Allie and I eventually made it to our hostel, the Managua Backpacker's Inn by around 8pm that night. The hostel was everything it needed to be, it had a cute little swimming pool surrounded by hammocks, free wifi (although very spotty), filtered water, running water (still cold showers), and a room with beds and a fan. We spent the following day exploring Managua, or attempting to. It was a Monday and apparently lots of things aren't open on Mondays. We started down at la Plaza de Revolución, which was surrounded by gorgeous government buildings and an old, decrepit cathedral. It was beautiful, yet deserted, we had the entire plaza to ourselves but unfortunately couldn't go in anywhere. We decided to take a mile long stroll up to the highest point of Managua, Loma de Tiscapa, which had a very large statute of Sandista, who overlooked the entire city. We spent the afternoon sitting up there in the shade, looking through the steeples of the old cathedral down where we just were into the polluted Lake Managua. Lake Managua is huge, it reminds me of the Great Lakes because you can not see across it to the other side. I believe there are volcanic islands in the lake, but we will explore it more on the last leg of our trip with Nica Adventures. We found a park along the lake and spent the afternoon in it after getting some ice cream. We found an adorable sea food restaurant that night for dinner, and even spotted a cafe that we ended up having breakfast at the following day. We saw "cafe frío" on the menu from outside and were so excited. When we got inside and saw they had lattes, frozen coffee and so much more we were beyond excited. Don't get me wrong, the coffee here is amazing...but do you really want a cup of steaming hot coffee when it's 91 degrees outside and 80% humidity? So I ordered the "café frozen" and Allie ordered the "caramel frozen". When they brought out our drinks, Allie actually started crying. I'm not exaggerating. The waitress carried out two huge milkshake size blended beverages, Allie's was topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce, and Allie actually started tearing up. At first I thought she was kidding, but she actually had to grab a napkin and wipe actual alligator tears from her face. The waitress must have thought we were crazy, but sometimes in life it's the little things that get you.
We are currently on board a little propeller plane to the Corn Islands! Yay! More to come soon...
We are currently on board a little propeller plane to the Corn Islands! Yay! More to come soon...