More stuff Nicaragüense

So in case you didn't know, Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti. It's also on the list of one of the dirtiest I've visited (Cambodia still wins though). After school one day I visited a town called Masaya via one of the infamous Central American 'chicken buses'. These are old Canadian or North American school buses and I can confirm that they are super-uncomfortable. And always decorated with stickers, lights and religious stuff. Here's a pretty stock standard bus.

Anyway back to Masaya. It was filthy.

This was the bus terminal. I'm actually fairly convinced it was also the local rubbish tip. There were huge piles of rubbish laying around and it seemed to be coming out of the ground! The bus terminal was also next to the market which was just as filthy. Everyone was selling food but I was convinced I'd shortened my life expectancy just by being there so I skipped the food. 

They're famous for their sweets there but luckily you could also purchase them in Granada and my teacher got some for me to try. The one on the left is like a candied fruit. Don't ask me what fruit because it's a weird local one I don't remember. Then the radioactive pink one is like coconut ice. The ball was also fruit based. The diamond was like an Indian sweet and the brown coconut one was my favourite. Kinda like a coconut caramel thing. Yum!

The other thing there is a lot of in Nicaragua is horses and carts. They use them as taxis and obviously to transport goods too. In Granada they use them with decorated carriages to take tourists on a tour of the city. 

They're also obsessed with baseball. I didn't get to catch a real game but I saw some kids practising on the weekend which was cool. 

I also saw something which I thought was quite unusual for this part of the world and just the world in general. A sign about safe sex. With two of the most unlikely models. But still I'm impressed. This translates to something like 'safe sex and pleasure. Always use a condom'.

The other cool thing about Nicaragua is they have plastic money! How cool. I've missed Australian money so much.