Well my family and I travelled to about 3 different parts of Central America and I must say Nicaragua was my favourite. The people were so friendly and the place is so cheap! Since there aren't many tourists there, it was nice to enjoy a destination without an insane amount of people running around everywhere. We also had the sweetest guide, Hulio, who was so smart and extremely kind.
When we arrived from the airport, our tour guide took us to the Plaza de Revolution in Managua. It's just a massive open space and since it was a Sunday, we were the only people there. It was a really hot day and very quiet so it was nice just to walk around and explore without people disturbing us.
A chapel that was destroyed in one of the worst earthquakes that hit the country about 20 years ago... You can't go into the church as it's all closed due to it falling apart. The funny thing was that everything was destroyed except the church bell. It still rings to this day!
After a day of sightseeing, we drove up to León which is north west of Managua. It's also the second largest city in Nicaragua. We stayed in the Hotel La Perla which was a lovely colonial building surrounded with statues of lions. The hotel had a beautiful courtyard in the middle where tourists could enjoy some delicious meals and cocktails.
Since our hotel was very close to the city center, we walked everywhere! It was pretty safe, just a lot of large lorries and buses that didn't really stop for people to cross the road.. so you just had to be careful! It's difficult to communicate with the people as they only speak Spanish but they helped us to the best of their abilities and are extremely friendly!
There's a lot of street art around the city! Some of the street art we saw tells of the Turbulent story of Nicaragua's past and it's struggle for independence. Much of the art is so detailed and vibrant!
Necessary family picture in front of one of the hundreds of churches in the city! I must admit, the one thing that we did not do a lot of was visit churches because there were just SO many! The square we're standing on in this picture is a huge open space with a couple of restaurants on the right side. We had dinner at this square one night and there was a huge group of people singing church songs and celebrating life. One of the coolest things I've ever seen!
The best thing about Nicaragua was HOW INSANELY CHEAP THE ALCOHOL IS! My sister and I were so shocked at the fact that we could get a beer for $1.50!!! That's is an absolute rip off.. not that I'm complaining!
This was one of the many volcanoes that we saw in Nicaragua! There's an active volcano and Lake Nicaragua right behind us in the above photo! I mean how cool is an active volcano?! Scary but insanely cool! Especially when we got the chance to walk around and look into an active one!
Granada, Nicaragua, is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited! It's the 5th largest city in Nicaragua and the one with the most tourists since it's about a 2 hour drive to the border with Costa Rica! We stayed in the beautiful Hotel Plaza de Colon which was smack bang in the middle of the city and walking distance to the bar and restaurant street! We spent 3 days there and really enjoyed walking around the city! The city is not that big and relatively safe. We were told not to go down certain streets during the day/night as it could be of danger but as long as you listen to your tour guide, you'll be okay! My sister and I went out one night to a bar and the whole street is just surrounded with tourists so we felt pretty safe!
The houses were all pretty small and simple but they were SO colorful! Each house was painted a different color which gave streets variety and were great to look at!
One of the coolest activities that we got to partake in was making our very own chocolate! We got to grind the beans and make all different types of flavours while learning the process!
Nicaragua, you are one extremely beautiful country and we had an awesome time. We cannot wait to go back and see how you will develop in times to come!
