by Anne Watcher on Saturday November 17th, 2012 at 11:44pm
The nicest time to arrive in Managua is in the daylight hours and in time to get to your hotel or rental home while it is still light. With most airlines flying here this is hard to do and is often the more expensive choice. This year however because our transfer to Leon was going to be a 2 hour trip we booked with American Airlines. They have the best arrival times, bar none! Leaving Detroit at 6:05 am we arrived in Managua at 12:10 pm - 10 minutes ahead of schedule!! It was actually nice to see the city and countryside.
Managua airport is a breeze to navigate, immigration quick and baggage was already waiting for us at the carousel. Keep your luggage ID tags that the airlines give us at departure because they do check to make sure you have the correct bags. I think this is a great idea as so many of the bags circling in front of you look the same. After a quick x-ray of your bags you hand your declaration slip to the staff and you're on your way!!
We had arranged travel with Nicaroads out of Managua. David was waiting right at the exit for us. He was helpful, friendly and professional. I highly recommend their service available at: nicaroads.com
We have always had good service with American, although this time we had a problem, a very wet problem! Somewhere along the line our bags got soaked, well not soaked - drenched!! When we got to our home in Leon and opened them up everything was wet and we had our clothes rolled tight. This didn't matter as the water was completely through it all. Thankfully we had lots of space to lay things out to dry, the one casualty was the wireless router we had brought. We are waiting to hear from American on that!!
Our House Filled with Wet Cloths from our Soaked Luggage
by Anne Watcher on Saturday November 10th, 2012 at 11:43pm
Tonight was my last shift at work for the next 5 months. It is amazing how attached you get to a simple job like working at Tim Horton's. I think though it really is some of the regulars and the girls I work with that I will miss more than the actual job. I'm so fortunate that I have a boss that will let me take these leaves and still give me my job back. Thanks Larry and Liz!
For those following the Travel Virgins Journal who aren't aware of Tim Horton's Coffee shop, Rob decided to take this video of me at work tonight near the end of my shift.
by Anne Watcher on Wednesday November 7th, 2012 at 5:07pm
Lists have been made, tickets have been bought, house has been rented and airport pick-up has been arranged. So whats left to do? A LOT!! Because we will be gone for 5 months there are quite a few more things to think about. I think we have all the bases covered though, our children are a great help. Now we just have to finish the packing, empty the fridge, turn off the water and enjoy the ride. Next stop, Leon, Nicaragua.
The kids had a get together the other night so that we all could spend a night together before we headed off. I had Rob use this opportunity to take a nice portrait of our children, their spouses and our grandchildren.
Before each trip I try to do some research about the area we will be visiting. This year the north west part of Nicaragua will be our main area of adventure. With our home base in Leon, there are ample sites and sounds to keep us busy. Here are some to the places we hope to visit.
by Anne Watcher on Tuesday January 3rd, 2012 at 7:35am
We have a large selection of over 2,200 photographs from our time in Nicaragua between February and April 2011. All images are owned by us and are copyright protected, however we are quite liberal in the use of them in non-advertising, non-commercial situations such as personal and even business blogs or websites where smaller supporting images of Nicaragua are required. Some of our images from our previous years in Costa Rica are even being used in teaching venues - one such case being a University in Hawaii.
So we are proud to have our images displayed around the web - - - but please do contact us first before using any of our images, to receive proper approval as well as allow us to keep track of where they are being used. If you have need for any from our selection in a commercial application such as advertising - particularly where higher resolution files are required, please feel free to contact us through by email. Fine Art Photographic Prints are also available from many of the images on this website.
