The Restaurante y Disco El Principe Numero Dos (next to the baseball stadium on the highway to the border) is Rivas’s most popular dancing nightspot, especially on Saturdays when you likely won’t see any other gringos.

The city’s best bar is Pipi’s Bar (across from the Texaco), serving appetizers and drinks starting at 5 p.m.

Otherwise, enjoy the view of cloud-covered Volcán Concepción from the breezy second-floor patio of Komalé (from the BAC, two blocks south). With its creative decor, pleasant lighting, and music videos on a big screen, it is the hippest lounge in town.

No one enjoys baseball as much as the people of Rivas; at last count, there were 138 officially registered baseball teams and more than 3,900 registered players in the municipality, with stadiums or makeshift diamonds in every village in the department!

Attending a Sunday afternoon game in Rivas’s main stadium on the highway is a great way to experience the city and the energy of its people; tickets are $1, and in lieu of chili dogs, there are plenty of vigorón (fried pork and yucca) and enchiladas in the grandstand.