Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Aeropuerto Internacional Tocumen, Panamá

After a prolonged delay related to my Greencard, I finally get to journey on my  summer trip to Latin America. I won't get to make it to Salto Angel in Venezuela, but thankfully Machu Picchu is still on the plan. This was a rushed departure since I wasn't sure if I would get the stamp in the passport that says I am a permanent resident in the US. So I am already 18 days behind schedule. The first stop on my trip is Nicaragua. Which is probably hot as hell. 

July 25, 2013
While in Nicaragua I been staying in Leon. The weather is much nicer and by nicer I mean less hot as hell. I had the opportunity to visit a town called Nagarote some 40k from Leon; more or less half way towards Managua. The town is very cute. It is very well kept with basically no garbage anywhere. Alhough the town is overruned by chickens and the occasional black duck. Nagarote has a beautiful plaza and church which is being expanded to include a huge monument with an arch. The town also has a mirador from which you can see the nearby volcano. We also visited the oldest known tree in Nicaragua which is a cenizaro and it's 957 years old. Jose Adan and I had some awesome quesillo in a restaurant next to the highway before returning to Leon. The area around Nagarote is well know for being the birthplace of quesillo and having some of the freshest quesillo in Nicaragua. 
The next spot was Mombacho... Which Cheles tend to call mamba-shoe. Jose Adan and I decided to disregard the tour guide agency and went our way. It did end up costing much less and we had a great time. Unfortunately we didn't see much fauna in the guindes tour inside the park which took about 4 hours. We did see the butterfly sanctuary, a guardabarranco and a black and white rodent. 
Revisiting Masaya was not as exiting. The weather was not on our side and neither was the transportation system. After visiting the market we got rained on our way to the church. Then we waited an exaggerated amount of time for the bus to come in a muddy rainy bus station. We then decided to take a taxi to the highway were we were able to jam ourselves into a sardine packed mini bus. We did manage some cute recuerdos. 
Iglesia de Subtiava 

La taberna de Mau

Sótano de la catedral de León 

Foto enorme usada durante la visita del Papa Juan Pable II

Nagarote, Nicaragua 


Reserva Nacional Volcán Mombacho