Madriz

Submitted by admin on 12 January, 2004 - 19:37.
‹ LeonupSomoto ›

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Billy Bob in the Valley of Turkeys

Submitted by Billy Bob on 8 August, 2006 - 09:04.

Day Trip to Somoto, Aug 2006

I was planning a trip to Somoto to check out the town, and by some coincidence El Senor in the house where I am living just happens to have family there! We took the 9 am expresso fron the shell station (Esqipulas) on the highway in Esteli. Actually, it is a 930 expresso. The way it works is that the expressos fron Mayareo in Managua to Somoto stop at both Shell stations in Esteli to let off passengers and load new ones for the Esteli to Somoto run.

Nice town, we walked around seeing the sights and saying hola to the relatives as we went. First impression a very nice town, much cleaner, quieter, and safer than Esteli. "Nice town/no jobs" syndrome just like in much of the US. Several new buildings were very much in evidence, in particulat the new vegetable market. Saw about 4 cheles in town, with little sign of tourism except the hotel. One of El Senor´s sons is a dentist . we had lunch with him and I asked about the water situation. He said they usually have plenty of water, although there is an occassional shortage. His daughter said that they do not have the crime problems of Esteli.

In the center of town there is the old church, the nice park, and old Somoza-era army fort that is now a school, and the Hotel Panamericano. The park is closed for repairs to the concrete walks, but I am told you can get access if you track down the caretaker who is somewhere in the area. The hotel is very nice, with good rooms for us10, a breezy restaurant/patio area, a humongus artesanias giftshop, and tours to the grand canyon of Somoto, which is about 20 klics away. I´m going back one of these weeks for the hotel and the tour.

I tried their famous rosquillas pastries. they´re batting 500: the ones with the sweet filling were very good, the plain ones had no pizzazz for me.

The temperature seemed to be about the same as Esteli, minus the road dust, of course. remember this is the rainy season. In the dry season it will look more like a desert.

First impression, net net: nice digs, muy tranquilo

"What goes around comes around"

What Goes around comes around

Submitted by dirtbag on 24 March, 2007 - 19:57.

did you ever go back and check it out? Has any one else an impression of this town, sounds pretty familiar, similar to any small rural town in Canada.