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Amigo John Hawley |
How about coming along to Nicaragua and Costa Rica with friends for Spring Break in March? Usted no acerca de Nicaragua (You do not know about Nicaragua)? The word Nicaragua is derived from the combination of the name for a Central American native tribe, the Nicarao and "agua" the Spanish word meaning water, which together signifies the tribal land along the shores of one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes the Lago Nicaragua. The Nicarao people were industrious people with trade relations from Mexico to Peru dating back to the 7th Century when they and the Chorotega people migrated south from Mexico. Nicaragua is now a safe migratory path for tourists in Central America located between Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Sure, most journalists have only reported about the wars and Hurricane Mitch in the late nineties, but Nicaragua is about much more than that!
In 1502 Christopher Columbus bounced off the northern most Nicaraguan Caribbean coastline that he named 'Cabo Gracias a Dios" (Cape, Thanks to God). The Spanish established prominent towns including Granada and Leon that both were at one time capitals of the nation along with the present day capital city of Managua. The English, pirates, and Leon’s liberals have sacked Granada, the headquarters for the country’s conservatives. Likewise, the Sandinistas found strong support against the Somoza regime in liberally oriented Leon. Akin to the heated tumult of Nicaragua’s volcanoes, Nicaragua’s national past time has long been politics.
Nicaragua gained independence in 1821 along with all of other Central American countries and they were the first in 1938 to become an independent republic. In 1853 the liberals employed William Walker, from Nashville, Tennessee along with his band of mercenaries to defeat the conservatives, whom they did defeat, which led to Walker later declaring himself president of Nicaragua. The conservatives then defeated him with financial assistance from another Norte Americano Industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt. Meanwhile, the English maintained territory on the Atlantic Coast where English continues to be widely spoken amongst inhabitants predominantly of Western Antilles origin.
Nicaraguans are very hospitable and friendly. Together visitors share with them more than a few Victoria and Tona cervezas, and Rrrrron Plata rum that wash down camarones al vapor (steamed shrimp) and tostones. Barriga llena, corazon contenta (belly full, happy heart) the Nicaraguans say.
Taking a few baseballs for distributing to the children there could be fun as El Beis is Nicaragua’s national past time even more so than in the United States. Dennis Martinez of Atlanta Braves and Montreal Expos fame is a favored son of Nicaragua. And Roberto Clemente is revered there as his plane crashed in route to Nicaragua in 1972 on an earthquake relief effort.
Granada is a must see turismo destination. Granada’s Antigua Convento San Francisco displays 30 carved basalt pre-Colombian statues that combine the human form with animal heads. Both Granada and Leon are living museums with a stunning array of Spanish colonial cathedrals, parks, and promenades. Leon as the liberal core of the country is also home to the national university and center of the arts community. National hero and poet Ruben Dario was raised in Leon before working as a journalist for La Nacion, living in Europe and various Latin American countries including Colombia and Argentina where he was the Nicaraguan ambassador. A widely quoted phrase of Dario’s has been "Si la patria es paquena, uno grande la suena ("if one’s nation is small, one makes it large through dreams"). Some may want an extended stay in Leon for thinking those big thoughts that won’t cost, but $75 per month lodging at El Encuentro and other inns.
Like its southerly Costa Rican neighbors internationally known for ecotourism, Nicaragua is rapidly expanding as a tourism destination. The rainforests of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast lowlands are second in size to only South America’s Amazonia. As ninety percent of Nicaraguan’s 5.5 million people live in the Pacific lowlands there are surely many zoological and botanical wonders remaining to be discovered in the sparsely inhabited Nicaraguan rainforests. Rumor has it that the 435 mile waterway between Rio Coco from Wiwili to the Caribbean at Cabo Gracias a Dios have never been completely navigated or documented. According to Moon’s Handbook of Nicaragua, the waterfalls between Raiti and San Carlos supposedly have never been photographed. That could take some time.
One of the most popular Nica beach towns is San Juan del Sur, along the Southwest Pacific coast. North of there surfers hang ten and hang out at the Popoyo Surf Lodge (www.surfnicaragua.com) hosted by JJ, a former Florida boy. Numerous beach towns and the Corn Islands offer plenty of beach combing, downtime, and fishing for jacks, snapper, roosterfish, bonito, sailfish and mahi mahi. Scuba is limited with only about three dive shops available for trips and air. Wanna start your own shop? Foreign land ownership is allowed and prices are a quarter to half of that in Costa Rica.
Nicaraguans dearly value relationships symbolized by their expression, "hay mas tiempo que vida" (there is more time than life). The wars are over and Nicaragua is a safe, beautiful and an inexpensive place to relax. Con permiso, until next time consider a trip with your amigos. Until next time as Nicaraguan’s say, "yo tranquilo como Camilo" (I’ll be chillin like Dylan) and collecting my baseballs.
