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…
Nicaragua is a country particularly well suited to street photography. Everything of interest and importance happens on the street. Whilst snapping this collection in the markets and plazas of Granada, I was faced with many challenges of method and ethics. Ultimately, however, I found the subject too vivid and interesting to leave undocumented.
New Year’s Eve in Nicaragua is celebrated with all the incendiary zeal befitting one of the world’s most volcanic and tempestuous nations. Fire-crackers are ignited en-masse. A frenzy of explosions ricochets across the city. A grotesque effigy symbolizing the passing year is paraded through the streets and burned. These are some of the scenes depicted in this short video.
Las Isletas (The Little Islands) are one of Granada’s principal attractions. An archipelago of some 354 jewel-like islets scattered over the surface of Lake Nicaragua, they lure scores of visitors daily. This video was shot on the northern side of the island chain, where we saw a mixture of upscale holiday homes and other more natural settings strewn with lilies and vegetation…
Catholic sentiments reach a fervent peak in Nicaragua during the Purísima, a festival entirely devoted to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Lasting from late November to 8th December, the Purísima is a protracted celebration involving various family and church gatherings, as well as spirited street parties. Such is the scene depicted in this short film…
Brits and Nicas are not dissimilar. Both like a drink, both like a punch-up – preferably with everyone watching. Lately our neighbours have been getting particularly rowdy and indulging themselves in such dubious diversions. Calle Cuiscoma was always feisty, but now it seems outright rough. After witnessing a single evening of unprecedented drama and violence, I was moved to write this true short story…
Granada’s old hospital stands in a state of abject destitution, broken and dilapidated after many years of neglect. Located on the west side of the city, close to the Masaya highway, this haunting ruin – replete with teeming visceral textures, intriguing shadows and frames – is a free gift to photographers and urban explorers.
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.
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.
Nicaragua’s most popular tourist haunt, Granada, is a bastion of old money and conservatism. Replete with grand Spanish architecture, thronging plazas and thundering horse-drawn carriages, this is a city that longs to return to its golden age of colonial pomp.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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