The hotel’s exterior photo is the Real InterContinental Managua at Metrocentro Mall, where we’ll stay for two nights, arriving today and departing on Monday.

We’ve arrived at Costa Rica’s San Jose Santamaria International Airport (SJO). We have our boarding passes in hand with a relatively easy transition through immigration and security. With no bags to check, the check-in process is simple. 

In most countries, checking in online 24 hours in advance and printing a boarding pass is pointless. We gave up doing so long ago. Since we usually have bags to check, we receive boarding passes simultaneously as we studied the bags after only presenting our passports. No one ever asks us for printed proof of our tickets.

We’ve located our gate at the end of the long terminal. At the moment, we’re seated in a cafe a short distance from the entrance.  Tom didn’t order anything, and I’m sipping on a Chamomile tea.

The airport in Costa Rica is quite lovely, with good signage in both Spanish and English. The transition was smooth. By the way, the taxi fare from the villa was US $32 (CRC 18,217) with a tip. The taxi driver avoided the toll road, and we arrived 35 minutes later.

In our old lives, the only time we knew much about Managua, Nicaragua was the frequent mention of the city repeatedly in the news in 1986 regarding the Iran Contra affair. We won’t get into that here, but here’s a tidbit of information about the capital city:

“Managua, on the south shore of Lake Managua, is the capital city of Nicaragua. Its cathedral, a shell since a 1972 earthquake, is on the Plaza of the Revolution. Nearby is the tomb of Sandinista leader Carlos Fonseca. The 1935 National Palace of Culture houses the National Museum. Hilltop Parque Histórico Nacional Loma de Tiscapa is known for its crater lake and a huge statue of revolutionary Augusto Sandino.

We’re looking forward to the hotel we selected Real InterContinental Managua at Metrocentro Mall, one of the best in the city, which may be found at this link at Hotels.com on our site. Then, of course, we’ll take photos of the hotel, restaurants, meals, and the places we visit while in Nicaragua.