Mi Loca Aventura de Nicaragua el Día 1
2 months ago I was inspired to take a road trip by something I read in a magazine. The day after I read it I decided Nicaragua would be the place I would do it in. I bought my ticket and immediately started planning the route I would take. I then convinced my bestie, Adrienne, to join me (though it did not take much convincing).
Our flight from Charlotte to Miami was uneventful, however due to a lightening storm our flight from Miami to Managua was delayed 3 hours. Once we finally landed in Nicaragua we were greeted by intense humidity. We knew that we were visiting during the beginning of the rainy season and we prayed to the travel gods and goddesses that it would not rain while we were there.
Me having just arrived in Nicaragua for the 1st time!
We went directly to Alamo to pick up our car and were shocked to discover that they had given it away due to our delay. I tried to calm my temper, especially since they had our flight information and knew why were delayed. I demanded that they find us a replacement, which they did at another company named Payless. It was the same car for the same price, I just wish though that Adrienne and I did not have to go through the initial stress that we did.
Adrienne with our new friend for the week.
About 15 minutes outside of the airport we encountered yet another frustrating experience; we got pulled over by the police. We had been driving in circles looking for our hotel and assumed that it was fine to make U-turns since there were no signs indicating otherwise. Well, that was an incorrect assumption on our part. The officer that pulled us over demanded Adrienne give him her license. After he confiscated it he told us that he would be sending it, along with the traffic violation ticket, to an office where we would need to pay a fine in order to retrieve her license. I translated this all to Adrienne, who then proceeded to threaten the officer with a call the US Embassy if he did not return her license that very second. I tried to explain to her (while simultaneously translating what she said to the officer) that there is no reasoning with police in developing countries and that we should probably just bribe him, however her threats were successful, as he quickly gave her back her license and let us go. Oh dios mio!
I think this picture accurately describes both of our feelings after our run-in with
the law.
As if the flight delay, having our rental car given away, and getting in trouble with the police was not enough, we then proceeded to get utterly lost for the next 2 hours in probably the worst part of Managua. The directions that were given to me by the hotel were wrong and we could not find anyone who knew the right way. It started to get dark and I must have eaten something bad earlier, since my stomach was absolutely killing me. Finally, I had the bright idea to stop at a restaurant and ask them to phone our hotel and see if they would be willing to send a taxi for us to follow back to the hotel. They obliged and within 30 minutes we were headed in the correct direction.
Despite arriving to Hotel Los Robles angry, our moods lifted as soon as we saw how lovely of a place it was. We checked in and then called a Couchsurfer, Cami, whom we had planned to meet that night. In the meantime, we ordered some champagne to help us relax.
Me toasting to having survived the stressful day in one piece.
The hallway to our room.
Our sweet little room.
Cami arrived about 30 minutes later and she was a breath of fresh air! She is a Managuan native and one of the most endearing people I have ever encountered. Her English was perfect thanks to American movies and for only being 20 years old she has one wise soul.
Our hotel was on a street filled with chic restaurants and we decided to dine at El Tercer Ojo, "the Third Eye," which was just a 5 minute walk away. It had Latin-Asian fusion cuisine and is known for its veggie friendly meals (both Adrienne and I are vegetarians). The eggplant bruschetta was so delish that we ordered 2 servings of it. Over dinner Cami agreed to join us on our ride to Masaya andGranada
Adrienne and I enjoying our 1st meal in Nicaragua.
About half-way through our meal, we heard some music outside the restaurant. Cami knew right away what it was and told us that we should go outside and see for ourselves. When we went outside saw 2 strange characters dancing and singing to onlookers cheers. It was Nicaraguan performance called La Gigantona and it is a common custom in the country.
The La Gigantona performance.
After dinner we said, "Buenas noches y hasta mañana," to Cami and retired for the evening as the stress from the day and the 2 hour time difference had seriously caught up to us. We fell asleep laughing about our crazy day, as well as eager to see what tomorrow had in store!
Our flight from Charlotte to Miami was uneventful, however due to a lightening storm our flight from Miami to Managua was delayed 3 hours. Once we finally landed in Nicaragua we were greeted by intense humidity. We knew that we were visiting during the beginning of the rainy season and we prayed to the travel gods and goddesses that it would not rain while we were there.
Me having just arrived in Nicaragua for the 1st time!
We went directly to Alamo to pick up our car and were shocked to discover that they had given it away due to our delay. I tried to calm my temper, especially since they had our flight information and knew why were delayed. I demanded that they find us a replacement, which they did at another company named Payless. It was the same car for the same price, I just wish though that Adrienne and I did not have to go through the initial stress that we did.
Adrienne with our new friend for the week.
About 15 minutes outside of the airport we encountered yet another frustrating experience; we got pulled over by the police. We had been driving in circles looking for our hotel and assumed that it was fine to make U-turns since there were no signs indicating otherwise. Well, that was an incorrect assumption on our part. The officer that pulled us over demanded Adrienne give him her license. After he confiscated it he told us that he would be sending it, along with the traffic violation ticket, to an office where we would need to pay a fine in order to retrieve her license. I translated this all to Adrienne, who then proceeded to threaten the officer with a call the US Embassy if he did not return her license that very second. I tried to explain to her (while simultaneously translating what she said to the officer) that there is no reasoning with police in developing countries and that we should probably just bribe him, however her threats were successful, as he quickly gave her back her license and let us go. Oh dios mio!
I think this picture accurately describes both of our feelings after our run-in with
the law.
As if the flight delay, having our rental car given away, and getting in trouble with the police was not enough, we then proceeded to get utterly lost for the next 2 hours in probably the worst part of Managua. The directions that were given to me by the hotel were wrong and we could not find anyone who knew the right way. It started to get dark and I must have eaten something bad earlier, since my stomach was absolutely killing me. Finally, I had the bright idea to stop at a restaurant and ask them to phone our hotel and see if they would be willing to send a taxi for us to follow back to the hotel. They obliged and within 30 minutes we were headed in the correct direction.
Despite arriving to Hotel Los Robles angry, our moods lifted as soon as we saw how lovely of a place it was. We checked in and then called a Couchsurfer, Cami, whom we had planned to meet that night. In the meantime, we ordered some champagne to help us relax.
Our sweet little room.
Cami arrived about 30 minutes later and she was a breath of fresh air! She is a Managuan native and one of the most endearing people I have ever encountered. Her English was perfect thanks to American movies and for only being 20 years old she has one wise soul.
Our hotel was on a street filled with chic restaurants and we decided to dine at El Tercer Ojo, "the Third Eye," which was just a 5 minute walk away. It had Latin-Asian fusion cuisine and is known for its veggie friendly meals (both Adrienne and I are vegetarians). The eggplant bruschetta was so delish that we ordered 2 servings of it. Over dinner Cami agreed to join us on our ride to Masaya and
About half-way through our meal, we heard some music outside the restaurant. Cami knew right away what it was and told us that we should go outside and see for ourselves. When we went outside saw 2 strange characters dancing and singing to onlookers cheers. It was Nicaraguan performance called La Gigantona and it is a common custom in the country.
The La Gigantona performance.
After dinner we said, "Buenas noches y hasta mañana," to Cami and retired for the evening as the stress from the day and the 2 hour time difference had seriously caught up to us. We fell asleep laughing about our crazy day, as well as eager to see what tomorrow had in store!
I am so loving your travel adventure. Talk about synchronicity--just today I was thinking I should just decide somewhere I want to go this summer, and by myself a ticket. I LOVE that you did that, and I think I'm going to do the same! Thanks for the inspiration.
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You guys are smooth- I never would have been able to get out of that ticket situation. So glad things took a turn for the better!
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I LOVE your dress, that is so cute!!!!
And I think the rain delay must be pretty common or something in Central America because the same thing happened to us when we went to Costa Rica.
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