We flew into Managua, spent the night at "Nicaragua Guesthouse" where they offer the good deal of picking you up at the airport, putting you up for the night for $15/person, in modest but clean accommodations. Our first week's travel took us to Leon, then up, up, up a less developed roadway to El Sauce and then to Esteli. It was great fun to ride on top of the old refurbished schoolbus through beautiful countryside. El Sauce, population of 11,000+ , comes alive in January with the celebration of El Senor de Esquipulas, or the black Christ.

Esteli has almost 100,000 people and is home to several Spanish language schools. It has a pleasantly cool climate at an altitude of 844 m.
I stayed with an Esteli family for two weeks while studying

Last year (Jan 2005), Lani and I flew into San Jose, Costa Rica, bought bikes and biked up to Nicaragua, spending most of our time around Lago de Nicaragua visiting Granada, Masaya and Ometepe island. Then to Juigalpa on the east side, and down the east side of the lake to San Felipe and San Carlos, hopping over to Solentiname islands, then down the Rio San Juan to Sabalos and El Castillo.

This year (Jan/Feb 2006) we flew into Managua, along with our friend Chris, and travelled around the hilly portions of northern Nicaragua, then over to Juigalpa and out to the Atlantic coast and Bluefields/Laguna del Perla. We didn't do bikes. Some roads would have been great for them, but mostly we would have been putting them on buses or trucks because of quality or steepness of roads. The road to El Rama would have been a great bike ride, but once there it's a boat the rest of the way to the Atlantic coast.

What will follow is a series of posts and some pix describing our trip. If you would like more information, send an email. Nicaragua is a wonderful place for travelling and exploring, and the Nicaraguense are gracious hosts!

And the kids love to have their photos taken - unlike in some of the other C.A. countries where it is not always welcomed.