by Nick Cooke

Two Towers for San Juan
Not since the California Gold Rush of 1848 has the fishing port town of San Juan del Sur seen such a boom. Multiple housing development and hotel projects are already underway, and then … !!??

“San Juan del Sur Resort” has been announced by a Canadian developer. It will be sited towards the north-ish curve of the bay and along the south bank of the estuary, which along with the beachfront, will be remodeled with dining facilities and a marina for mooring small seagoing craft. Four hundred condos and 175 hotel rooms will fit into two 25-story towers and a number of low-rises. It has to be mentioned that in all Nicaragua, there is only one building that comes even close to the stature of one of the proposed “twin towers,” the former Bank of America where downtown Managua used to be.
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by Ashley Blaylock
Nicaragua is quickly becoming recognized as one of the best places to visit in Central America for surfing. With its uncrowded waves and offshore winds almost year round, there is no reason to wonder why.
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by MSc. Ronald Betancourt
(from the Spanish original)
Among so many places I have visited throughout Nicaragua, one worthy of special admiration is the Río San Juan. This impressive and majestic water route has inspired poets and writers, conquistadores and pirates thirsty for riches, scientists, and those just curious about nature. From their lips pours a flow of poetry and praise for its majesty and fascination.

This small piece of Nicaragua has become a historical and cultural paradise in which the echoes of past struggles resound in the dreams of each visitor. Nature and all its attributes interplay with each other. The residents show us the simplicity of their culture and the grandness of their way of life.
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by Pat Werner
When Nicaragua and I were much younger, I worked for a time in the old customs building at the Las Mercedes International Airport (now Managua International) on the north highway. I knew an old National Guard colonel and made some extra money working with him getting items out of customs. During the days of Somoza Debayle in the early 1970s, Nicaragua’s economy was red hot and the customs office was quite busy.

One day, I noticed a wooden box sitting in a corner and one of the customs workers asked me to lift it up. It was only about was one foot high, one foot wide, and about two feet long. Try as I might, I could not budge that box off the cement floor. For a moment, I thought someone was trying to fool me and had bolted it to the floor. The old colonel, I supposed, had played a trick on me by having one of the workers ask me to move the box. Laughing, he came up to me and with a hammer, opened up the wooden box. It was full of gold ingots, not shiny bright like brass, but more the color of butter, radiating out the warmth of the metal in a gentle yellow. That was my introduction to Nicaraguan gold.
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by Frank Kersloot
One of the most visited places in Nicaragua for years is, of course, the Mombacho Volcano, located only 15 minutes outside the city of Granada. Discovered early by tourists, part of this majestic formation that dominates ground-level views for miles around is a splendid nature reserve. The areas surrounding the reserve have recently been discovered by developers, investors, and retirees as well.

Fresh air, a cool climate, nice breezes, a magnificent view, and its proximity to Granada makes this place a new destination for foreign investment or settling down.

Mombacho in the former indigenous language means “Hill of the Inclined Walls.” It is 1345 meters high and has a cloud forest above the 800-meter line. Close to the top, you can find the Volcan Mombacho Natural Reserve.

by John M. Rootes
November 10th – 11:38 a.m. About six miles northwest of Costa Paraiso Resort:

After about a three-mile run and coming into water about 200 feet deep, we decided to get the lines out. I wanted to mix it up a bit, in keeping with the spirit of the country’s recent elections bringing Sandinista Daniel Ortega back in power. I dug around for something in the tackle bag and came across a black and red Islander. It’s not uncommon for us to have an Islander in the spread, but the black-and-red has only been a part of the mix a few other times since Local Treasure International began running charters about three years ago.

by Richard Leonardi
My friend Luvy Pichardo, a Nicaraguan archaeologist, and I stopped for a Coca-Cola at a roadside store in the central Nicaraguan province of Boaco. A young cowboy, 13 or 14, came over to the car and looked inside the vehicle, then at me, innocently, curious. He squished his nose up against the window, so I punched the glass mockingly and he laughed. I rolled down the window and pointed up at an impressive mountain behind the village of San Lorenzo. It was a rocky massif that pierced the sky, like a granite space ship ready for takeoff. “How’s the access to that mountain?” I asked him, wondering if anyone had climbed the stunning peak. He looked at me closely, now with a solemn face, “No one goes in there,” he related. “The duendes are there.”