Nicaragua’s Rio San Juan province is one of the most verdant and entrancing locales in all Central America. Home to the vast and endlessly meandering San Juan river - a waterway that connects Lake Nicaragua in the west with the Caribbean sea in the east – the region was nearly selected as the site for a transoceanic canal. Fortunately, the concession went to Panama, and the province remains a bastion of remote intrigue, as this photo set attests.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The remote jungle gateway of San Carlos is perched between Lake Nicaragua, the Costa Rican border, rainforests and the San Juan river. It is an important transportation hub, but it sees few visitors beyond the itinerant workers and frontier-men who pass through on their way to ever more obscure locales. This brief snippet, first published by The Independent in 2009, describes a black-out I experienced when I visited the town.
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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Friday, July 9, 2010
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