Sightseeing in Managua

We arrived safely last night in Managua. Today, we had time to do a little sightseeing before beginning work tomorrow. It’s winter here in Nicaragua, so the temperature was only in the upper 80’s today. It wasn’t hot though as there was a wonderful breeze blowing constantly!

Our host took us several places today. First we went to Tiscapa Lagoon, which includes a small museum and memorial to Augusto Sandino. He was a revolutionary in the 1930’s, and is much celebrated here. We saw many references to him around Managua. This area has several volcanoes, so the lagoons are actually the craters of old volcanoes.

We also drove around old Managua. In 1972, there was a major earthquake here that completely destroyed the city. When they rebuilt, they did not build on the original city, but instead on surrounding area. The old city is still there, but people have moved into the old buildings, most of which look like they are about to fall down. One building that is still mostly standing is the old cathedral. This was a beautiful cathedral, but was never rebuilt. You can still see the huge cracks in the walls from the earthquake. Looks like large pieces fall off regularly, as the building is roped off, and we saw large pieces of concrete even outside the roped off areas.

Our host took us to Masaya for lunch. This is a beautiful area south of Managua. The city sits on a hill overlooking another lagoon. Beyond the lagoon, you can see Lake Managua. While they call it a hill or a mountain, what you are really sitting on is the rim of the volcano crater, overlooking the lake that now fills the crater. For those of you in Washington, it actually looks a lot like the Crater Lake area, but without the evergreen trees. We’re told that people swim here all the time, but it seemed a bit cold today to do so.

Tonight for dinner, we walked to a restaurant not far from the hotel. Dinner was wonderful, but I think the waiter may have misunderstood part of the order. We tried to order something we translated as a “sample platter”, but apparently, the 20 words of Spanish we collectively speak led us a bit astray. We’re not completely sure what we had, but did eventually figure out that at least part of the plate included beef heart. We are hoping that was all that was on there. It tasted fine, but we are thinking maybe we should ask a few more questions next time.
Tomorrow is mostly at the local office, working with the team here to understand how we can organize and ship products to them so that they can be more effective and efficient in what they do. This trip will focus on health related items, so lots of time in rural clinics and hospitals. I’m quite certain I’ll learn more than I actually teach!