Initially, Matagalpa was not on our list of places to visit in Nicaragua. Until Jan found out that Matteo, one of his Erasmus friends he spent a semester in Stockholm with, was currently living there. Matteo does his Swiss civil service as a civil engineer at Odesar, a Nicaraguan NGO.
Little Erasmus reunion with Matteo.We stayed at the Hostel La Buena Onda, which we can highly recommend.
Matagalpa is probably most known for being located on the coffee route, along which you find some of the country’s most beautiful coffee plantations. Other than that, Matagalpa is a fairly average Nica city. There is, however, something to watch out for: the large and deep uncovered “manholes” next to the curbside of almost every single street corner in the city. They’re there for the water that floods the streets during the rainy season from April to October. However, you have to be careful not to be washed down such a hole yourself.