What is there to do in Managua, Nicaragua?

I came home from Guatemala in the early seventies with a soccer ball for my cousin's young boys. I think it entered the Good Will stream soon after (If I'da known, I'd've kept it myself.) Hard to fit in my not big luggage at the time. How does Guatemala and its regions fit with these sports? (I was only there for something like 3.5 days, part of them on a tour bus. Did I ever mention I hate tours? This was part of the start of that opinion, though not so grating as the few other times I ever took one.) On Guatemala, I didn't know anything about the government et al until some time later. Stupid tourist. Stared at the goosesteppers through Chichicastenango. Took their photo.

Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica: soccer
Nicaragua, Panama: baseball (though soccer is advancing in Panama)
In Colombia, soccer has made its way replacing baseball and cycling as numero uno, but it's not a craze.
Venezuela: baseball, of course: until a few years ago, it was the soccer laughingstock of South America, but not anymore.
The Spanish speaking Antilles play baseball.
The English speaking ones play cricket, then soccer or field hockey.
Haiti plays soccer.

Re: Colombia. No way! They are far too good to be recent fans...

Serious? They've had world-class soccer players for as long as I can remember, and the other soccer-playing countries on your list don't have any that I know of.

Not recent recent fans.
Soccer has been always popular in Colombia, but became number one in the 1980s.
For a young person, yes, Colombia has "always" had some very good players.

To put things into perspective: Copa America started in 1916, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay; Paraguay started to compete in 1921, Bolivia in 1926, Peru in 1927, Ecuador in 1939... Colombia in 1945 and Venezuela in 1967.

The problem with soccer-prone Central American countries is that they rarely have ANY world-class competitor in ANY sport.
I cannot recall a single Guatemalan Olympic athlete or world class soccer-player. Same thing goes with Salvadoreans and Hondurans. Costa Rica has the Poll sisters (born in Nicaragua, BTW) and Paolo Wanchope. Non-soccer Central American countries fare a little better: Nicaragua has former Orioles pitcher Dennis Martinez and world champion boxer Alexis Argüello; Panama has had several baseball stars, from Rod Carew to Mariano Rivera and boxer Roberto "Stone-fists" Durán.

Hmm, I would have blamed their smaller populations but then you go and find some examples from Panama.

You know what that means right? You know way too much about sports. ;-)

Actually it's a combination of population size, income, culture and sports system (including if the most popular sports have a lot of world-wide competition or not).

I agree and would add race (controversial but true), climate and school sports system to the mix.

Don't know about climate, but certainly race and school sports system play a part.

I'll go further about sports culture. I remember watching a Panamerican women's basketball game (it must have been the 90s). It was the game to avoid last place, between two Central American nations (Guatemala - El Salvador, methinks). Both teams had heavily pregnant women on the court!

Think Jamaican bobsled team, or how many athletes in Scandinavia end up in winter sports and outside of more international sports.

But maybe that's already covered for you in your earlier point about if there is international competition for a country's favorite sports.



Was there a prize for last place? lol

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You almost made me forget what I came here to post with that one.

I just realized why the food here tastes a bit funny to me. The water is chlorinated much more heavily than in Costa Rica, and tastes like pool water to me. So naturally, the pasta, the rice and almost all the food tastes a bit weird.

That's the kind of thing you get used to if you are a local but for a while (because I hadn't had any tap water) I didn't know what the slightly funny taste in the food was.