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…
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…
Along with going to the cinema, another of the things I love to do when travelling is to experience different massages. Last time I was in Nicaragua, I had one of the weirdest massages ever. The pummeling that usually heralds the end of a massage – well that was the entire massage. For an…
One of the new activities offered by the Finca Esperanza Verde since I was there last time was the opportunity to do a jewelry making workshop with Las Mujeres del Plomo – a women’s collective in the nearby community of El Plomo. Those of you who know me know that I love jewelry, and my…
Apart from kayaking around the Solentiname islands, the other thing I was keen to do was visit the artisans who are renowned for their balsa carvings and primitivist paintings. The main population of artisans is found on the largest island – Isla Marrancón – so we visited the first afternoon we spent in the Archipelago….