Background: The Pacific Coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and again in 2001 saw the Sandinistas defeated. The country has slowly rebuilt its economy during the 1990s, but was hard hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
April 3rd 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon First off, it is hot as balls in this country. We stumbled into Leon early Monday morning after the episode at the border. After checking into a great hostel I agonized through 9 innings of White SO ... [full story]
March 22nd 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon We got off the boat safely on Thursday morning, to the relief of some of us. Although now that we had finally gotten used to the waves, we were stumbling around on land with our sea-legs. We made our ... [full story]
March 19th 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon The week of Semana Santa (the holy week leading up to Easter) began for us with a long trek from Ometepe to Leon.
We got up early, packed our bags, said our goodbyes, and hurried down the hill to c ... 10 photos[full story]
March 16th 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon I love León. I have a profound amount of respect for any city where you can see a beautiful colonial church, a pro-Sandinista rally, a Picasso painting, and a cockfight in the same afternoon.
Su ... [full story]
March 2nd 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon The girls and I just saw a movie called CHARLIE WILSONS WAR... most of why I went was to be able to sit in an air conditioned and dark space for three hours (its so hot here that often its hard to mot ... [full story]
February 11th 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon This title is not just a reference to one the greatest films ever made, but just about sums up my last few days in Nicaragua.
After the first couple of days in Managua, I decided to rent a car and ... 9 photos[full story]
February 10th 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon Greetings all,
I'm in a town called Leon right now in Nicaragua. Nice place. Lots of universities here so the young population makes for a very vibrant atmosphere. Last I wrote I was on my way to ... 5 photos[full story]
February 8th 2008Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon So after my last entry i headed back to the hostel and chatted with some other travlers and paid my money for the volcano trip the following day, it was a pretty lazy evening as i had a veggie quissid ... 3 photos[full story]
April 8th 2007Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon Decided I´d better get up to date and then backtrack or I´ll be home before I get chance to write about my extended little jaunt around Latin Am sans girlfriend :-)
On 5th April took a 6am bus from ... [full story]
December 15th 2007Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Leon Bussi saapui Nicaraguan paakaupunkiin Managuaan kutakuinkin ajoissa ja talla kertaa majoitusta loytyi samasta korttelista bussiterminaalin kanssa joten eipa paljon tarvinnut arpoa. Itse Managuassa ei ... [full story]
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