It’s Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in Nicaragua and La Mariposa Spanish School put on a special trip for us so we could see the Vía Crucis Acuático around Las Isletas near Granada. After driving from an hour, we arrived in Granada at 8am and headed straight for our boat. We most definitely were not…
After catching many glimpses over the past weeks, I finally had a wonderful view of a Guardabarranco, the national bird of Nicaragua, this morning. It was just outside my bedroom window at La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel and I managed to get a fairly good picture of it (see below on the right). Many…
What do you do on a Friday night in a small town in rural Nicaragua? Go to the Nicaragua international Jazz Festival of course! Touring Managua, Leon, and the tiny San Marcos and featuring groups from Nicaragua, Italy, Spain, USA and Germany, it was a surreal experience to be sitting in a little park…
About 2 weeks ago, 4 orphaned grey foxes were dropped off at La Mariposa Escuela de Español after their mother had been shot. They were nursed back to health at the school with the aim of releasing them once they were strong enough. A couple of days ago, we set them free in the Cañada Honda…
Another regular visitor to the garden around La Mariposa Escuela de Español is the Blue-crowned motmot. This guy looks a lot like the Turquoise-browed motmot (also called the Guardabarranco – the Nicaraguan national bird) but is distinct. The head colouring is different but the easiest way to tell them apart is through the look of…
Nicaragua is a country of volcanoes and right now, 5 of them are a lot more active than normal. The closest one to the Spanish school is Volcan Masaya – somewhere between 5 and 8 km away (as the crow flies) depending on whose map app you choose to believe (we had a couple…
I love cooking and I love eating. For this reason, I’m a keen fan of cooking schools/classes and have done quite a few over the past couple of years. Add in that I particularly like to try dishes that are typical to the region I am travelling through and it was a no-brainer to sign…
With Katrina and Daniel – a couple I met yesterday on the NicaAsí Cooking Tour – we decided to tackle the Vía Vía trivia quiz last night. It was good fun hanging out with a bunch of new people, and lasted longer than any other pub quiz I’ve ever done! It began an hour late (about 9:30pm) and…
If you want to eat well but cheaply in Nicaragua – you should check out a fritanga! They can be found on the footpath in pretty much every small town and generally kick off a bit before dusk (though the setup starts about about 3:30pm). Basically, they are a grill BBQ that usually has beef, chicken…
One of the things I always love to do when travelling to different countries is go to the local cinema. I went and watched DeadPool today at the cinema in Cines Plaza Siglo Nuevo in León, which was a wonderful escape from the heat and an absolute bargain at 85 Cordobas (~AUD$4.50). Gotta admit, it…