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Archive for the MiamiHerald Category

The unseen virtues of Managua, Nicaragua - miamiherald.com

October 19, 2008 by sacuanjoche.

BY REGIS ST. LOUIS

Nicaragua’s volcanoes, coastlines and colonial towns are no longer a secret among travelers seeking authentic Central America — and they have fewer crowds than neighboring Costa Rica. Yet despite the growing popularity of Granada, Leon and San Juan del Sur, certain places remain well off the tourist radar.Managua, the capital, is one of Nica’s most overlooked destinations and has long been dismissed by foreign visitors, who linger in the metropolis only long enough to change planes or catch the first bus out of town. Those willing to scratch beneath the surface, though, find a proud and fascinating city with a wild landscape and rich history.

Excellent restaurants and nightlife, cozy colonial hotels and a surreal assortment of sights make for rewarding exploring, and help put this land of lakes, poets and revolutionaries into context.

Perched along the shores of the Lago Xolotlán, Managua is a low-rise city of winding streets. Woven into its geography are picturesque crater lakes, with volcanoes to the north and south and the Meseta de Estrada mountain range to the northeast.

A city of tropical verdure, it’s also one of constant reinvention, an essential quality given the wounds that nature has inflicted. Monstrous earthquakes have twice leveled the city, once in 1931 when it was still a tiny municipality, and again in 1972, when five square miles of the city were instantly wiped out, leaving some 20,000 dead.

RETURNING HOME

Since then, the former downtown near the lakeshore, known as zona monumental, was largely abandoned. This forlorn collection of former museums, plazas and government offices was the bustling heart of Managua prior to the quake. Abandoned for a generation, the neighborhood is slowly being revitalized, and capatalinos (Managua residents) have recently started returning to the area.

The streets end at the lake, where the malecon skirts along a colorful assortment of lakeside kiosks and a rickety theme park. Morning is the best time to visit, when songbirds fill the trees around the parks and a cool breeze blows off the lakefront. Among the highlights here is the shell of the old cathedral, whose hauntingly beautiful facade is decorated with murals and stone angels. Despite promises, it has never been restored.

On a grassy plaza a few blocks south is the country’s most evocative revolutionary monument. The Monumento de la Paz is a lighthouse built atop the destroyed remains of thousands of weapons, including a tank, from the Sandinista-Contra War of the 1970s-80s. These were forever encased in concrete by former President Violeta de Chamorro. The nearby Palacio Nacional de la Cultura has impressive exhibits on the conflict and Nicaragua’s more distant past.

Also in the area are the Casa Presidencial, where current President Ortega works, and the Centro Cultural de Managua, the city’s former Gran Hotel. The first floor contains the Bar La Cavanga, a 1950s-era gem, which stages live folk and jazz shows in the evenings. A few blocks north is the Teatro Rubén Darío, a graceful building that was one of the few in the area to survive the earthquake. The second-floor balcony boasts pretty lake views.

There are numerous ways to experience the dramatic scenery (and perhaps see some wildlife) within city limits. Among four crater lakes in Managua, Laguna Tiscapa is the easiest to reach and offers splendid views over the lushly forested lagoon. A zipline whisks down the hillside (for maximum adrenaline boost, opt for the ”Superman” pose).

A short drive south of the capital, the Montibelli Wildlife Reserve has 162 hectares of tropical dry forest. Along the trails, visitors have spectacular views of nearby volcanoes Masaya, Mombacho and Cerro Ventarrón, and impressive glimpses of birds, butterflies and howler monkeys.

NIGHT SONGS

In the evening, Managua comes into its own, with dozens of lively, music-filled bars and restaurants about town. Not far from the zona monumental is Ruta Maya, an airy thatch-roof bar where a laid-back crowd comes to hear live Nicaraguan folk music.

For a denser concentration of nightspots, head to the Zona Rosa, an upscale district in the south of the city. In addition to trendy bars and restaurants, this is the neighborhood of the intimate Casa de los Mejia Godoy, a club (and nonprofit foundation) started by the legendary Godoy musicians Carlos and his brother Luis Enrique.

The Bello Horizonte rotunda in the northeast corner of town is another great place to head. An epicenter for party people, this area provides premium strolling past discos and bars, grill stands and fast-food joints. Wandering bands of sparkly, big-hatted mariachi musicians add to the fray.

Posted in MiamiHerald, on internet, travel, News, Nicaragua | Print | No Comments »

Nicaragua has become the major hot spot of Central American tourism

June 28, 2008 by sacuanjoche.

Posted on Sat, Jun. 28, 2008

Nicaragua has become the major hot spot of Central American tourism

BY ARTHUR FROMMER

Of all the nations of Central America, Nicaragua is generally regarded as the safest for tourism — with less street crime and violence, and less pick-pocketing and robberies than even Costa Rica.And yet, though its tourism is growing rapidly in a percentage sense, Nicaragua still receives the fewest tourists of any Central America nation. The civil war between ”Sandinistas” and ”Contras” that ended about 20 years ago and a devastating earthquake that leveled the capital city of Managua are usually cited as the reasons why Nicaragua’s tourist industry is still in its infancy.

Which creates an opportunity for a certain type of American traveler — an adventurous sort who seeks ”the Caribbean as it once was.” Someone who values the emptiness of Nicaragua’s beaches and rain forests, delights in the tiny, 10-room lodgings that make up the great bulk of Nicaragua’s ”hotels” and who enjoys an intimate contact with a people who are gracious to a fault.

In one of the small hotels on Little Corn Island, about 30 miles off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, dinner is served at 7 p.m. sharp and consists of a plate of fish (caught that morning) with two sides washed down by beer, and served uniformly to both the staff of the hotel and its guests, who all eat at the same long table.

If that’s the kind of Caribbean vacation you desire, you find it in Nicaragua.

The other reason for Nicaragua’s growing tourism is less pleasant to discuss: The country suffers from abject poverty, and its price structure is absurdly low.

A devastating article in the June 12 issue of The New York Review of Books pointed out that 80 percent of the country’s population subsist on less than $2 a day. Twenty-seven percent of the population is “undernourished.”

Abandoned by the United States after our successful defeat of the Sandinista movement and left to drift without substantial aid or investment, Nicaragua is governed by a president (Daniel Ortega) who hasn’t the slightest knowledge of economics or a plan to improve his nation’s economy. He survives only because of essentially free oil shipments from Venezuela.

The United States, preoccupied with the Middle East, pays little attention to a nation that once worried us a great deal.

And because everything in Nicaragua is dirt cheap, the country is awash with real estate speculators throwing up retirement homes for elderly Americans, and additional hotels for tourists seeking a vacation in an area near the equator where the weather is hot in every month of the year.

For the tourist interested in culture, the colonial capital of Granada shows the high aesthetic standards of the conquistadores, who left glorious structures that have been well-preserved and reflect the art and architecture of 17th and 18th century Spain. Several of those buildings have been converted into high-quality hotels. The Nicaraguan city of Leon is of similar but lesser interest.

Among the beach areas, the Corn Islands are one of two popular coastal draws. You get there either by plane from Managua (about $175 round-trip) or via a daylong trip by bus and ferry from other cities. Once there, you find yourself in a different world of backpacker-like tourists living in extremely modest lodgings and enjoying nature and a laid-back form of life, to put it mildly. In addition to enjoying a pristine tropical innocence, you snorkel and scuba-dive or simply enjoy the outdoors, to which you walk on tiny Little Corn Island (where there are no cars) or hop a taxi on Big Corn Island, paying $1 as your fare to any point on the Island.

The other tourist magnet is San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast, the site of considerable construction and development. Surfing is the chief draw here and surfers are a special type of visitor whose presence may or may not enthrall you. Surprisingly, the surfers are joined by growing numbers of elderly U.S. retirees, drawn by the claim that $15 a week can hire a sleep-in maid/cook and $20 a week a gardener who doubles as a chauffeur, enabling Americans to live ”like kings” on their Social Security income.

I have been both horrified and offended by these sales pitches, and they highlight the ethical dilemmas posed by economies like Nicaragua’s. To live off another person’s poverty is a frequent decision in travel, justified on the grounds that you are creating a livelihood for the less fortunate. If you’re made comfortable by that rationale (I’m conflicted), then you’ll want to consider Nicaragua for your next vacation.

Posted in on internet, MiamiHerald, travel, Media, Granada, News, Nicaragua | Print | No Comments »

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Archive for the MiamiHerald Category

The unseen virtues of Managua, Nicaragua - miamiherald.com

Nicaragua has become the major hot spot of Central American tourism

Nicaragua has become the major hot spot of Central American tourism