Tag: Museum

Exploring Estelí Nicaragua

Estelí is a big city in the northern highlands of Nicaragua. It feels smaller than León, but I think that’s mainly because the traffic is better. In León, I always felt like I was about to be hit by a car (pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here!). Estelí traffic is better because the streets are mostly one way which makes exploring Estelí Nicaragua easy peasy.

getting to know estelí

I had plenty of time to get to know Estelí today, so I walked around town for a bit, went to a museum and visited the cathedral.

estelí street art

There is a quite a bit of street art in town. I am not sure if it’s a direct result of the political importance of this town during the revolution (it was a Sandinista stronghold), or just lots of artists. The variety is really engaging and it made for a fun day looking for more murals.

Mural Esteli
Mural Esteli
Mural exploring Esteli
Robot Mural Estelí
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A Day and a Half in León Nicaragua

After a day and a half in León, I like it. It’s a pretty town with some beautiful churches. A lot of pretty churches. So many, that I can’t keep track of which ones I’ve visited. There’s also a lot of museums, street art, and history here. This morning I am going on a walking tour of the city, so I should learn more about all of those things! In the meantime, I have been taking photos and soaking up the vibes of León.

León Churches

I visited some of the churches, including the fairy tale pretty Iglesia el Calvario and the more traditional Iglesia El Merced.

Iglesia El Calvario
The pretty Iglesia El Calvario

Finally, yesterday afternoon I explored the rooftop of the Cathedral of León. Barefoot. That’s right, once you step out onto the roof, you have to take off your shoes so as not to damage or taint the surface. It is very white! It was a very cool feeling exploring the roof of a cathedral barefoot. I don’t know if I’ll do it again, and for $1.25, it was fun! As there are no tall buildings here, the view from the cathedral roof was lovely, so I took lots of photos.

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A Quick Tour of Rivas, Nicaragua – It’s All I Needed

The school took us on a field trip to Rivas. I try to do as many of the activities offered as possible to keep myself busy. When there was an opportunity to do a quick tour of Rivas, Nicaragua, I took it.

Rivas is the closest big town, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean, and has a population of just under 50,000. Compared to San Juan del Sur, it’s HUGE.

About Rivas

Rivas doesn’t get a lot of tourists. It’s mainly a stopping off point to switch local buses from San Juan del Sur to Ometepe, Granada, and Managua. We took the local bus, aka “chicken bus” and stayed in Rivas.

bus
Our group from school on the bus, before it filled up

Taking the Chicken Bus to Rivas

The chicken bus cost 17 cordobas, which is about 60 cents US. We got there early so we could have seats. Glad we did because the bus left before 8am, was packed the whole way, and took more than an hour with all the stops to pick up and drop off. The return trip was a little better but not much!

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