by Darrell Williams

When you mention the word Nicaragua in the modern day world of boxing, one name, “Ricardo Mayorga,” the chainsmoking egomaniacal banger from Managua is the constant that comes to one’s mind.
But while Mayorga has been scooping up millions in Las Vegas for his own bizarre version of the sweet science, a positive revolution has been taking place back home in Nicaraguan boxing. (more…)

by Stephen Flanagan Jackson

Crouching camouflaged in a gnarled jungle, the jaguar’s muscular rear end coils like a tight spring, graceful tail quivering intensely. In a flash, the spotted tawny jaguar pounces and gains a pit bull-grip on the squealing, unsuspecting peccary. The big cat’s powerful vice of a jaw and stiletto teeth – in synchronized fashion – crush and pierce the feral pig’s skull. The denouement: quick merciful bloody death. (more…)

by Mark N. Spencer

Cacao is a plentiful resource in Nicaragua and has been for thousands of years. Surprisingly, this major precursor for chocolate has yet to put Nicaragua on the map as a major manufacturer of chocolate.
A pair of Dutch nationals now living in the verdant, scenic, cool central highlands two hours northeast of Managua may be changing all that. (more…)

by Mike Cobb

You did what? Where? Are you out of your mind? For anyone who has developed property in Nicaragua, these are some common questions you get used to very quickly. However, for people who visit and live here, the truth is so much better than the misperceptions and it is hard not to feel sorry for people not in the know. I speak from experience because Nicaragua captured my heart. Since 2002, this has been home for me, my wife, and two small daughters. (more…)

by Lisa Wells

I didn’t really want to volunteer. This was supposed to be a “Me” trip: “Me” eating Gallo Pinto, “Me” getting a tan, “Me” flirting with 22-year olds. But as it turns out, I am either conditionally or genetically “mal-equipped” for hedonism and after two weeks my ‘early to bed early to rise’ blue-collar rearing came to kick my butt out of bed. I wrote home desperately about my winter away: “There is no doubt we backpackers face a fate worse than death, the useless limbo of privilege, the numbing repetition…” My paradise sun and its perpetual noon had become the lamp of an interrogator. (more…)

by Darrell Williams

In spring 2006 with his dream of a major league career long gone, former Kentucky Wildcat pitcher Roger Keeling took a major step in moving his family from the urban sprawl of Chicago to the serene beauty of Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. “I decided at the end of my college career that the smartest way would be to use the education I had gained at college rather than chase the dream of major league baseball,” he said. (more…)

by Corey Keegan

Dave Kniffin is running to find someone to tell what needs doing in the morning. He stops in the middle of the street on a feathery night in San Juan del Sur with the air of a half-time quarterback from the team that’s winning. There’s a confident grin, effervescent with optimism; he knows he’s leading, but there’s lots of work ahead. You might get the sense that his only disappointment is that the sun has set and he will have to wait for tomorrow to resume work. Dave is trying to build a house in two weeks. Not a huge house. And not just any house. Dave, along with a crew of American and Nicaraguan workers, is trying to build an Earthship. (more…)

by Stephanie Thomas

”The dogs receive Mass?” We were visiting Masaya’s Magdalena church in the indigenous barrio of Monimbó and our Nicaraguan guide Ruth López was explaining how every year the second Sunday before Easter, grateful pet owners dress their dogs as children, witches, space aliens and more in thanks to Saint Lazarus for wishes and miracles fulfilled. And they do, in fact, receive Mass. Afterwards, corn liquor and food is served for all. There are even awards given for the best dressed dog, she added. (more…)

by Sara Murphy

Can real estate investors “do well” while “doing good”? Can local communities in Nicaragua benefit from the massive growth in real estate investing in the country? Is there a sweet spot where charitable initiatives increase investment return and social welfare at the same time? (more…)

The country’s biggest sugar producer, the San Antonio Sugar Mill, and their owners Nicaragua Sugar Estates are betting heavily on ethanol production. More than half the recent sugarcane harvest will be processed into this fuel. They produced 11 million liters last year and want to triple that figure in 2008. New tanks are being built at the Port of Corinto to store it in readiness for loading onto tanker ships.
The same sugarcane is also used to make sugar and the Flor de Caña line of rum for export and domestic consumption, along with the popularly-priced varieties of Ron Plata. Company officials have assured that ethanol production will not affect the supply of sugar in local markets. Nor that of Nicaragua’s national libation, we presume.