Happiness • 11 comments • ... is a chlorinated pool.* *Sometimes the waves are too rough to swim in the ocean and you need a break from salt water. At least, this is how we justified using the hotel pool when there were so many gorgeous beaches nearby. You know it's a rough day when you need to make a choice between the ocean and a pool.
courtyard • 4 comments • While in San Salvador, we discovered a Courtyard, by Marriott. It was brand new and we loved the great service, amenities and clean suites. On the days that it rained, we hung around indoors. The heated, roof-top pool and a gym with the amazing view had us wishing we lived in the hotel.
managua • 16 comments • We arrived in Nicaragua's capital, by bus, late at night. There was only one 'cab driver' who quoted us a price of $6. He looked kind of sketchy (and was inexplicably wearing a Kate Hudson tee from the Skeleton Key), but an armed police man at the bus station assured us that it would be a safe ride. Once we were inside the cab, he told us it was $6, per person. We had experienced this sort of thing in Egypt. Normally we are savvy enough to make sure the fare that is quoted is for both of us, but we were exhausted and just wanted to get to our hotel. Mina was able to negotiate the price down and we started driving through the completely empty streets of Managua. After a few minutes of driving, he stopped and went inside a house. When he came out, he tried to tell us that because our hotel was a "5 star hotel" (it wasn't), that our fare should be $26 - we told him that we didn't understand what he was saying and he eventually got frustrated and started driving again. It was terribly disconcerting that there was not one other person on the roads - no cars, no pedestrians. After several minutes of anxiously trying to figure out if he was actually going to take us to our destination (or rob/kill us), we were relieved to see the sign for our hotel. We finished the night with a relaxing dip in the pool:
