Rivas, Nicaragua

Most travellers experience RIVAS as a dusty bus stop on the way to or from Costa Rica, San Juan del Sur or Ometepe, unaware of the important role the unprepossessing town has played in Nicaraguan history. Founded in 1736, it became an important stop on the route of Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company, which ferried goods and passengers between the Caribbean and the Pacific via Lago de Nicaragua – the town's heyday came during the California Gold Rush, when its languid streets were full of prospectors travelling with the Transit Company on their way to the goldfields of the western US. Modern-day Rivas isn't anything special, but it's actually not such a bad place to get stuck for a day.