Nica-rado get ready! Fundraising Fiesta at the Butterfly Pavillion Next Friday!

August 31st, 2007 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Colorado Nica-philes mark your calendars for Friday, September 7. Boulder-based Empowerment International, an NGO (non-governmental organization) which helps school kids in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, presents their fourth annual “Festival of Hope” at the Westminster Butterfly Pavillion. Yes, amigos, come one, come all to support EI’s efforts to sponsor children in slums who are unable to afford basic necessities of going to school (tuition, uniform, supplies, etc.).

I’ll be there to auction off and sign copies of my books, Moon Nicaragua and Living Abroad In Nicaragua, to sing some Nicaragua folk songs, and to enjoy the company of so many fellow Nicaradans. (more…)

Study Spanish in Nicaragua: My Article in BUDGET TRAVEL

August 15th, 2007 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

If you’d like to improve your Español in the Land of Lakes and Volcanoes, check out this article I wrote about how to choose a Nicaraguan Spanish school:

The best way to learn to speak Spanish is to go abroad and study. And you’ll find fantastic deals on language classes in Nicaragua, a cheap and safe nation in Central America. For about $150-$200 a week, Nicaraguan full-immersion schools generally offer 20 hours of instruction, room and board with a family, and field trips.

Read the rest of the article

BudgetTravel Blog Props for Tranquilo Traveler

Books on Nicaragua: A Few Summer Reading Lists

July 15th, 2007 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Nicaragua has long inspired poets, journalists, novelists, and artists, so we Nicaphiles never have a shortage of new titles to add to our lists. Plus, there are oodles of out-of-print treasures to be dug up out there. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.

I realized how far behind I am after stumbling on an excellent reading list compiled by Preston C. Enright of Denver: “Nicaragua: Surviving US terrorism” is 40 titles strong and was created “to honor the Nicaraguans and those who work in solidarity with them.” I also found a list called “So You’d Like to Learn More About Nicaragua,” compiled by Ryan, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. I found several books I’d never heard of, including a novel by Silvio Sirias which appears on both lists. Bernado and the Virgin is set in Nicaragua just after the 1980 Sandinista revolution. Based on the actual events of tailor and pig farmer Bernardo Martinez’s encounter with the Holy Virgin in his village of Cuapa, the book is also a “stormy epic of Nicaragua through the long Somoza years to the Sandinista revolution.” Can’t wait to read it.
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Nicaragua Fundraiser BBQ and Backyard Concert in Boulder this Sunday

June 19th, 2007 | By Joshua | No Comments »

What do Nicaragua, bluegrass music, Colorado, and chocolate have in common? They’re all converging this Sunday, in front of Boulder’s famous flatirons in a fund-raising event for Empowerment International, a Granada, Nicaragua-based non-government organization (NGO) which focuses on education issues. Definitely browse their website to see what they’re up to, then, if you’re in the Rocky Mountain neighborhood, swing by the event. I hope to be there, listening to music from three local bands while meeting fellow “Nicaradans,” as I call the surprisingly large number of Colorado Nica-philes. Click ahead for details: (more…)

Nicaragua Volcano-Boarding Featured in New Reality Show About Travel Writers

June 14th, 2007 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

In this fun, guitar-fueledd, round-the-world video montage at BraveNewTraveler.com, “Nicaragua Volcano Boarding” takes center stage alongside such activities as Safari in Botswana, Dogsledding in Greenland, and Paragliding in Turkey. Not bad for a little country whose tourism industry is younger than my hiking boots. It looks like they’re pushing people sitting on glorified sleds down the volcanic slope of Cerro Negro these days. Hell, when I rode Cerro Negro, I did it standing up, doggonnit! (more…)

Wonderful photography stream from Nicaragua

June 14th, 2007 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I am continually impressed by the brightness and mood captured in the images of Our Man In Granada. Ourman (”or Steve Jackson in the real world”) currently has 10 sets of photos in his Nicaragua Flickr group, taking you from Miraflor to Mombacho, and many places in between. I was particularly washed in white-light Peace Corps nostalgia by this bus image.

If you like what you see, bookmark Ourman’s blog for some words to go with that stunning scenery. You’ll hear him shriek like a 12-year-old girl at the sight of a scorpion, and wax poetic about La Isla de Ometepe, whose elusive beauty he captures quite well: “It’s not the Carribean. It’s not emerald water-surrounded Thai islands. It’s not snow covered peaks. But there is just a feel about the place . . . It feels so magical.”

Here’s another place you’ll find a magical image of Ometepe: the cover of my and Randy’s book.

Nicaragua murder story featured in Outside

May 21st, 2007 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

“The Boomtown, the Gringo, the Girl, and Her Murder,” by Tony D’Souza, is the main story in the current issue of Outside (June 2007): “When a local beauty turned up dead in Nicaragua’s San Juan del Sur, the dream of paradise became a nightmare for one expat American surfer. He got 30 years and, predictably, a media melee ensued. But TONY D’SOUZA was on the scene from day one. This is the story you haven’t heard.”

If you haven’t bought the magazine yet, check out this teaser of the article, this beautiful gallery of Nica images (by photographer Jason Florio), and this podcast interview with the author. (more…)

New Spanish School in Nicaragua

April 30th, 2007 | By Joshua | No Comments »

An increasing number of Central America–bound travelers spend at least part of their trip at one of the many available Nicaraguan Spanish language schools, y con razón (with good reason). $150–200 per week gets you 4-6 hours per day of personal Spanish instruction—plus room and board in a Nicaraguan family’s home, as well as field trips to local sites in the afternoons and weekends. Not only is this an incredible deal, but it’s the best way to go deep and get the most out of your interaction with Nicaraguans during your stay here.
But which school is right for you? In addition to breaking it down in both our books (which contain extensive listings by region of the many Spanish schools throughout the country), Randy and I offer an online “Escuela Scoop” covering many of the country’s best programs, including links to each school’s website. In addition, there is a constant stream of Spanish school suppliers rising to meet the enormous demand. The newest of these is Spanish School Matagalpa, the first of its kind in Nicaragua’s coffee country, and one which has not yet made it to the (more…)

Murder in Nicaragua: Update on the Eric Volz Case

April 26th, 2007 | By Joshua | 31 Comments »

BoingBoing.net has posted a very thorough collection of links regarding the Eric Volz murder case in Nicaragua, also recently featured on “NBC Dateline,” People magazine, and many others. Today’s NPR show, “Day to Day,” focuses on the fascinating “online battle surrounding Eric Volz, a 27-year-old American who is serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of his Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend. Volz insists he is innocent, and now his family is publicizing his case on the Web to get him freed.”

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The Nicaraguans: New Photo Book

April 9th, 2007 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Some photographer friends in Nicaragua just wrote to tell me about a new collaborative project, The Nicaraguans, which features fresh work by 32 of Nicaragua’s most ambitious photographers (several of whom have graced the pages of our guidebooks). There are also forewards by Richard Leonardi and Sergio Ramírez Mercado. Ramírez writes: “And the three hundred images contained in this book, how many words would they be worth? Their beauty lies in their everydayness, all of them illuminated by the soft light of daily tasks that is unbroken by the drama or violence that has been a constant feature of our history. These are images of people building. People working. People walking. Waiting, protected by the landscape they know belongs to them, by the country they know is their own.” Sounds very promising. I’m not sure where the book will be available, but keep an eye out in Nicaraguan bookstores (try HISPAMER or Frontera Librería in Managua).