All posts are about travel experience and travel guide
COSTA RICAN SNOW When white coffee blossoms blanket the fields of the Central Valley, filling the air with a sweet jasmine-like fragrance, the Ticos call it ‘Costa Rican snow.’ You might well surmise that coffee is indigenous to Costa Rica; however, it was brought by the Spanish, French, and Portuguese from Ethiopia and Yemen. In…
PAINTED OX CARTS Around 1910, as legend has it, a campesino (farmer) was crossing the Beneficio la Luisa when it occurred to him to decorate his oxcart wheels with colorful mandala-like designs inspired by ancient Moorish decoration. The art form quickly caught on and each district in Costa Rica had its own special design. Locals…
The city center The Plaza de la Cultura marks the heart of the city. The area around this large square is a popular meeting point for peddlers, artisans, street musicians – in fact, just about anybody and everybody. The pride of the square is the neoclassical Teatro Nacional A [map] (www.teatronacional.go.cr), modeled after the Paris…
Fact Costa Ricans like to tell the story of how they received independence by mail. In fact, a courier aboard a mule arrived in the Central Valley of Costa Rica with the news on October 13, 1821, nearly a month after colonial officials in Guatemala City had declared independence for Costa Rica from the Spanish…
SOUTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA Discover the most cosmopolitan cities and the best infrastructure in Central America, plus laid-back Caribbean vibes, upscale ecolodges, and superb surfing and sport-fishing. Having avoided much of the turmoil that has disrupted the progress of their northern neighbors, Costa Rica and Panama can seem like another part of the world at times….
BEISBOL, NICARAGUAN-STYLE In the 1880s an American businessman named Albert Addlesberg was living in Bluefields, at the time part of autonomous Mosquito territory, which had a strong British influence. Cricket was widely popular in Bluefields at the time and Addlesberg convinced two of the clubs to switch to baseball, giving them equipment he had shipped…
North of the long, mostly undeveloped beaches of Playa Amarilla and Playa Colorado is Playa Santana, which is really five beaches. The 1,100-hecatre (2,700-acre) Rancho Santana (www.ranchosantana.com) is an intentionally rugged, private complex with multiple residential communities that share a beach club, organic farm, and surf center. A clubhouse and hotel complex on the northern…
CONTINENT CROSSING During the California gold rush, thousands of would-be prospectors from the east coast of the United States travelled by ship to Nicaragua, where they were able to cross the country via the San Juan River to Lake Nicaragua and then overland to the Pacific, where they could catch a ship up to the…
SHARKS The relatively shallow waters of Lake Nicaragua are the last place anyone would expect to find a shark. Their appearance surprised scientists who believed they were a unique freshwater species – until 1976, when the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Thomas B. Thorson tagged some of them, revealing that highly adaptable Caribbean bull sharks (Charcharinus leucus)…
Volcán Masaya National Park Nicaragua’s first and largest national park, the 54 sq km (34 sq miles) Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya @ [map] is the home of five craters and two calderas. The extremely active Masaya caldera, known as the ‘Gates of Hell’ to the Spanish, exploded as recently as 2001, allowing a new vent…