Dancing with Chinelos
The old, battered bus was bouncing on the road with dusty Mexican countryside rolling outside the window. Google Maps on my phone was showing we were approaching our destination – Yautepec de Zaragoza. Before the trip, I could not even imagine that we would be trying to get to this […]
Rioting in Cuernavaca
We were enjoying a quiet breakfast of an omelet and sopes on an outdoor patio, taking in the beautiful view of the central plaza. Like so many town squares in Mexico, it featured all the familiar elements: a park, a gazebo, a historic church, and the oversized colorful letters spelling […]
Temazcal in Tepoztlan
Don’t worry if you don’t understand two out of three words in the title, I will explain everything. This year, we traveled to Tepoztlan, hiked up and down a mountain, and ended up in a temazcal. Ok, I’ll keep explaining. It was an intense, surreal experience, and I am still […]
Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack
Part III Those of you who follow this blog closely know we are on a lifetime quest to visit all 30 major league baseball ballparks. We are not in any rush to see them all as soon as possible, and it is kind of fun to take this journey slowly […]
Nica food: Our top 10 dishes
For the last five months, we chronicled our travels through Nicaragua in great detail on this blog. By the sheer number of posts from this country, you can tell that we absolutely enjoyed our time there. And although we plan on coming back and writing more about this beautiful place, […]
Take a Hike in Nicaragua
We were walking around Selva Negra, a beautifully maintained coffee estate, with a pretty little lake, a small restaurant, and a quaint cottage or two hiding in the overgrown jungle. A wedding ceremony was starting soon at a local chapel, and lavishly dressed guests were strolling around the property. Children were playing […]
Kamikaze Tourism: Surviving Nicaraguan El Classico
Fútbol or baseball? That was our dilemma. Although Esteli was only an overnight stop on our itinerary to break a long journey from Granada to Somoto Canyon, we had a couple of hours to kill in the evening, and the town was hosting not one but two professional sporting events. […]
From Mud to Magic: A Day in Nicaragua’s Pueblos Blancos
On day four of our Nicaraguan adventure, we were visiting Pueblos Blancos (White Towns), picturesque white villages outside of the town of Masaya known for their unique artisan traditions, with each village specializing in a particular craft or activity. Our first early morning stop was in Diriomo, otherwise known as […]
Two Volcanoes and Too Many Surprises: Exploring Ometepe
I am going to start this post without multiple paragraphs praising the incomparable beauty of Ometepe (unless you are comparing it with much more expensive and overly touristy Bali) and without a single mention of just how unprepared we were to traverse Ometepe on scooters, as neither of us possessed […]
Getting Around Ometepe
If I had to explain in one word why we absolutely plan on visiting Nicaragua again, that word would be “Ometepe”. The first time I saw it in our itinerary, I thought it sounded spiritual and mysterious, with a note of an ancient ceremony, and a hint of volcanic eruptions. […]
The Coffee Robbery of the Century
If you order a cup of Nicaraguan coffee in your town, there is a good chance that the beans used in preparing your drink will be from one of the fincas around Jinotega or Matagalpa. After all, this is a premier region for renowned and much-sought shade-grown Nicaraguan coffee. We […]