Our Man in Granada

Nica Movie #6

Nicaragua. It's hot.  Apparently.

Looking good.

Nica Movie #5

Secrets of the CIA. 

Peace Corps Cribs

Less bling. More bugs. Eat your heart out MTV.

Carly...great porch

Susan...and her long distance latrine

Essa...complete with hammock-dwelling dog

Jenny n' Jeff... with eight legged, sink-living visitor (see pic above)

Mason and Brenna... and a horrifyingly scary example of the bug food chain

And that's it.  I promise I'll post pictures of our pad when we get there and find a place.

Preferably with less creatures that crawl, slither and sting.

Best Friends

Article in Salon on the Hugo and Daniel thing.

Granada Doors

doors, originally uploaded by Irv Wiswall.

Love it.  More Flickr Nica Doors here.

Gay Rights in Nicaragua

Now this was a new one on me.

It's a somewhat quirky story of a teen fleeing Nicaragua because he is homosexual and persecuted.  The upshot being that he can't prove he's gay so he is denied asylum.

Sounds like some awful film plot.  Anyway...

Ahhh Nicararguan Chocolate

Just like Ronny Jordon, it appears I'm on my way to chocolate heaven.  The image on the left is from Nica-based photographer Richard Leonardi and it was taken on a trip to El Castillo del Cacao in Matagalpa.

I also stumbled across the Momotombo Chocolate Factory.  The website is a bit sparse but Treehugger states:

"The innovative confections are hand crafted from organic, unpressed and unheated cacao seeds. Sweet flavors include guava, lemongrass and ginger. Some savory options: garlic, habanero and tequila with lime. The preservative free goodies have a shelf life of 30 days."

The bad news is that it appears that all of this is probably just a little too late for Valentine's Day unless you are in Nicaragua yourself.  Details on how to buy from our choccy producers here and here.

There is however these guys who might be worth a try if you're not a Nica-dweller, the cost of your purchase also includes a donation to "..help address the issues of poverty and deforestation" in Central America.  Trust me, chicks dig that.

As Nica Rebels, What Next for the Middle East?

"That Nicaraguans withstood intense pressure and re-elected Ortega demonstrates the absolute failure of U.S. foreign policy to provide a decent life to even a small country of a few million people -- so what are the chances the U.S. would be able to do so in a region like the Middle East? That the Sandinistas remain the single most popular party in Nicaragua is evidence of the limits of U.S. power, especially when it is exercised purely in military terms, which is, after all, the favorite exercise of the neocons. A country as poor as Nicaragua, in a region long locked into the United States' sphere of influence, bucking Washington's diktats is an intolerable embarrassment."  Professor Greg Gandin in the Ohmy News.

Found via fyl at Nicaliving.

Thank You Travelistic

While persuading my girlfriend that Nicaragua was the country of our dreams, I may have misled her slightly as regards my actual knowledge of the area.

Sure, in the few days that I spent in Nicaragua, during the time I backpacked through Central America, I had fallen in love with the country.  But what did I really know about it?

Eventually I had to admit that my knowledge was more than a little limited.  Since there I have been scouring the internet trying to find evidence of Nicaragua being the paradise that I thought it was.

In particular I have been trawling YouTube for a decent Nicaragua film but to no avail.  Eventually Gadling pointed me in the direction of Travelistic.  It's a site that specialises in travel videos.

And how beautiful does Nicaragua look?  Told you.

Old Foes, New Argument

The Time Magazine Cover is from March 31st, 1986. The news items below it is dated yesterday.

The United States told Nicaragua on Feb. 5 to destroy Soviet-era anti-aircraft missiles, setting up its first fight with old Cold War foe President Daniel Ortega since he returned to office last month. Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, said on Feb. 2 that Nicaragua should keep its arsenal of more than 1,000 SAM-7 missiles because Washington was giving planes to neighbor Honduras.

Read the rest here.