Sandino

So I had no idea this happened but apparently the U.S. government invaded and occupied Nicaragua for about 20 years in the early 1900s because we wanted to build a canal there. A Nicaraguan General named Augusto Sandino led a guerilla war against us, and when we left, we put a close friend of the U.S. named Somoza in charge of the army. He was supposed to lead the Nicaraguan government along with Sandino and the newly elected (and largely powerless) President Sacasa. Somoza promptly had Sandino assassinated and began a 40 year dynasty of corruption and brutality (we sure know how to pick 'em).

Anyway, Sandino became a big deal national hero and the party that bears his namesake (the Sandinistas) were the ones who eventually overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979 after a bloody civil war. I checked out a museum in memory of the Estelí people who died. Here's a photo of Juan Carlos, the brother of one of the museum staff members, who died fighting the Somoza army at age 15.

Estelí

Estelí is a cool little town right along the Pan-American Highway near the border with Honduras. Though the capital of the region by the same name, Estelí has a sleepy small town vibe and also not that much to see. It is, however, very much a Sandindista town and it was interesting to see the revolutionary populist party's influence on the people. More on that later.

Monuments

Despite not being my favorite city this trip, Managua does have some of my favorite monuments. In Parque De La Paz they have old military equipment symbolically cemented into the ground. It is the site where weapons were gathered to be destroyed after the Contras turned in their arms. You can see twisted gun barrels poking out in places.

Also, this statue of an almost comically muscled worker stands holding a pickaxe and a rifle with the Sandinista flag hanging off of it. A passing Nica woman called out in Spanish, "don't take photos, it's very ugly." The plaque below reads: only the workmen and farmers will go until the end --National Worker's Front.

Managua

A backpacker I met in Granada described Managua to me before my arrival. "You know how Central American capitals are usually city centers surrounded by shantytowns? Well after the 1972 earthquake the city center was destroyed and replaced with more shantytown." Here's a picture of the city before the earthquake that took over 10,000 lives. The government will probably never put money into restoring the city to its former state for fear of another one like it.

Ordinarily the first thing I do when I get to a new town is find somewhere to stay so I don't have to lug all my things with me while walking around the city. Here I payed the extra money to take taxis all day and left for Estelí before nightfall. You can see why if you look at some of the housing right in the heart of town, just outside Parque De La Paz (Peace Park).

Hammock Shop

Though in the end I wasn't able to justify buying a hammock, I did check out the little shops where they make them. The yarn is imported from El Salvador, but the wood is crafted right their in the neighborhood and all of the assembly is done in one tiny workshop.

It takes between three and ten of these spools to make a hammock, depending on the type. As you can see, the size varies quite a bit, as do the styles. They even have baby sized hammocks, which reminds me of that children's rhyme, where the wind blows and the baby falls down from the tree.

Masaya

There's a nifty artesan town on the way from Grenada to Managua, so I decided to stop for a night and check it out. There are several different markets to check out, plus districts where you can actually see the artisans making their wares. This is el mercado nuevo (the new market) where I picked up a new pair of sandals. I'm debating about whether or not to buy a hammock here. They're cheap and good quality and the money goes straight to real people rather than to WalMart but as much as I am head over heels in love with hammocks I really don't know where I'd put it.

Indigenous Rock Carvings (not as boring as it sounds, I promise)

So remember how those native tribes from Mexico came down seeking prophesied twin mountains rising up out of a freshwater sea? Well there's proof they actually came because they left these great big depictions of deities carved out of rock on the more than four hundred islands that sprinkle Lake Nicaragua. Some of them are pretty menacing, like this one, nicknamed Diablo, although I'm not sure by whom. Its face is contorted and it looks almost in pain. It stood out because the other figures had animals on their heads or animals instead of heads. There was one that just had no head at all, but all of them had something going on with the noggin. Wonder if that's like a thing.

But these tribes didn't just have cool statues, they also had sweet kiddie fair rides like this big pole that they tied themselves to and then spun so they'd swing around a lot. The museum came up with a pretty hilarous replica complete with flight deity at the top of the stick. They also had a replica of a gigantic teeter totter which, of course, must have had great religious significance. My favorite part was the unlikely poses of all of the mannequins. It looked like they had been taken from a diorama depicting an entirely different activity, like farming or something, and then had been attached to these unweildy model religious machines, still trying to continue tilling or whatever they had been up to.

Granada and Some Tool Named William Walker

Granada is one of the most photogenic cities I've encountered in a while thanks to the beautifully preserved colonial architecture. Unfortunately, for the same reason it's also allegedly the most touristy in all of Nicaragua, and to be sure, there were plenty of other gringos, although it's still less touristy than basically anywhere in Costa Rica. Thank goodness I've been studying Spanish for the past two months, I really don't think it'd be possible to do Nicaragua otherwise.

Granada was first founded in 1524, although it was ransacked so many times none of the original buildings remain. Interestingly it wasn't just pirates doing the ransacking, we Americans had a go at it too. Or rather, an American and also a complete tool by the name of William Walker had a go at it. He was a ballsy Tennessee man who set out to singlehandedly conquer Central America in the 1800s. Starting off in Mexico with minor conquests, he got sponsored by conservative Granada's more liberal rival, Leon, and captured Granada in 1855---all with some doubiously legitimate approval from the U.S. government.

But William Walker got out of hand, essentially appointing himself president of the whole country, trying to invade Costa Rica, and soliciting support for the endeavor from U.S. southern agrarians by calling his regime an attempt to spread black slavery. Walker got royally pwned by the Central American coalition army backed by preexisting American business interests in the region, was forcibly repatriated twice by the U.S. Navy (though he was oddly greeted as a hero upon return to North America), and was finally captured by the British navy, who considered him a threat to their transcontinental canal ambitions. They handed him over to the Honduran government, who summarily executed him by firing squad in 1960.

Nicaraguan Slushies

I tried the least pleasant type of raspado I've encountered so far at the parade here. They take a huge cup of shaved ice and cover it in a berry syrup that's so thick it covers the ice like a skin rather than flavoring it. Then top it off with this sweet milk cream stuff which is insanely sweet but way too dairy for that to be okay. It's like what would happen if you stirred sugar into boiling milk until it was the consistency of mayonnaise. Gastronomic tourism is really a hit or miss thing.

Fiesta de Santa Ana

The festivities started off with a corrida de toros (bullfight). It had none of the glamour I was expecting after having read The Sun Also Rises and when the animals---which didn't have much fight in them to begin with---were thoroughly cattle prodded and humiliated, they went of their own accord back to their pens. There was no valiant fight or glorious death. The problem wasn't staying on the bull, it was getting the bull to buck at all. They wouldn't even charge the sheets of red cloth.

Afterwards there was a parade starting at the church and meandering at a leisurely pace throughout the town. I had seen girls washing colorful dresses in the river that morning but didn't realize how pretty they were until the parade started. They sang songs and snacked on ice cream and the girls danced around, waving their dresses so they'd billow like flags.

Isla De Ometepe

The Indian shamans of the Chorotega and Nahua tribes prophesied of two mountains rising up from a freshwater sea and Isla de Ometepe here in Nicaragua was exactly what they were looking for. I came here for the a very un-indigenous Catholic festival honoring Santa Ana and got my first glimpse of the twin volcanoes from the ferry at sunset. Unfortunately the tiny island doesn't have much to do after their fabulous sunsets but later there will be time for exploring.

Arenal

In 1968 when Arenal Volcano began erupting (it's been erupting ever since) 84 people were killed and a town called Arenal was destroyed by the lava flow down one side of the mountain. The town on the other side of the mountain was then renamed La Fortuna, everyone moved there, and an artificial lake was created on top of the former town by an energy company. I splurged and went jeep-boat-jeep over the lake from Monteverde to La Fortuna, only to find the volcano to heavily shrouded in clouds the entire time I was there.

I did, however, get to enjoy some very pleasant hot springs. There are two resort spas in town with lots of fancy package deals but our guide insisted that the natural streams flowing through them were free and open to the public. We swam along it and ended up passing through one of the spas. Jennifer noticed a lavender smell and when she looked up we realized we were right outside a massage room. The masseuse came out and yelled at us for trespassing although our guide assured us upon return we'd done nothing wrong. I'm skeptical.