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.
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by Mike Sabine
The story often told of the discovery of coffee is that of an Arabian goat herder who saw his flock dancing joyously around a bush with brightly colored berries. Upon ingesting them himself and experiencing the stimulating effects, he began to dance as well. From this fanciful beginning, coffee has grown to be the second most valuable commodity traded today, after petroleum.

With some 400 billion cups consumed every year, it is the world’s most popular beverage. The latest forecast for this years’ yield predicts exports from Nicaragua (mostly to Europe) will be in excess of 200 million dollars, making it the nation’s number one export.
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by Justin Haring
For over 24 years, one man in the Department of Estelí has been chipping away at the side of a mountain, carving faces, scenes, and images that have shaped his worldview into the tough stone. Today his work stretches across the entire facade of the exposed outcrop of rock covering over a hundred square meters of the mountainside. The place is relatively unknown but still manages to get visits from handfuls of tourists year-round, as the artist’s guestbook indicates.

Don Alberto Gutierrez is a tall skinny man with fair skin and a shock of wild white hair. He smokes cigarettes, which he says is the only vice that he has not been able to overcome, because they help him to see clearly in his mind the things that he has to carve out. His story starts like so many others of his generation, in poverty, destitution and wanton drunkenness. All of this changed for him suddenly when he says he had a vision from God that instructed him to give up the bottle and begin what he calls his “labors” on the cliff face.

by Eric Alberts
Of all possible volcano climbs in Central America, the one up Maderas on Nicaragua’s beautiful Ometepe Island is one of my favorites. It has one of the most unique and breathtaking settings and includes varying terrain and opportunities to see wildlife. The climb is challenging but possible for the relatively fit and has a special reward at the top. Getting to the volcano entails extra effort, but seeing the island of Ometepe is worth the trip.

To make the climb, we start our expedition from Rivas, taking a short taxi ride to the San Jorge dock where my friend and I are to depart for Ometepe via ferry. At the dock we hear “tiburón, tiburón!” being screamed out. No shark attack, it’s a street vendor hawking freshwater shark. The only population of freshwater shark in the world lives in Lake Nicaragua, and at San Jorge, you can devour some. The tiburon is fried like crackling and is dished up like the similar named vigorón, a common dish that consists of a banana leaf piled with boiled yucca, fried pork skin, and a cabbage salad topping.

by Philip B. Hildebrand
Our dugout canoe motored slowly upriver leaving civilization far behind. The sun sank below the trees and all color disappeared. We pushed onward into the increasingly darkening wilderness. No one other than Miskito Indians had been here for at least twenty years. Augustine, rifle at the ready, crouched in the bow, his keen eyes studying the shoreline hoping for some sign of movement. Octavio tried to entice me into shooting a monkey high up in a tree, claiming it would be delicious with the roots we had found earlier.

Nicaragua’s eastern lowlands are a world apart from the rest of the country. This vast mosaic of forests, rivers, lakes, and swamps is the Miskito Indian’s homeland and they are its masters. Having lived for years in Puerto Cabezas, I know the area’s ocean, offshore cays, coastal communities, and major lagoons as do only a handful of foreigners. But these are not the region’s heart; rather they are its genteel fringes. To better understand this land and its people, I had come here to begin learning how to travel, hunt, fish, and live in the wilderness. My tutors were experts for few know this place as do the friends in whose care I was. When we set out, Octavio told me, “Now you are going to live in the bush like a real Miskito.”

by Rebecca Love
Beautiful coastline for sale - $2 an acre. Give me $10,000 to invest and I’ll double it for you. Buy an Island for $3,000. Wow, real estate in Nicaragua is really cheap!!! And then, all of a sudden, “What’s his name just sold his house for $1 million.”

With so many stories and myths surrounding real estate in Nicaragua, it is often difficult to know what to believe. Here is what I found out.

Looking at the more mature property markets in Central America like Belize, Costa Rica, and the Bay Islands of Honduras, it certainly seems logical that Nicaragua’s market be equally as powerful. The coastline, cities, and flora and fauna are as, if not more beautiful than our neighbors. The commercial environment is still so young that surely a good deal must be up for grabs.

by Michiel Brouwer
Corn Island is crazy about music. By day, it’s the background sound to a laid-back lifestyle; by night, lots of it and the louder the better. As owner of Hotel Paraiso on Corn Island, there are two things that would put me out of business fast: run out of ice or a sound system failure.

Corn Island is filled with music from when the roosters crow till the last bar shuts down. The islanders like it booming. The credo is, if you can’t feel the music, it’s just not loud enough. So in most bars the speakers are on full distortion level volume.

by Julio C. Lacayo Gurdian
Baseball is a national passion, as is politics. Nicaraguans have it in their blood.

The volcanic temperament affects all ages, races and classes. Pretty much everyone just loves to sit and discuss government inadequacies. Followed by a few good drinks of rum, these conversations sometimes can get heated.

Nicaraguans are well known for their temper. “Botar la gora” which literally means “drop the hat” is an expression for when someone here loses their cool. It classically represents the “culture” revolving around politics. Nicas can literally blow their top at the drop of a hat. And all it takes sometimes is for someone to take a political stand. Nicaraguans may be allowed to have a political party, but they seldom profit socially from sharing their views in public.

Sacuanjoche Kindergarten, a Waldorf Steiner school, recognizes that it is a young child’s nature to experience, explore and come to know the world through the senses and by physically ‘doing.’ Grasping this premise and using it to guide our work is essential for the practical application of Steiner Waldorf philosophy.

What is the Steiner Waldorf System?
Steiner Waldorf education is a path of self-development and training for responsible and enthusiastic participation in the world. The Steiner Waldorf Curriculum supports the child’s developmental stages and children experience the curriculum through repetition and rhythm, cultivating a sense of beauty, wonderment, and self-purpose through the lessons and the environment created within the school. A variety of academic and arts-integrated experiences develop sensory and motor skills, perception of self and the outside world. This cultivates trust, social skills, consciousness, and spiritual awareness. The social climate and the student’s behavior contributing to that climate are equally important to the students’ academic progress. The individual child is an integral part of the wider school community where adults and children of all ages work together with the older children acting as role models for the younger ones.