To and Fro

Going back to Managua from León was like going back to the "real world." Managua (in the Metro Centro district -- which I've heard described as "the Beverly Hills of Managua") might as well be Miami -- a city with which it is "twinned." A couple of days at the Managua Backpackers Inn (while I searched in vain for my ticket to Costa Rica) was more than enough. Managua Backpackers is the only place n Nicaragua I'm always glad to leave; but it's a good place to store my stuff so that I can travel light to other places. After getting my situation cleared up with Immigration -- paying $17 ($1 per day for over-staying my tourist permit by five days, and $12 to extend my permit for 25 days) -- I decided to return to León for a few days. My stay here has turned into three weeks, más o menos. I'll be going back to Managua tomorrow. Below is the Metrocentro Mall.

The itinerary I had planned before I left Canada changed completely when I reached Nicaragua and fell in love with this country and its people. The original plan was (sort of) to travel from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, and then to Panama. From Panama I would have taken a boat to Colombia (with a three-day stop-over in the San Blas Islands), and then traveled to Peru. I had gotten some conflicting advice from travelers who suggested crossing into Bolivia either from Peru or from Chile. In the end, it didn't matter because Nicaragua captured my heart and wouldn't let me go.

Despite the intense heat, León is my favourite city. As I've read, Granada may have the style, but León has the substance. Still, it's a world apart from the one in which I usually live -- which is a world into which I do not fit comfortably. I am already beginning to feel a kind of sadness, knowing that my time here is coming to a close. Only two weeks and two days remain for me in Nicaragua. Between now and the time I leave there will be many interesting things to see and do, but strangely, I'm starting to feel like a tourist -- someone with a brief period of time to fill with interesting sights and activities before returning to my "normal" life -- a life which will never be normal for me again.

What to do? Just get on with it, I guess.