by James Spencer

As the oldest city in the Americas, Granada has got more old, spooky houses than you can shake a witch’s wand at, so you would expect it to have more than its fair share of haunted houses.

The Ghost Of The Mass Graves

There’s no question that terrible things have happened in Granada. In 1979, when the Sandinista revolution was in progress, thousands of National Guardsmen were herded into the country near Puerto Assese and murdered.  The bodies were unceremoniously dumped into unmarked mass graves. At one site about a kilometer from the Diamante turn-off, at a gravesite called “Panama,” there is a boulder. Locals tell of an old lady who sits on the rock imploring passersby to “Take me to the cemetery.” Eyewitnesses to the mass graves say that the site was the killing ground for Somoza supporters, their wives, and children as young as 15 years old. Beware walking at night along the dark and winding Diamante road.

The entrenched politics and ditched efforts of a trans-isthmus passage  

by William Laine

It’s not common knowledge that Nicaragua, rather than Panama, was for hundreds of years considered the ideal place to build an inter-oceanic passage. Nicaragua’s extensive network of lakes, rivers and its access to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans attracted the attention of many countries wishing to make use of its transit potential. Indeed, before the arrival of the Spanish, English, or even the North Americans, the Aztecs had already made use of this potential in order to establish an emerald trade with Colombia.

More than four hundred years ago, countries dreamed of building an inter-oceanic passage realizing that the control of such a passage offered wealth and power. Nicaragua was found, through numerous studies and surveys conducted over the centuries, to have the greatest geographical potential for an inter-oceanic canal. Despite this, political battles, poorly executed deals and bad luck repeatedly stymied Nicaragua’s canal efforts.

by Richard Leonardi
It was a breezy January day in 1528. The ancient Nicaraguas settlement of Tecoatega bathed in golden light while the sun sank slowly behind its central square. The servants of Tecoatega’s elderly chief Agateyte quietly prepared the plaza for the coming night’s fiesta. Chief Agateyte, the powerful leader of 20,000 subjects and a standing army of 6,000 warriors, sat alone in his home, having just finished dinner. Agateyte drank tiste (ground cocoa and corn mixed with water) while contemplating the brilliant red sky, puffing slowly on a cigar.

Agateyte was sure the Chorotega people were inferior to his own Nicaraguas culture, “rustics”, he mused, “but creative, and damn good with their hands”. Agateyte smiled while gazing at the sunset, stroking his long white beard. Silently he thanked the Chorotegas for their finest invention: his carefully wrapped, smooth tobacco smoke.

by Marie Mendel
I was in El Realejo in northwest Nicaragua sitting on the damp, moss covered stone brought up from the nearby river Las Lajas some 500 years ago and listening to Hilario Alemán tell the story of how he found the remains of the oldest brothel in Central America while excavating foundations for his home. About one meter wide, the wall had been built by Doña Isabella de Bombillia, the widow of Pedro Arias de Avila (or Pedrarias), first Governor of Nicaragua.
My eyes tracked along the wall from where a cement toilet box had been perched to a barbed-wire fence to cows lying on the old stones, trash on both sides. Though it was hard at times to understand Mr. Alemán, I gathered somebody had written a book, El Burdel de las Pedrarias, and then an archaeologist had shown up.

The most outrageous of the American filibusters, the audacious William Walker left an indelible mark on Nicaragua.

by Eric Alberts
Seizing Nicaragua for three years, William Walker declared English the official language, reintroduced slavery and upon pronouncing his Presidency was given brief recognition by the US. His actions helped determine the capital, redraw the borders of Nicaragua, and briefly unite Liberals with Conservatives.

Dissatisfied with three respected professions, at he age of 25 Walker decided his future lay in the niche of filibustering, a career path that lead him to his own manifest destiny - reigning over a country.
(more…)

by Philip B. Hildebrand
The extreme northeastern corner of Nicaragua sits today as it has for millennia, a low, sandy finger of land pointing into the ocean whose waves beat incessantly upon it. This is the famous Cabo Gracias a Dios at the mouth of the Río Coco, Central America’s longest river (550 km) and nearby Cabo Viejo the adjacent town and lagoon. Virtually no tourists have ever been here and few likely ever will, for it is a dangerous place, difficult to reach and offering little to the normal visitor. Over the past decade, this historic locale has become a haven for heavily-armed international drug traffickers who do not take kindly to inquisitive outsiders. I knew I had to come here.
(more…)