Marina Puesta del Sol
We only spent a week in this country, and the entire time was spent at this marina. We generally don’t like marinas because they are crowded, noisy, and expensive. This place isn’t very expensive, under $40 per day. That is certainly much higher than the $0 we spend at anchor and wouldn’t be sustainable for us in the long-term but for a week, it was just fine. There are three boats in this marina with people on them and three others without people, so crowds were not an issue. The other two boats were quieter than us, so noise was also not an issue…for us :)
The staff was friendly and helpful, we were able to get a rental car delivered right to the dock, and there is a pool. The pool was a huge hit with the kids and they spent hours there every day that we weren’t out and about in the rental car.
The adjacent town (village?) is really neat. It isn’t very populated and one can’t really find groceries, but we did eat out several times since we love eating out and because it was cheap. One place, which we ate at a few times, cost us less than $15 for all four of us to eat and get soft drinks. The serving sizes were enough that we all got a second meal out of the leftovers. So for $13-$15 we got eight meals and four sodas, something we couldn’t even fathom in Costa Rica.
The road in town didn’t have a sidewalk, but there was hardly any traffic and loads of other pedestrians so walking in the road was not an issue. The road is paved with hand-laid paving stones for miles and miles, which was a bit wild. The road also has tons of trees on both sides that create tons of shade making walking and running a pleasure. The people were friendly and welcoming and the country as a whole seems incredibly safe, more so than any city in the US.
It is mostly flat here, except for the numerous volcanoes running the length of the country. There are loads of plains as a result which means high-quality beef at good prices as well. And the flora continue to be amazing as it has been in Panama and southern Costa Rica, with large old-growth trees in fairly dense jungle.
Chinandega
The day we arrived, our water pump was cycling on every 15 minutes or so, even with no one using the faucets. Boaters know that this generally means there is a leak. o, I started digging through the lockers and every nook and cranny in search of dripping water. I found some near the connection to our hot water tank and started taking the junction apart to see which part was the issue. As can be expected, since it is a boat, it went from not so good to really bad very quickly. The 27 year old plastic T-connector snapped off inside two hoses and the third hose was the original culprit and had a small hole.
We tried looking in the town near the marina but they didn’t have anything. So day one with the rental car meant going to the nearby town of Chinandega (an hour away) to go to the hardware store. It turns out we had to go to four of them. Nobody had anything that would work and at the third stop a random dude in line overheard me talking to the woman at the counter and helped guide me to Casa de Mangueras, which was not in Google at all so I’m not sure how I would have found it otherwise. People can be so amazing; a small effort from this guy turned our whole day around. The house of hoses had parts that suffice so we headed back toward the marina.
On our way back we did a side quest to the small town of El Viejo to see the basilica and zocalo. The basilica had some kind of service going on so although we were able to step inside through the doors inside the doors (yes I meant to write it that way - see photo), we couldn’t really see all of the artwork up close.
We didn’t realize at this point that we would be returning to this town the next day to retrieve Fira’s purse that she left behind, but that’s life with Fira.
León
Our second day with the car was a long day. I got up shortly after 5 to get breakfast going and hit the road by 7. The reason is because the town of León is 2 hours away and there is a walking tour that starts at 9am. We got into the town right at 9 so I dropped Grete and the kids off at the tour starting point and went to park the car. I met up with them and we spent the next few hours walking around and learning about this beautiful city: its art, its revolutionary past, and its disdain toward the US :(
The cathedrals were beautiful on the outside but were closed up so we didn’t get to see inside at all.
The poverty of the country is apparent in lots of places though. The median salary is less than $1,000 per month and something like 15% of the GDP is from people working outside the country and sending money home to family. Even though the country is very poor relative to countries like the US, they do some things right. Higher education is free. Medical care, although not at the highest standards, is free. The best hospital in the city, and by extension this entire region of Nicaragua, doesn’t exactly look like someplace you would seek out care unless you needed it, but they are almost done building the replacement which is modern with the latest equipment, etc.
We ate several fruits we had never tried before and had traditional food at the market before getting back in the car and headed toward our second adventure of the day.
Cerro Negro
Cerro Negro (black hill) is a small, young volcano that is very active. Its last eruption was in 1999, but it had three eruptions in the 90s and generally seems to erupt every 10-20 years so it’s probably due.
We had considered going to the larger volcano which you can see in the background of the swimming pool picture above, but that hike is pretty horrible and unless it is a really clear day, the view from the top doesn’t justify watching your kids slide backward 1-2 steps for every two steps they take trying to get to the top. Additionally, Cerro Negro is known for being the only place in the world where you can go sand-boarding down an active volcano, so we decided it was the better option.
It was a good decision because the hike was much shorter, only about a mile and then we had the fun of shooting down the back side of the crater at close to 20 miles per hour.
Fira has said she needs to go back and pick a faster board, she is always an adrenaline junkie after the fact.
Well, that’s it from our short trip in Nicaragua. We would have liked to have spent 2-3 weeks here instead of one but our engine delays in Costa Rica have made it so that we really need to keep our foot on the pedal getting north before the summer storm season ramps up.