Managua is a beautiful city

Although not many will agree with me - mainly because other parts of the country are more beautiful - might as well be because they haven't been to Manila. Manila has its charms but many would agree that it is crowded and literally gray where very few places are still green and smog perpetually hovers over the city. Don't get me wrong, I love Metro Manila (I grew up there) with its exciting nightlife, typical Asian noise, the smell of the sun burning concrete and the dazzling neon lights at night...It is after all a bustling Asian metropolis.

After all my rants here , here and here, I think it's only fair to talk about what I like about Nicaragua.

Managua, the capital, can be likened to a sleepy provincial town compared to Manila and Copenhagen, considered to still be one of the greenest capitals in existence. The houses in the affluent (middle class and above) neighborhoods of Managua would all have medium to big landscaped gardens and manicured lawns (in various degrees of neatness) with beautiful flowers

and fruit bearing trees,

totally unlike the concrete jungle that is Manila. You don't have to travel to the highlands north of Managua to realize how fertile the soil in this country is. The streets of these communities are lined with 'neatly trimmed' trees, and the views from these houses are precious, almost always looking out to lake Managua.

All that available space is due to Nicaragua's land mass versus population count. Nicaragua, with a land mass of 120,254 sq. km., making it the largest country in Central America (slightly smaller than the state of New York - while this publication says ('slightly larger')), has a population of (only) 5.7 million (July 2007 est.), of which 1.7, live in Managua.

We are fortunate to live in a house a bit higher than city level (55 meters), in a relatively new urban area but still only 15 minutes away from the city center or old Managua. Old Managua is the part of the city that has taken the brunt of a devastating earthquake in 1972 and has never really been rebuilt to its original splendor since.

This house, in fact, seem to be the only one on a gradual slope (in our immediate vicinity, anyway) giving us a glimpse, on a clear day, of Lake Managua and a whiff of the Northern wind taking down temperatures to a pleasant level specially at night.

I wake up to birds chirping every morning,

see palm trees and fresh green hues dotted with tropical colors around me every single day (even in dry season)

and end my day watching an orange hued sky.

Now, tell me that's not beautiful.