Nicaragua: Exploring its colonial cities

Nicaragua: Exploring its colonial cities
The border crossing experience in central America is buzzing and rumbling to the sounds of cargo trucks importing and exporting goods, and the nerve racking eagerness of voices trying to make the dollars of the day. Their presence was felt as they presented themselves as your guide, handling all your troubles in their hands. Luckily, a firm “Gracias, I have experience” was enough to keep them as just observers . After having crossed Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras, with 100% of truck drivers help , whom we waited hours with to get through customs, we had it down! The Amatillo Aduana and the Nicaraguan border were not too difficult-your usual exit-entrance fees, licenses, insurance, circulation card, passports and visas. As we waited for custom officials in the car to come and search, a young independent-entrepreneur came up to us and asked if he could play the guitar and pose for a picture for a dollar! It was a good welcoming going away party starter… We arrived at Leon, a neatly kept town, with archaic colonial architecture. It was heart-warming to enjoy of good comida corrida at the downtown market in company of a Sunday afternoon local crowd. Nicaragua’s charm began to unfold delicately as its pastures and fields merged with the magical presence of Lake Nicaragua and its Pueblos Blanco’s. As we made our way South, the presence of Volcan Masaya was almost unavoidable from the Panamarican Highway. We made a stop at Masaya, a lovely town with a friendly plazita, and a Artisan Market reminiscent of an old fortified castle. We took a small detour to the highlands of Nicaragua and headed to the Pueblos Blancos’, small communities of natives that offer their local arts, textiles and jewelry. Once again, we felt the strong presence of the native ancestry, the same energy we had felt in Mexico and Guatemala. The Laguna de Apoyo, was a volcanic crater, that served as a tourist hot spot to one of the Pueblos Blancos’. One could enjoy the view of volcanic happenings, while being serenaded by guitars, or go horse-back riding around the Crater. The next stop was Granada, a major city in Nicaragua, with special tourist zones, chic walkways and cafes, horse-carriages, and clean and well planned Boulevards; atmosphere in which one could be easily fooled, into disregarding and missing out the real experience of a tremendously poor city, the second poorest in Central America. As one stepped outside of the “attractive areas” the city was bustling with hundreds of store shacks, selling every kind of China-manufactured luxuries, pirated music tracks and movies. Overwhelmed by the noise, we headed to Ometepe Island.