No Danger in Sight

Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013--Managua

My hotel has a very good buffet breakfast.  It is Nicaraguan-style with the beans and rice, salty cheese, etc., but it also includes pancakes, butter, jam, and cereal.  It's in the part of the hotel across the street from where I am staying.  I'm in the smaller, original hotel.  The one over there is newer, but the rooms have the same doors and windows, so I assume they are copies of the ones here.  There is a separate pool over ther, so it is nice here in my part with our own pool for just a few rooms.

After breakfast, I went exploring.  The main sights here deal with what used to be the downtown area before the 1972 earthquake that destroyed the center of the city.  It was the second earthquake to destroy that part of the city in 40 years, so it was decided not to rebuild it.  That has left a large undeveloped gap right where downtown used to be.  The old cathedral is standing as a ruin, but it is too damaged for visitors to go inside. The old governmental palace apparently could be saved and now houses the National Museum.  Most replacement government buildings were built along the fringes of the area of destruction to try to avoid another round of earthquake destruction in the future which meant that the old center was essentially abandoned.  A new National Theater, however, was built where the old one was; I just hope they used a design to make it more earthquake proof.  It's strange to be in the area, though.  The old main plaza is there, but most of the area consists of parking lots or fenced off vacant land.  The traffic circle with the statue of Bolivar which was the enter of the city before, is still there, but the area is quiet.  Further out, there is an arboretum on part of the vacant land.  In some places, temporary housing was constructed.  But it is hard to sense today how busy this part of the city used to be.

I hate it when a museum takes your money and then tells you that half of it is closed!  That's what happened at the National Museum.  I was mainly interested in the paintings, but after I paid my $4 the lady told me that the upstairs where the paintings are is closed.  The exhibits I saw were not worth a $4 admission fee.

On the way back from that area, I stopped in Plaza Inter, a shopping mall that was built just outside the area of earthquake destruction.  It's small and has little in it to make anyone want to go there today.  It does have an 8-screen cinema with current films, though.  And it has a food court with small branches of some of the local restaurants that are recommended in guidebooks.  Overall, it looks like an old mall that is far past its prime, however.

The area of town where I walked today was one of the areas with warnings for tourists.  Since it's essentially an abandoned area to a great extent, apparently there have been some problems, especially for tourists who are alone.  But I never sensed any problem at all.  And I also saw two female tourists walking alone in the area.  My guess is that visiting here in Managua won't be any more dangerous than being in any of the other places I have visited except maybe at night (when I tend to be in my room) or in very poor neighborhoods (which I have no interest in visiting anyway).

After 3 hours of exploring, I was back in my room.  I read, I was on the Internet.  I didn't swim today, because it looked like rain in the late afternoon.  Now I will watch some TV.