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Nicaragua Travel Blogs

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.

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By Hayley
July 15th 2006

Nicaragua

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua

Isla Ometepe

We arrived in Nicaragua the same time as the rain. We were soaked by the time we crossed the border and got into the taxi to San Juan Del Sur.. we had a lovely taxi driver who told us that the country was safe for us and has no problems.... San Juan, a lovely beach place on the pacific coast, was very lovely. We took time to chill out a little, and eat very cheap lobster, watching the sunset over the pacific. The beach was very deserted with a lots of waves and a few surfers. Next we went to Granada, [View Full Entry]

By pandora
July 14th 2006

First day in Granada

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Granada

I am here! I don´t have any pictures to post right now cause i left my camera in la casa! pero, todo es bien. Everything is great so far. Granada seems much safer than places I traveled in Honduras. It is a cute colonial town. Not too big either, only 180,000 people here. My day in a nutshell: did a walking tour of the town down to Lago Nicaragua, got in a truck and drove to a boat dock area and got on a little boat and rode out to las isletas. Apparently there are over 400 islands in Lake Nicaragua. [View Full Entry]

By pandora
July 14th 2006

Why are Central American doors so difficult to unlock¿

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Granada

Gerry, Brittany, and Me
On the way up Mombacho we stopped at a little coffee finca/shop and took many pictures.

My compañera and I can´t get into our ´house´because we apparently are too dumb to figure out how to unlock the door. Just got back from Mombacho! The cloud forest was so cool! We did a walking tour, some other members of the group did a canopy tour - which I would also love to do, but it was $30. It was all cloudy and foggy and a bit chilly-er. The volcano is only at 4000 feet or so. The tour guide said that it gets cold up on the volcano sometimes - all the way down to 60 degrees farenheit. [View Full Entry]

By Seeta
July 13th 2006

Unprocessed food stuffs: mysteries revealed!

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Nueva Ginea

papaya
These papaya are growing right in the middle of URACCAN´s campus. The gardener let us take 2 home: one of which I ate (delicious!) the other we made papaya and mango jam with.

Something that has been an ongoing preoccupation/interest to me is the FOOD here. Or, more precisely, the UNPROCESSED food-stuffs. I mean, we never get to see what our food looks like before it arrives pre-packaged on our grocery store shelves: pre-cooked beans, corn, and peas are to us available in tins, ready-to-eat; vanilla comes in liquid-form in a pretty little bottle, ready to be used in various baking recipies; our coffee is already roasted and ground; our rice shucked and bagged-- even "instant" if we so desire. But what did these products look like BEFORE all of the processing, I hav [View Full Entry]

By A Gant
July 7th 2006

Random pictures

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua

Old Fashioned home cooking
Anabell's sister inlaw prepares chicken soup over a fire.

I want to give you a Photo Tour: I stayed for a week with a friend of mine that I met on the bus ride from the Fabretto Office in Managua to the Education Center that Fabretto runs in San Isidrio. Her name is Anabell. She is a Fabretto becada who is studying to be a French teacher and she works at Fabretto in the mornings helping out. Mostly she just asked me a lot of questions about English. I forgot her name, like I always forget everyone else’s name. Then I saw her again on Friday in the office. This [View Full Entry]

By Tom Travels
July 1st 2006

Finally in Granada, but with a price

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Granada » Bearded Monkey

It's been an exhausting couple of days of travel. Yesterday, following the all-you-can-drink fiasco at the dive shop in Utila, I arose early to catch the ferry to La Ceiba, where I caught another bus to Tegucigalpa. I met a cool guy on the bus there from Arizona, who told me quite a few stories about his travels. One in particular he told sticks in my memory, and I'll recount it.. A fellow he was talking to was traveling in Guatemala. This guy was from Australia, and keep in mind that there is no Australian embassy in Guatemala. The guy was [View Full Entry]

By Seeta
June 29th 2006

Organic farming, horse-back riding, and folkdancing!

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Nueva Ginea

Horse & rider.
This is the pony/horse that I rode back from the farm. Poor thing was EXHAUSTED by the time we arrived!

The past few days I have had some pretty cool experinces: possibly some of my favourite since I arrived! It began on Saturday, when I accompanied a neighbour of mine to her organic farm, and learned how to make organic fertilizer. There is a lot more to it than just composting and putting cow manure on the plants-- it is in fact a very time consuming and elaborate process to ensure that the fertilizer is JUST RIGHT for the plants (Not to acidic, not too wet or dry). Yet this was no ordinary organic farm (that in and of itself sounds [View Full Entry]

By Seeta
June 25th 2006

Nicaraguan Churches

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Nueva Ginea

Family groups
Once again the "family groups" on fathers day in la profecía. As you can see, the caulture here is much more PHYSICAL: personal space is mch reduced, and touching to express affection is common, espec... [more]

I have had some interesting expereinces at the various Churches of Nueva Guinea. Nueva Guinea was founded by a Baptist pastor in the 1970´s, so it has highly Evangelical roots-- apparently one of the only cities in the country that is predominantly Evangelical, as opposed to Catholic. Although I have noted the predominance of the Evangelical church in the Nicaraguan culture here in general; as opposed to the highly Catholicized society of Mexico, where the Catholic Church reigns supreme. I shall begin by describing my trips to the Evangelical Churches... I have attended two different Evange [View Full Entry]

By BexProfit
June 24th 2006

Nicaragua

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Isla de Ometepe

Volcan Momotombo

From Rivas, I managed to get to the port and over on the ferry to Omotepe island. Omotepe consists of two volcanoes- Fire and Water, the latter being inactive. It is a beautiful spot, although like the rest of Nicaragua has very basic facilities. I stayed in town one night and wandered around during a power cut - there is a main street and not much else but I sat on the edge of their 3D model of the island down by the shore and was given a gift of local fruit by a group of boys to munch on as [View Full Entry]

By A Gant
June 24th 2006

Gettin down with the cool kids!

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua » Managua

The bus
How we get to San Isidrio. It is a dusty/muddy road, depending on precipitation. And we all squeeze in; 3-6 to a seat. But it is fun!

9-22-06 So yeah this week I was a teacher in a school 15 minutes outside of the capital of Managua. The kids are awesome, and really know how to get down. (Check out some of the pictures if you don´t believe me.) They learn how to dance like when they are 3. Anyway, I also took the time to write more insightful observations about the children I met. The Youth: I really love the students… of course I do. One, Janet who is 16, wants to be a doctor. We always talk after class. Another friend, Fatima, who is 27 years [View Full Entry]

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Travel Blog » Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua