I have long recommended, “If you want a meaningful trip to Latin America, consider Managua over Mazatlán.” But I come home thinking that Nicaragua and El Salvador are actually not enjoyable places to visit. I don’t like the dirt, the fear, the pervasive sentiment that poor people should just shut up and make do. I visited the two most popular idyllic countryside towns: Granada in Nicaragua and Suchitoto in El Salvador. Both have a charming, laid-back zone where backpackers can nurse a latte and get online, where rich adventurers can luxuriate in wistful 19th-century colonial elegance, where shops don’t have armed guards, where massages are cheap, and where meek artisans outnumber the beggars. And I visited the major natural wonders (beaches, volcanoes, lake resorts) in each country. Frankly, compared to other options in the region (including Costa Rica and parts of Mexico), there’s not much there.
I spent three days each in Managua (Christmas), San Salvador, and Mexico City (New Year’s). I went first class by hiring local guides with cars for two days in each stop over my nine-day adventure at $250 per day. This enabled me to experience and learn triple what I would have on my own. I stayed in comfortable hotels averaging $80 a night per double: Hotel Europeo in Managua (cozy, with motel-style rooms around a palm-tree garden, pool, and thatched restaurant in a residential neighborhood); Sheraton Presidente Hotel in San Salvador (top-end, where big-shot politicians stay); and Hotel Catedral in Mexico City (beautifully located behind the cathedral near the Zócalo in the colonial center). I’d recommend each one. They each had a wonderful staff and a line on good and fairly priced taxis, and offered a convenient refuge from the intensity on the streets. The guides and hotels were arranged through Augsburg College’s Center for Global Education (which has been my tour organizer for all four of my educational visits to the region).
If you don’t speak Spanish, the language barrier can be more of a challenge than you’ll find in Europe. The fact that you’ll rarely see an English-language newspaper or magazine is evidence that there are so few English-speaking tourists these days. Because things are changing so fast and there’s such a small market, guidebooks struggle to cover your needs accurately.
The food is simple. The service is friendly. The prices are low ‘ even if you’re paying five times the local rate to get things to your standards of safety, comfort, and cleanliness. The souvenirs are rustic and pretty much the same. I scoured the main artisan markets and found crude variations on the same themes. The museums and galleries are humble. And the coffee ‘ even in lands famous for producing coffee beans ‘ makes me homesick. (When relaxing here, my drink of choice is a rum-and-Coke ‘ which is called a Nica-libre rather than a Cuba-libre ‘ in part, I think, because it’s fun to order.)
But the people are endearing. The lessons are inspiring. It’s a land of rapid change. I found myself saying “back in the old days” a lot, referring to experiences gained in the 1990s. There’s something about visiting Central America that stirs a certain traveling soul. As some expats I’ve gotten to know here say about El Salvador in particular, “It’s like a low-grade herpes virus. It gets in you, and you can’t get rid of it.”
While my first visit, in 1988, was to witness and understand an actual war between societal groups, today that struggle has become a political one (strikingly, with the same left-versus-right dynamics as in the USA). The gap between rich and poor, which fueled the revolutions and civil wars of the recent past, now fills the docket in each country’s parliaments. And today, both headlines and peoples’ minds are filled with the struggles caused by that persistent gap ‘ petty crime, the drug war, and gang violence.
In this age of globalization, it seems even when national movements of liberation (like El Salvador’s FMLN and Nicaragua’s Sandinistas…and, some would say, even America’s Obama) gain power, they are not allowed to address issues of structural poverty. I’m wondering if future peoples’ struggles must be transnational. (I find people in Europe and the developing world know more about the 1999 WTO riots in Seattle than Seattleites do.)
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Today, forces for economic justice may win their battles. But they face an infinitely more powerful foe than their local elites: a globalized economy. Through corporation-led globalization, there’s been a leap in the power of the developed world over the developing one, and of corporations over nations. And that’s a war no guerilla movement (and perhaps no election campaign) will win.
My nine-day crash course in Latin America issues came with great teachers and the ultimate classroom. In talking with so many local experts, it occurred to me that Americans coming here in search of understanding (like me) want things in black-and-white clarity. And it is way more complex ‘ and therefore frustrating ‘ to people like us. I come home not with the clean answers I sought. But I do come home with a sense of optimism. Pluralistic societies are working things out without war. And, while peace-loving pragmatism can win out over bloody idealism when it comes to economic and social justice issues, the societies of Nicaragua and El Salvador are moving fitfully but steadily forward. You can’t help but fly home from Central America rooting for its beautiful people…and wanting to do more.
Thanks Rick for such a great series and insight. It does appear to be so much more complicated. I think the people of each country have to desire their own freedom. Like seen in Egypt and on going middle east. We cannot just go into other countries with our power of the military and expect to fix it all. I hope someday they will get their freedom so they can have a robust tourism and we can all safely explose Latin America.
loYou`re absolutely right that you come back home rooting for the people. Before my trips down there, I didn`t really pay attention to the news that came from that region. Now I do. And that holds true for every place I visit. Traveling somewhere makes it personal. If our politicians traveled more (sans huge entourages, etc.), perhaps their / our policies would reflect that. veit
Rick, I value your opinion a lot when it comes to advice on Europe, but I think you are behind on your Central America knowledge. Sounds like you had a whirlwind trip of the whole area, so probably like only 3 days in Nicaragua? Of that you spent 2 days in Managua? And your going to say that there is not much there? I think that would be like visiting Croatia for 3 days, spend two days in Zagreb, and saying you weren`t that impressed with Croatia. The volcanoes, lakes, rainforest, beach, colonial town of Granada and Leon are all top notch. If you like fearing for your safety you can have Mexico (Nicaragua has very low violent crime rate, just get outside Managua) and if you like bigger crowds and higher prices, you can have Costa Rica. Then you`ll leave Nicaragua to to rest of us to enjoy. Sounds good to me, but the citizens of Nicaragua could use the help tourism provides. So, for their sake, lets try to give a more fair evaluation of what that great country has to offer. Love you Rick, but had to call you out on this one.`
Thank you Rick for a great series of reports on your recent trip in Latin America. I have never been to Nicaragua or El Salvador but would love to go to them. I am amazed by people who write off visiting whole countries (for example, Mexico) because of what they have read, seen, or heard in the popular media. I have been to Yucatan, Mexico and felt as safe there as in my Minnesota hometown of 30,000. It is my experience one just has to use the common sense the Good Lord gave us. Thanks again and take care!
Rick, I`m sorry you don`t think Nicaragua is a good place to vacation, but I must disagree with you. We have used your Europe guides many times and we have loved your local insight. To be truthful, I don`t think you got the “local insight” in Nicaragua. We live here, and we could have been “YOUR Rick Steves” during your stay! You say that the people are desperately poor – very true, but you didn`t say how happy, friendly and warm they are to each other and to foreigners. You said you felt unsafe here, but you don`t realize that a tourist should fear being mugged or pickpocketed in a cathedral in Italy far more than being mugged or pickpocketed anywhere in Nicaragua. You didn`t seem impressed with our tourist attractions. Yet, you didn`t go horseback riding up to the volcano rim at Laguna de Apoyo, you didn`t go to the organic coffee plantations at Selva Negra, you didn`t hike Volcano Mombacho and you didn`t tour the renovated colonial homes in Granada. These are all within 1 1/2 hours of Managua. You would have “gotten under the hood” so to speak in Europe, but you didn`t do that here. Please come back and when you do contact me and I`ll set you up for some “up close and personal” glimpses of the real Nicaragua – the place my friends and guests LOVE to visit when they are looking for a great vacation!
That sounds like a remarkably expensive visit to what I would have thought would be a low cost destination. I certainly can`t afford $250/day for transport, although I might swing $80/day for a hotel (but I would expect to sleep cheaper in Central America). I just had a car and driver in Sri Lanka and it cost more like $60/day.
Rick, your rants on economic inequality and “social justice” ring hollow and grow tiresome. There you sit, far more wealthy than the overwhelming majority of your readers, sanctimoniously lecturing them on how they should feel guilty for what they have and immolate themselves to the less fortunate. It goes to show that in your transnational Utopia, all will be equal, but some will be more equal than others.
Rick – If you didn`t visit the Corn Islands when you were in Nicaragua (and it doesn`t appear that you did), then you didn`t visit one of that country`s most popular idyllic locations. There`s always next time.
Rick, Almost all my European and American friends have had good times when they have visited El Salvador. The problem is that you did not come as a tourist. You came to push a political agenda that is out dated and completely redundant. I recommend coming for a week leaving the poor people alone and spending time at the beach and in our mountains. Your diatribe against my class has become wearisome. I recommend that you find a new cause…. We are doing just fine here.