of all the rain that had been falling over the past couple of days, most of what we saw was clouds and gas billowing from the crater. But every once in a while, we got a glimpse down deep into the crater and could see the beautiful layers of strata that make up the sides of the cone.
Our next stop was a tour in the lava tunnels. This was one of my favorite parts of my time in Nicaragua. Unlike the caverns in Barra Honda, these caves are tubes melted away by lava leaving behind ceilings that look like dripping rock. Instead of calcium deposits, this black rock was liquefied and solidified in such a short time that it all has an eerie feeling of time just stopping as you walk in. Inside was a surprising amount of life including tree roots that followed us about 90 feet in, bats, tarantulas, and some cave being that the guide called a spider but that looked more like something out of a sci-fi/horror movie.
We left the lava tube and went to wait for the sun to set at the narrow entrance to another. As it started to get dark, the bats inside started getting ready for a night of feeding until they all started coming towards us. All of the sudden, we were surrounded by the sound of soft wings and little puffs of air were coming at us from all directions. Because of where we’d positioned ourselves in front of the entrance, the bats all flew between us or right over our heads as the left the cave. It was really neat to get to see the bats in bigger groups, especially after getting to study them in Barra Honda one at a time.
Sunday morning, I started the day with a walk down to the lake. Lago de Nicaragua is the second largest in Latin America (Lake Titicaca in Bolivia- which I’ve also visited- is the largest) and the 18th largest in the world. Not too shabby. From there, I was off to see another volcano for the day: Mombacho. Mombacho is known for its cloud forest and wildlife and was really beautiful to walk around. Just as we were reaching the lookout point, the perpetual layer of clouds cleared (everyone in the vicinity burst into applause) and we could see out over the lake and the whole city of Granada with Managua in the distance.
Food highlight of the summer: Imagine Café, Granada, Nicaragua
Atmosphere: All John Lennon/Beetles themed
Drinks: Fresh orange juice and homemade ginger ale
Entrée: Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas (Green chile!!!! Cheddar cheese!!!)
Dessert: Fresh baked mango bread with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate fondue.