After a few nights in Guatemala's capital accompanied by wonderful city-dwellers, I hopped on a bus to Managua to track down Michelle G, a fellow TIEger from Ecuador 08/09. The idea is to do some meandering until the beginnings of 2012... lately, 27 hours of bussing over three days, to San Salvador, Managua and up to Somoto in Nica's north -- a town that reminds me of a living version of magical realism or a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: maniquered streets, open porches with wicker rocking chairs, cool breezes, mountains looming. Then to Leon: joking Sandinista veterans singing FSLN songs and telling stories of Sandino, the war, the contras... murals of resistencia, and, a few blocks away, the place where Somoza himself was shot dead by a young rebel.
I have to make it down to Costa Rica to renew my visa in the C-4, so we are heading south: Granada and Ometepe, then at least 72 hours (says migracion) in a national park on the Costa Rican border.
Nicaragua is stunning, and safe to travel in. Feels like it is worlds away.
