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Shopping and markets
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Managua's best shopping is to found in its characterful and varied
markets
. The
Mercado de Mayoreo
in barrio La ConcepciA?n, near the airport, is divided into separate areas or buildings for different types of produce: onions, lettuces, seafood, eggs, chickens, plantains and so on, and you can get a cheap meal at the market cafA© while waiting to board buses heading north. In contrast, the famous
Mercado Oriental
, a few blocks southeast of the old centre, is a small, lawless city-within-a-city where you can buy just about anything, but need to keep a close eye on your pockets - take someone with you to watch your back and help carry your stuff. In the streets around the entrance to the market are several shops selling furniture and electrical goods. If you can carry it, it's worth buying a rocking chair here: beautifully made, they cost around US$25, and can be bought disassembled for carrying onto the plane.
Near the Carretera a Masaya in the south of the city, the Mercado Roberto Huembes is somewhat safer to wander around than the Oriental and has an excellent crafts section. You can find rocking chairs here, too, and some of the best hammocks in the world - everything from a simple net hammock, lightweight and perfect for the beach (US$3), to a luxury, two-person, woven cotton hammock with wooden separators and beautiful tassels (US$30). Products made of leather and skins are in abundance, but choose carefully as many of the species used are endangered. Traditional clothing is cheap, finely embroidered and perfect for the tropics. Paintings in the style of the artists' colony on the Solentiname Islands are available here, along with many fine pen-and-ink drawings and abstract works. You can buy Nicaraguan cigars ( puros ) as well as wicker products ( mimbre ) such as baskets, mats, chairs and wall hangings. Many of these crafts are produced using methods dating back to pre-Columbian times.
Markets apart, in these post-revolutionary days you can buy anything you want in Managua, and there are now plenty of large
supermarkets
along the Carretera Norte, as well as the well-stocked La Colonia supermarket just off Plaza EspaA±a. You can also buy a lot of the basics at local
pulperAas
, small shops set up in people's houses, which are never more than a couple of blocks away.
Fruit
and
vegetables
are cheapest at the weekend markets, when the growers come into town to sell their produce. Fresh produce tends to be more expensive elsewhere, unless you go to some of the bigger markets like the Oriental and the Mayoreo. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Nicaragua,
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