Category Archives: TRAVEL

Pissin’ in the Wind

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One of the challenges of bus travel in Central America is making it to your destination without having to go to the bathroom. It is agonizing to be bumping along with a full bladder, playing mind games and calculating the seconds before the next stop. It is a problem all passengers face, of course. I don’t know how the locals cope with it; on travel days we try to limit our fluid intake before getting on the bus, then hope for the best. But there are times when that just doesn’t work out. There are more options for men than … Continue reading →

Room with a View

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Our two weeks in Costa Rica, after we got out of San Jose and up into the mountains of Monteverde, were idyllic, about as good as it gets. Our friends Michael and Janet lent us their comfortable guest house with gloriously hot water in the shower, a full kitchen, king sized bed and a million-dollar view out over the Pacific lowlands, the gulf of Nicoya, and beyond to the Nicoya Penninsula. (The picture does not do it justice.) As I mentioned before, the three of us went to journalism school together. We all worked at it for a few years, … Continue reading →

Nicaraguan Backroads

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Nicaragua is a country of conflicts and contrasts. Skirmishes and wars going back more than a century, corruption and occasional natural disasters–two devastating earthquakes, in 1931 and 1972, and Hurricaine Mitch in 1992–have made Nicaragua the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti. The shadow of the Sandinista revolution in the late 70s and the Contra war that followed still hang over the country, especially with the recent reelection of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega (just “Daniel” to his supporters). During Ortega’s first term, after the revolution, he proved to be as corruptible as those he fought against. His … Continue reading →

A Piece of Paradise

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The last week or so in Rio Dulce I spent searching for paradise, and I found at least a piece of it. My first destination was an isolated beach on the southern shore of Lake Izabel, about 10 miles from the bridge at Rio Dulce. Twenty-some years ago an ex-pat Canadian named Denny was sailing on the lake with a friend of his and found the beach, the only decent one on the lake. I’m not sure how Denny came to buy the place and build a little resort on it, but he did, and he called it, rather unimaginatively, … Continue reading →

Among the Boat People

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We traveled from Lanquin to Rio Dulce in two legs, the first in a tourist shuttle, the kind that I often disparage. It was convenient and comfortable, and I liked it. There were only five of us in a vehicle big enough for 20 or more, so we spread out and admired the spectacular scenery from soft seats, through oversized windows. I know my budget will keep me from sliding down the slippery slope of luxury travel, but that one little stretch was nice. The next leg made up for the luxury of the first. We were deposited at a … Continue reading →