From late September to early December, the otherwise sleepy town of Masaya – Nicaragua’s bastion of folklore and indigenous traditions – comes alive with countless animated events, including the shambolic procession of El Torovenado, filmed here. This anarchic spectacle is the very embodiment of Nicaraguan character…
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The unassuming and unpretentious town of Masaya is Nicaragua’s cradle of folklore. This is the best place in the country to shop for locally produced handicrafts, participate in a festival, or witness a traditional dance. The performance shown here – replete with Spanish airs and colonial themes – was filmed on the main plaza, where troupes regularly congregate.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
To our horror and astonishment, we recently discovered a brown bark scorpion in our bedroom. Craftily concealed under a pile of dirty laundry, this unwanted guest was only the start of our problems that night. The following short story relates a true incident at our home in Granada, Nicaragua, and includes video footage of the offending beast.
Friday, November 20, 2009
It’s 7am and the single mother next door has commenced her daily playback of insipid romantic ballads. The Righteous Brothers, Bryan Adams and Bonnie Tyler reverberate through the walls. You reach for the bucket as she plays ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’… over and over and over. Your stomach turns, your eyes fog.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The somnambulant village of La Boquita is awakening. A rotund and loosely dressed woman emerges from a ramshackle cluster of decrepit shacks and lurching, half-fallen structures. Gnarled branches, thatched palm leaves and weathered, colourful sheets are the simple materials of her family home.
Interamericana is an intrepid new travel blog about the people and places surrounding the Carretera Interamericana - a 6000 kilometre stretch of highway that links Mexico and the seven nations of Central America. Created by guidebook writer and journalist Richard Arghiris, Interamericana combines photography, video and the best in alternative travel writing. |
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Located in Nicaragua’s most remote and disconnected province – the North Atlantic Autonomous Region – the diminutive settlement of Waspam is the centre of the Miskito universe. This short video clip, featuring music from Miskito musician Li Lamni, was shot on take-off from town’s modest airstrip.
Mr Edgar ‘Rasta’ Coulsen is a native of the Caribbean town of San of Juan del Norte – an end of the world settlement perched at the mouth of the Rio San Juan. In this short video interview, Interamericana talked to him about the changes that have taken place in the region since his childhood.
One day, me and my compadres took a trip up the Río Istiam – a tranquil waterway that meanders inland at the isthmus between Ometepe’s two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. The river is home to abundant bird life, caimans, turtles and herds of indolent livestock. Many thanks to Jennifer Kennedy and the three Matts – Barwick, Hicks and Ashford, who appear in this video clip.
Via Via is something of a León institution, attracting Nicas and foreigners alike with its buzzing multi-cultural atmosphere, dirt-cheap bottles of rum and rousing Friday night music sets. Amalgama, featured in this video, are an institution in themselves, playing everything from rock ballads to crowd-pleasing revolutionary classics. In this clip they are accompanied by itinerant musician Richard Crandell and his Zimbabwean imbira.
As a poor chele, or white boy, rhythm was never going to come naturally to me. Nonetheless, my militant salsa instructor, Angel, patiently tried to teach me to dance. And when he could be patient no longer, he simply ordered me to the nearest disco…
Granada’s international poetry festival kicked off yesterday, 14th February 2010, with a belting set from Katia Cardenal. Performing at the Plaza Independencia, Katia sang a mixture of rousing folk songs and revolutionary ballads, including a superb homage to the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast (2nd song featured, actually in the Miskito language). Turn up the volume, pour yourself a rum, kick back and enjoy…
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
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