After hanging around walking the streets of Antigua with our backpacks until 2.30am waiting for our bus & being questioned by the police about our loitering, we finally got picked up by a taxi who drove us to GC to catch our 4a.m. connecting bus. We travelled with King Quality, which is a pretty comfortable way to travel, essential for a 16 hour journey. We got woken up at the border to El Salvador but were allowed to stay on the bus as we were in transit. Looking out of the window, the country is really beautiful but obviously very poor, with the San Salvador being covered in barbed wire. Next border, Honduras, which was fairly straightforward, except we needed to borrow some cash from a very kind Nica to leave the country. A few rubbish movies later and with stiff bottoms, we arrived in Managua, which to be honest, is a total dump. We went to one hostel which we had read about online to find they wanted 20USD for a total filthy, shithole of a room, so we politely declined and went next door, which was marginally better but still a total rip off at 18USD per night. However, we had just been up for 48 hours and were quite keen just to lie anywhere which did not have unidentified stains on the sheets, so we obliged.
The following day, we caught up on a few emails then grabbed some lunch in someone’s house, actually recommended by a homeless guy who I understand has an arrangement with, i.e. he brings in customers and he gets a free meal, so we were happy to oblige as we were hungry anyhow and the food was great. The sites of Managua include the Palace, which houses a museum of natural history & some sort of theatre & the cathedral which is totally derelict, presumably as a result of the frequent earthquakes from which the city suffers & partly from the civil war, highlighted by the many bullet holes in the ruins. There happened to be an army show whereby the military were showing off their finest weaponry and good deeds, which was quite interesting to mooch around. Finally we went to one of the many cafes by the lake & enjoyed a bottle of Tona between us (40 cd for a litre, about 2 USD). The atmosphere in the café was really fun, with people of all ages getting up to dance to the vibrant music. In summary, you can see the sights of Managua in about an hour – it is an extremely poor city, with large shanty towns purely made up of bin liner covered shacks & even the locals seem scared to walk in the streets alone or get taxis with people unknown to them. It has much potential as a city, but it needs a total overhaul of its infrastructure.
We got chicken bus to Granada for a dollar each to enjoy the old colonial town. JG
No comments:
Post a Comment