No Reservations

It is 6:52 am, and Marci and I are lying in a small bed in Managua, Nicaragua.  Nicaragua?, you ask.  Yup.  And here is how it all happened.....

Marci and I were sitting on the couch in a mountain cabin, sippin' tequila if you have to know.  Just as we got to giggling (Marci almost swallowed her lime I recall), a television show came on that captured our attention.  Now, we aren't weirdos or anything, but its significant that we got rid of our television service last year.  We found that we just weren't watching anything and more that, we DIDN'T MISS it!

Anyway, there we were, being silly, watching HGTV, and International House Hunters came on.  We sat, fascinated, as a young couple searched for a home in Granada, Nicaragua.  NICARAGUA?  Isn't that where the Sandanistas and Contras live?  Well, yes.  But by Central American standards, that was a LONG TIME AGO.  Today, Nicaragua is a struggling country full of friendly people who would very much like to see Americans coming down for a visit.

We sat in awe of the colonial beauty of the architecture and the laid back way of life.  It seemed so INVITING!  Before I knew it, Marci had a credit card in hand and was pushing the send button to book a flight to Managua.  Three weeks - wow.  You go girl!

So since mid April, we have been studying the country, thinking about what we'd like to see.  We've brushed up on our (very poor) Spanish, arranged visits to grandparents for Morgan and Kiana, and packed our backpacks.  That's right - we don't even have suitcases.  We decided to get a place to stay the first night (Hotel Mozante) and then head into the cities and jungles of Nicaragua, with NO RESERVATIONS.