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| Nicaragua Managua |
The land where the city of Managua stands was inhabited as much as 6,000 years ago, as is evident by a set of fossilised human footprints found on the shores of the lake. When the Spanish first arrived in Nicaragua in 1522 the site was a small indigenous village. The Spanish built the city of Leon for their capital and it remained so until 1857, when in order to put an end the the continuous conflict between Leon and its rival city Granada the capital was moved to managua, which lay at an equal distance between the two.Nowadays Managua has a population of around 1,680,100 which is about one fifth of all the people living in Nicaragua. The city was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and again in 1972. This left the central area of the city too damaged to repair and most people moved to the outskirts. The centre was never properly rebuilt and some of the abandoned buildings still remain today. The city is situated right on the southern edge of Lago Managua and there are four small lagoons actually within the city limits. In fact the name Managua in the Nahuatl language means "surrounded by water". After the earthquakes the city was expanded rapidly and rather chaotically outwards from the damaged centre. It therefore lacks the neat grid layout of streets found in most Nicaraguan towns which can make it confusing to navigate. There are numerous internet cafes around the centre, usually charging around $1 per hour. Numerous banks in Managua change US dollars. There are ATMs, often at petrol stations and shopping malls such the Plaza Inter off Avenida Bolivar and the Esso station just north of it. |
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