Destinations

Our first of two days in the capital included night bike rides through the neighborhoods, a visit to The White House and seeing the monuments lit up at night.

Though its name sounds otherwise, it is not located by the Golden Gate Bridge (although you’ll find two huge parks there too: the Golden Gate Park stretches for 47 blocks from Stanyan Street to the Pacific Ocean – it’s more than 3 miles long and half a mile wide, which makes it even bigger than New York’s Central Park and its 4.12 km2 (1.589 sq mi) makes it one of the largest urban parks on the planet. You can easily spend an entire day just exploring the broad parkways and the variety of activities the park offers.

Nicaraguan presidential elections take place in 2011, and the people here are passionate politicos. Check out this house painted in full support for Daniel Ortega and the FSLN Sandinista party.

Estelí is located in Nicaragua’s Northern Highlands and the country’s 3^rd largest city. The town was heavily involved in conflict during the Sandinista revolution of the 70s and 80s and still is one of the towns with the most support for the Sandinista FSLN party. Estelí may not feature the same colonial architecture that Granada or Leon are famous for, but the city is famous for its intelligent urban art.  

Every once in a while, a country really takes us by surprise, like our deep love affair with Mexico. We had an inkling we would love Nicaragua, and after spending six weeks here, it was easy as pie to come up with a long list of favorites. Read on for thirty three things we love about Nicaragua, in no particular order.

Check out the basket, made out of….Rooster? Yes, we found Rooster Baskets in Masaya, Nicaragua.

The street signs in Madrid’s historic center are beautifully hand-painted ceramic tiles which illustrate the name of the street. We love the artistic touches like this throughout Madrid!

We didn’t expect to like Potosi, the highest city in the world, all that much, but ended up extending our stay by two nights – find out more about this colonial gem!

There are 85 YHA hostels across Australia, most of which make for memorable stays – but these eleven are the absolute best YHA hostels in Australia!

Australia has so many cool cities, it’s impossible to visit them all, but depending on your preferences, you want to make sure to hit the right places on a trip …