Update 2 - Day 1

OK - hit all the points on my list. It took 3 and 1/2 hours to get from Managua to Jinotega. The inner city driving was a nightmare. To start with, my rental car is a manual transmission. Now I know how to drive a stick but I don't do it often and city traffic (no less a strange city) was quite the challenge. Combine that with the usual poorly marked streets and a poorly functioning map app and getting out of Managua was not as easy as one mght expect. Nonetheless, after about 45 minutes I cleared the city proper and picked up the Pan American Highway (Nic. Rt. 1).

 

After leaving the city, I drove for about 60 km past open countryside , a mix of grasslands, small trees, but basically flat. After that the terrain started to pick up and I began the climb. Time to start downshifting. More later - time for dinner.