One of the things you quickly realise when walking around a town in Nicaragua is that you really do have to pay attention! Unlike in Australia where we have wide footpaths that are largely obstacle-free, this is most definitely not the case here. Here are a few of the street hazards I’ve encountered. Many…
Having hung out in León for more than 2 weeks, I feel like I can weigh into the “where to eat” dilemma with my 6 top eats in León. These are unashamedly influenced by my love of a good curry and wanting something different to normal Nicaraguan cuisine (rice, beans and corn) after 3 or…
One of the great things about travelling is randomly coming across little performances and events in the local community. In the past week in León, I have come across 3 such events, but the biggest by far was the Noches de Mitos y Leyendas in the Central Park in front of the León Cathedral on Saturday…
When visiting León, you really can’t miss the world heritage listed Basílica Catedral de la Asunción, better known as the León Cathedral. It is enormous (it is the largest cathedral in Central America) and located right in the middle of everything with the central plaza facing it. The story goes that this cathedral was originally meant to…
There are basically two reasons why travelers come to León – volcano boarding Cerro Negro and the beach at Las Peñitas, about 20km away. And although I’m not a beach person, Pedro is, so we made a day trip out there while we were in León. The bus left from the Subtiava market (we ended up walking the 20 minutes from central León)…
As I’ve mentioned before, I love jewelry and have taken to buying jewelry as my souvenir from each country I visit. Even better if I can meet the actual artisan and work with them to make it myself. So in addition to the cooking workshop I did with NicAsí, I also signed up for the NicAsí…
Estelí in northern Nicaragua is a great place to wander around if you are interested in murals and street art. Although I’d done a fair bit of wandering by myself, I decided to do the mural tour offered by Treehuggers on my last morning in the town. Juan (from the cigar tour) was my guide…
One of the key things I wanted to do while in Estelí was visit Don Alberto Gutiérrez, a bit of a recluse who has spent the last 40 years carving all sorts of designs into the stones on his farm in the Tisey-Estanzuela Nature Reserve just outside of town. Once again, I arranged a day trip through Treehuggers, and…
One of Estelí’s claims to fame is that it is the largest cigar producer outside of Cuba. Cigar manufacturing is the biggest employer in the region and the surroundings are filled with tobacco plantations and really cool looking drying and fermenting sheds that are absolutely enormous! So, when I found myself with a free…
One of the really quirky things about Nicaraguan towns is the direction you are often given to find things you are looking for, like a restaurant you’ve heard about and want to eat at. Although most of the larger towns have proper street names like 1 Avenida NE (1st avenue north-east) and 3 Calle SW (1st street SW) of a…