Welcome to Corinto, Nicaragua. We ended up backtracking by heading south to Nicaragua for this historical day for Holland America. This is first time a Holland America ship has landed in Nicaragua. What’s really amazing is, like yesterday, even though this has never been a designated port, somehow there were excursions created and many, many pedicabs available for our transportation in this tiny coastal town of 20,000.
You could tell the locals had thrown together whatever they could find to set up a “market” close to the pier. It was like going to a garage sale of sorts – lots of toys, kids clothes, shoes, etc.
We found a town plaza that had a fountain area in the middle with turtles and to our surprise a crocodile. The crocodile’s snout was right by one of the turtles but it didn’t seem to be concerned. We watched its amazing reptilian eyes until it decided that it was time to cool off. It’s eyes slowly shut and then even slower it slide down into the water very stealth-like.
We walked around the town to take in the local life and found an Internet Cafe, a Kingdom Hall and a movie theatre. The theatre was open air with no seats and instead of a screen, just had a big wall painted white. It also had a big fan to keep you cool while you watched the movie.
Walking by a bar we heard Madonna wafting out and also saw Pepsi and Eskimo Pie signs all over. During our walk we also saw a mother and son walking down the street with 4 chickens apiece. At first glance we thought they were dead as they were holding them by the feet and they weren’t moving. When we got closer we found that they were, in fact, alive. The boy tilted up one of the heads and it blinked. I guess they knew they were headed for the fryer…..
When we first started our walk it was somewhat overcast but after about a half hour or so, I found that my legs and lungs were not working correctly. I got to the point that I was unsure whether I could get back to the ship. It turned out Rick was feeling something similar. While we were walking it had turned very hot with very high humidity and had a real negative effect on our circulatory systems – our blood was turned to mud. (at least it felt that way) We DID manage to get back to the ship and once we were in the pool and relaxing we were fine again.
Sail away was so much fun as the people of Cortino came to the beach to see the big ship off. As we sailed by you could see multiple flashes going as everyone wanted a picture of this historic event. The people were very nice and it is a beautiful country so I hope they develop their tourism and get air conditioning soon.
For more information see CAA Niagara Travel
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