The Way I Roll

I woke up at 4:30 am to catch a too-early shuttle to the airport in Managua. I arrived at the crack of dawn, grabbed coffee and a snack (I still had 3 hours before take-off), and went to check in for my 8:50 flight to Quito. Right away, an airline employee guarding the line told me...

The hotel that had arranged the guided hike to Volcán Maderas was not offering trips to Concepción during my time on Ometepe. The volcano had been grumbling a little bit, and had vomitó un poco the week before. (In Nicaragua, the word vomitar, meaning "to vomit," "to throw out," or "to disgorge,"...

My first night in Ometepe, I arranged to climb one of the island´s two volcanoes with a guide from a nearby hotel (the place I was staying was a little too barebones to have a guide - although we did have a scorpion in one of our rooms).The trip to Maderas began at the hotel at 7:30 a.m. The group consisted...

La Isla de Ometepe is about an hour´s ferry ride from mainland Nicaragua, and a world away. The ferry was pretty small, with three decks for passengers, the largest not more than 200 square feet, and room for two or three trucks and a couple of cars. Under one truck, the driver had slung a hammock and...

The guidebook I have been using, Moon Handbooks Nicaragua, suggested several excursions in the San Juan del Sur area, one of which was a hike up to a nearby lighthouse. In general, the book is fantastic, but directions for its walks and hikes have been noticably lacking. This hike was no different, and...

We arrive in San Juan Del Sur on Saturday afternoon, around two o´clock. Immediately we are convinced it is paradise. Brightly colored shacks line the roads, its hot, with an ocean breeze, and the beach is a long, curved stretch of sand lined with open air, thatched-roof restaurants serving seafood...