Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Police
(
2359-2169, 118)
Getting There & Away
The bus terminal is on the Panamericana, six blocks from the town center.
El Espino (Honduran border)
(US$0.50, 40 minutes, 5:15am to 5:15pm, hourly)
Estelí
(US$1.30, 1¾ hours, 5:20am to 5pm, every 40 minutes)
Managua
(
ordinario
US$3, 4½ hours, 4am to 5pm, almost hourly;
expreso
US$4, four
hours, 5am, 6:15am, 7:30am, 2pm, 3:15pm)
Ocotal
(US$0.60, one hour, 5:15am to 4:30pm, every 45 minutes)
TOP OF CHAPTER
Ocotal
POP 41,900 / ELEV 612M
Sunken into a boulder-strewn valley sprinkled with Ocote pines and wildflowers and
ringed with gorgeous Segovias, Ocotal is the commercial center of the mythic Segovias.
These mountains once baited gold-hungry pirates up the Río Coco from the Caribbean
Sea. Then, in 1927, Sandino and his 'Crazy Little Army,' seized control of Ocotal from
federal forces for his first big victory. This action won him some extra attention from the
US White House, who soon made humble Ocotal the first city in history to be bombed by
fighter planes.
Today, Ocotal is just a peaceful market town that serves farmers and families who live
in the dozens of surrounding pueblos.
Sights
With mossy columns, twin bell towers (although one was technically built in 2003) and a
faded, chipped facade, the baroque-neoclassical
El Templo Parroquial de Ocotal
(1803-69)
is transporting, especially in the late-day sun. But the star of the town center is Ni-
caragua's finest
parque central
. Former mayor Fausto Sánchez was a botanist, and he
planted hundreds of tropical plants, including magnolias, roses, orchids and birds of para-
dise, between soaring cypress and pine trees that are more than 100 years old.
Around the corner,
Casa de Cultura
(c 1890) was once a US Marine base, and is now the
public library. Continue west three more blocks to the 1945
Monument to San Francisco
,
