sábado, 21 de diciembre de 2013
An excellent oxymoron
domingo, 15 de diciembre de 2013
Lunch at the market
I ate at Doña Julia's little lunch place on Wednesday, in the bowels of what was once the Managua Judicial complex. She was offering grilled heart or chicken. I opted for the chicken with rice, fried green plantains (tostones), salad and a Fanta roja (a Coca Cola version of the Nicaraguan staple 'Rojita' - a carbonated beverage that tastes like sweet, bubbly rose water. This could set you back around C$40 plus C$10 for the drink.
martes, 3 de diciembre de 2013
Lake Managua
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What do you think about this picture, taken from the new boardwalk (El Malecón) in Managua?
sábado, 16 de noviembre de 2013
Tailoring and hemming
You can find anything on the back streets of Managua, Nicaragua. For example, in Buenos Aires (near Loma Linda, Managua) you can get your clothing hemmed and repaired. And they are the 'Best on the best'. Need I say more?
miércoles, 13 de noviembre de 2013
Corn Islands: Nicaragua’s English-Speaking Caribbean
Corn Islands: Nicaragua's English-Speaking Caribbean
The Corn Islands offer a healthy reef for scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing, and lobstering, friendly locals who speak English as their official language, and very few tourists. Thanks to surrounding coral reefs these islands are the best places to spot hammerhead sharks, eagle rays, greens sea turtles, and more.
These two little dots of paradise are located less than 50 miles off Nicaragua 's Caribbean coast. Big Corn Island is about four square miles in size and has maybe 6,000 inhabitants. It's just 10 miles from Little Corn which is one-fourth the size of Big Corn in both land mass and population.
How they came to be called the "Corn Islands" is a mystery. Some say pirates and British buccaneers, who came here to restock supplies during the 17th and 18th centuries, misspelled the Spanish word for meat, carne. Others say they're named for the corn found growing here.
Lobstering is the main industry and one expat who lives on Big Corn told me, "We eat lobster with eggs for breakfast, we have lobster with pasta, with rice, with fruit… We experiment with lobster in just about every dish you can imagine."
The airstrip on Big Corn is being lengthened to accommodate international flights, to make the exportation of fresh lobster directly to market in Miami easier. Improvements to the hospital are also being made to comply with associated regulations.
Will these upgrades and developments bring more tourists to the area? Probably. Although these islands aren't for everyone. Supplies have to be imported if they aren't locally grown or caught from the waters. Restaurants all tend to serve variations of the same dishes, with few exceptions.
You won't find many tourist businesses or souvenir shops except for a few hotels and guesthouses. Coffee shops and Internet cafés are rare and Internet won't be what you are used to at home.
There are no roads on Little Corn, just a three-foot-wide sandy walkway. No vehicles are allowed although a new upscale eco-resort is in the works.
Nicaragua's National Assembly has declared the Corn Islands a site of national tourism heritage, with the aim of enticing investment and boosting hotel capacity.
If you are an adventuresome soul and the pioneering sort, my advice is to go sooner rather than later. Prices are low for now. A quarter-acre lot with a million-dollar view of the Caribbean can be had for just $35,000.
To get to the Corn Islands, you can fly directly to Big Corn from Managua, expect to pay about $180 for a round-trip ticket. To get to Little Corn, take the 30-minute local water taxi from Big Corn for about $7 per person.
Editor's Note: Learn more about Nicaragua and other countries in our daily postcard e-letter. Sign up for IL's free daily postcard here and we'll send you a FREE REPORT- Start a New Life on the Beach in Nicaragua.
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viernes, 8 de noviembre de 2013
Big Jesus statue in San Juan del Sur
Esta estatua grande de Jesús está ubicada en un punto envidiable sobre la bahía de San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
Ometepe
We hopped on the 4 p.m. ferry from San Jorge, Rivas, Nicaragua en route to the island of Ometepe. This, as you might now, is a fresh water paradise - an ecological gem outstanding in the 10th largest lake in the world (Lake Nicaragua or Lake Colcibolca).
We hopped on the Che Guevara boat. It holds up to 14 vehicles and 150 passengers. The fares are: C$800 per vehicle round trip (plus C$81 tax each way) and C$80 round-trip per person (there is a córdoba (C$) conversion tool on this page to see dollar prices).
It was a choppy ride but not too bad on a big boat like this one. We arrived an hour later at Moyogalpa and drove off...a weekend of adventure ahead of us on Ometepe!!
Nos metimos al ferry de la 4 p.m. desde San Jorge, Rivas, Nicaragua en ruta a la isla de Omtepe. Esta isla es un paraíso ecológico, rodeado de agua dulce - el décimo más grande en todo el mundo - El Gran Lago de Nicaragua o Cocibolca.
Fuimos en el ferry 'Che Guevarra'. Caben hasta 14 vehículos y 150 pasajeros. El pasaje vale C$800 por vehicle (ida y vuelta) más C$81 córdobas de impuestos por cada vía. Luego, cada pasajero paga C$80 ida y vuelta (hay una herramienta de conversión de monedas en esta página).
El lago estaba algo bravo pero bastante manejable por el tomaño del barco. Llegamos una hora después a Moyogalpa y nos fuimos...un fin de semana de aventura nos espera en Ometepe!!!
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