Novelist Silvio Sirias Coming to Tranquilo Traveler this Thursday — Stop by to win an autographed copy of Meet Me Under the Ceiba!

January 12th, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Author Silvio Sirias is including the Tranquilo Traveler in his blog tour this Thursday, January 14, 2010. I’ll post a review of Sirias’s latest novel Meet Me Under the Ceiba, a book which offers wonderful storytelling, plus a remarkably vivid portrait of small-town Nicaraguan life (which is good news for those of us on a constant Nica nostalgia kick). There is a reason LatinoStories.com just named him one of 2010’s Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read). Stop by on Thursday, leave a comment, and you’ll automatically be entered to win an autographed copy of Ceiba.

¡Suerte!

TIME article on baseball diplomacy in Nicaragua

December 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I just saw Invictus, so sports-politics combo is on my mind. Here’s a recent piece by Granada-based journalist Tim Rogers on a related subject:

Can U.S. Baseball Diplomacy Get the Save in Nicaragua?

“I think the State Department is coming to realize, belatedly, that [baseball] can be a very effective tool in public diplomacy,” Callahan told TIME. In the case of the U.S. and Nicaragua, he said, “of all the things that unite us, I think the great sport of baseball is the most important.”

Where are they now files: DailyKos checks in on famous gringo prisoner of the 1980s

December 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

From the sketchy Reagan-Contra files, here is a fascinating flashback to the capture of Eugene Hasenfus in Nicaragua. “Shot down Oct. 5, 1986, while kicking crated cargo to anti-government terrorists from a CIA plane over the back-country of Nicaragua, his capture by Sandinista militiamen led to the exposure of what would become known as the Iran-contra affair.”

Be sure to read through the bottom where you get an update of this Nicaragua player: “Hasenfus … faded into his old life in small-town Wisconsin…. accused of indecent exposure … killed a bear without a license,” etc. LINK->

“The Art of Travel” Movie Captures Tranquilo Spirit and Features Hospedaje Santos in Managua

December 19th, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

There are plenty of movies that take the viewer to beautiful settings around the world, but there are scant few films actually about the act of traveling, and fewer still about the hostel-slinging backpacker netherworld (”The Beach” being the most famous of these). I discovered these movies about international backpacking three years ago, then nuttin’—until The Art of Travel, released in 2008, ended up in my player.

Despite the movie’s clunky flaws (I didn’t think the whole jilted marriage/ honeymoon was necessary to set up the trip; the beginning is riddled with lame dialogue; and the star, Christoper Masterson looks too much like Neil Patrick Harris tripping on mushrooms in “Harold & Kumar” to take seriously), I’m a sucker for any film in this sub-sub-genre. Especially when the travel story in question kicks off in the backseat of a Managua taxi! (more…)

NYT on Living Abroad in Nicaragua

December 12th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

New article by Zach Weisberg on living abroad in Nicaragua:

A Retiring Life on the Beach in Nicaragua, Despite Risks

“Some might see an element of financial risk in the Schmidts’ purchase of the sort of property that one segment of buyers view as an investment, but Mr. Schmidt said that he and his wife were not driven by the profit motive. ‘We came down here really not as an investment per se,’ he said. ‘It was more of a lifestyle change.”

Those are the kind of people we hope are buying our book, Moon Living Abroad in Nicaragua, i.e. those who are NOT looking to cut up their lot, turn a quick profit, and leave — but foreigners who want to adapt to the tranquilo Nica lifestyle, learn Spanish, and have a positive impact on their new communities.

Novel Destinations, travel blog about literary places, mentions Mark Twain in Nicaragua

December 10th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon, the authors of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, have set their sites on the Rio San Juan in this latest post on their blog:

Mark Twain’s Nicaragua

They write about the famous author’s “wild-eyed enthusiasm for the verdant Nicaraguan scenery he encountered along the way,” and include this great description from MT himself: (more…)

Buy a water filter for a Nicaraguan family—simple, easy way to save a life:

December 3rd, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

My compañero (and fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) Rodney McDonald would like to tell you about a worthy campaign in northern Nicaragua, administered by the organization he helped found, Emergency Response Services for Latin America (ERSLA). He writes: “…give the gift of health and life to one family in one of the most impoverished countries in the world. Your gift donation can help save lives. Local firefighters are teaming up with ERSLA to help identify the families most at risk and provide them with a simple water filtration system that will keep them safe and healthy. Simple, yet effective.”

They have to sell 84 more filters to meet the needs of the community and their goal. Learn more about these low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water purifiers from Potters for Peace, who helped develop them.

(more…)

Radio interview with Silvio Sirias, a Nica author living in Panama who writes novels in English about Nicaragua

November 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Silvio Sirias’s first novel, Bernardo and the Virgin (Northwestern University Press, 2007), takes the reader on a phenomenal journey to the village of Cuapa in Chontales, Nicaragua. The book fictionalizes the story of a campesino to whom the Holy Virgin appeared in 1980. Sirias’s new book, MEET ME UNDER THE CEIBA, from Arte Publico Press, which won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, is also a work of fiction, but based on a true crime that occurred in 1999 and on the very real intolerance of Nicaraguan culture to homosexuality: “Everyone knew that wealthy land owner Don Roque Ramírez wanted Adela Rugama dead. And on Christmas Day, Adela disappeared. It was two months before her murdered body was found.” (more…)

¡Que Viva Nicarado! Boulder-Jalapa Nicaragua Sister City Friendship Project Event this Friday November 13, 2009 at Namaste Solar!

November 10th, 2009 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

WHERE: Namaste Solar, 4571 N. Broadway

WHEN: Friday November 13th

WHAT: Boulder/Jalapa, Nicaragua Sister City “Art in Action” slide presentation by Travis Ramos who will recount his experiences in Jalapa, a small village in northern Nicaragua. Come for this “provocative glimpse into the lives of the Nicaraguan people and to raise funds to continue our important work.”

MORE: www.boulderjalapa.org

Raise awareness about Nicaraguan children living in landfill by Kickstarting photographer’s project

October 17th, 2009 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

In the summer of 2009, I crossed paths with Jon Goering, a documentary photographer based in Lawrence, Kansas. We were each researching projects in the extreme northwest corner of Nicaragua. While doing his documentary work, Jon discovered a story about families living and working in the landfills of major Nicaraguan cities. He has already published the first chapter of the story, which focuses on children in the dump in Chinandega. Now, Jon wants to tell more of the story, and he’s asking for your help in the form of this Kickstarter project. His goal is to “document the current lives of the families living at the dump, bringing greater awareness and sympathy for the hardships that they face to the public, both inside of Nicaragua and abroad.” (more…)