Have you been following the exploits of the newly-installed Frugal Traveler, Seth Kugel, this summer as he’s been making his way from São Paulo to New York? This month alone he’s traipsed around Los Zorros, a seaside fishing village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, with his parents; shacked up with a local family in Nicaragua on the banks of Lake Atitlán where he learned the fine art of tortilla making; and wandered the street market of Sololá, buying provisions for the rest of his trip.

Seth is off to Mexico for the beginning of the end — a final five-week push where his otherwise very frugal budget is sure to be tested as he crosses the American border. But true to form, he did give us all a little update as to how his budget fared during the middle five weeks of his trip.

Remember now, his goal has been to stretch $500 for an entire week (or about $70 a day), a goal which seems to be very doableconsidering where he’s been traveling (however, keep in mind that he can’t just sit around all day napping and eating granola bars — he’s got a NY Times blog to write and needs to spend cash to come up with some subject matter to write about).

Taking a look back at his dutifully-recorded budget, here’s how things fared for him: (more…)

It’s classic travel writing fodder: choose famous author, research trips they took during their lifetime, emulate one such trip. In fact, Rolf Potts wrote about this “tidy narrative formula” in his recent book “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There,” where he pointed out how this classic format is a great angle to pitch to editors.

Which is not to say this take is not endlessly fascinating. Come on, where in the world have you visited without thinking, “so-and-so was in the very spot I’m standing right now.” As long as it’s not creepy (Penolope Cruz was sitting at this very table here in Barcelona just five minutes ago, and now I’m stuffing her used napkin in my backpack!), it’s an interesting way to contextualize a location.

The Washington Post recently decided to follow in the footsteps of one such literary luminary, Mark Twain, retracing the path he took across Nicaragua in 1866 on his way from California to New York. He would begin in San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific side of the country, and finally emerge, via Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River (which runs out of the volcanic lake), in the Caribbean to a waiting steamer. (more…)

You may or may not remember the landscape and the architecture, but you will never forget a face — even if they are only in pictures.

Last month’s photo theme, “Faces in Places,” has left an impression. There is something fascinating about a picture of a face. It makes the viewer curious about the story behind the character. If we don’t know the story, we are compelled to make one up.

Once we had the finalists, trying to determine a winner was difficult. Each submission had an insightful back story, proving there is always a story behind a face.

Although we came to a consensus about the “Wise Man,” we hummed and hawed over the following pictures as well:

The first mention, titled “Femme peul,” goes out to DorisBA who took this stunning photograph while visiting a Fula village in Senegal. This is a face of the oldest woman in the village who is considered “a Healer, a Teacher, a Guide.” DorisBA had this to say about the experience: (more…)

Party. Destination. Wedding. What’s not to love? In my own search for the ultimate wedding (think– wedding piñata), I couldn’t help but continually envisioning my impending wedding as the destination type. That idea never came to fruition. Luckily for me, my piñata idea is a go. Luckily for my family, Montana is a destination. In the end it all works out.

You see, I have the curse of thinking outside the box. In the case of destination weddings, I should say, thinking beyond Hawaii and the Bahamas. That brought me to The Chicago Tribune and their story of a Nicaraguan wedding. Now, that’s my kind of destination wedding.

Here’s how my Nicaraguan wedding would go. Trim down the invite list to only the essential guests. Climb a volcano to the smoking crater while the grandparents take a taxi up to meet us. My fiancée and I zip-line into the ceremony, we exit by flying away on jet-packs, followed by enough Patron to kill a Great White. We lie on a beach the next day, snag a jungle trek, and finish with a few rounds of scuba diving sessions — all in full tuxedo and wedding dress.

Perhaps a little outlandish, but everything outside of the jet-packs can be done at the Piedras y Olas Resort in Nicaragua. Keep this in mind if this idea sounds tempting — not a terribly long flight, no crazy time zone changes, and relatively cheap airfare — all equal a recipe for an outstanding destination wedding for everyone. If only they could figure out those tricky little jet-packs . . .

So what does it mean exactly when the Wall Street Journal is talking up Nicaragua? Is it kind of like when you were a teenager and the second your parents had heard of your favorite band you instantly thought that band wasn’t cool anymore? (See, in this extended metaphor the WSJ is your parents ’cause, yeah, you get it.) Since my mother does in fact read this, and in deference to her, I’m going to say Nicaragua’s still cool, even though the stodgy old WSJ’s gotten wind of it.

As they point out, Nicaragua’s Little Corn Island — located in the Caribbean, 70 km off the southern part of the country and 15 km north of the more-developed Big Corn Island — is a haven for diving (Jon also mentioned this here last week) including several ship wrecks and the remains of a Spanish galleon, as well as underwater caves and great reef diving (in fact it’s part of the same reef that begins north in Belize).

But, be forewarned, the island’s for the lay-around-and-not-do-much set. As Lonely Planet puts it, “other than work on your tan or get in the water, there are few attractions, per se . . .”

This being the WSJ, they also point out that there is no regular phone service, but that cellphones and BlackBerrys do work in town! Oh, like, what a totally lame thing to point out. I’m totally going back in the basement and playing my guitar.

I had some relatively unfamiliar free time the other day and found myself reading an article titled “Cheap but Chic Destinations.” I have to admit, “chic” is not included in my vocabulary, but it was “cheap” that reeled me in. I sifted through the mandatory sentences that you would expect to see under this title, like “the free fall of the British Pound,” and “the Australian currency is just as battered . . .”

It continued: Iceland, Vegas, Montreal, but then, at the very bottom of the article was a place that has been on my radar lately (not because of it’s chic-ness, either), Nicaragua. The first sentence reads this, “Nicaragua has been called ‘the new Costa Rica’ for years, but the fact that it hasn’t taken off like its neighbor to the south shouldn’t give you concern.”

Concern? No. That’s reason for celebration. At $25/night on the Corn Islands, snorkeling and kayaking are steps away. To honor Matt’s diving extravaganza in Mozambique, how about 10 dives, including 2 night dives, for $330 through divelittlecorn.com?

Maybe I will quietly celebrate so that, hopefully, I am able to get there before it does take off.

A night out on the town in Granada, Nicaragua, with a Canadian, a Rastafarian painter, and an ex-revolutionary. Does it get any better than this?

By Luke Armstrong

España was beautiful, young, Argentinean, and when she came up to talk to me on a bus heading towards the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border to ask if I knew of any cheap lodging places in Granada, her destination as well as mine, I tore out my Lonely Planet “Central America on a Shoestring,” and together we looked at the budget hostel listings. According to guide, Hostel Oasis had a pool, free Internet and a lush courtyard. At $6 a night, the cockroaches that would later accost me in my sleep were tolerable. España and her travel companion María checked in with me the next day into one of the hostel’s spacious dorm rooms.

So I arrived in Granada, Nicaragua, like I’d been arriving everyplace since my starting point of Valparaiso, Chile: hitchhiking and haphazardly hopping northbound buses. Each day involved a new unknown with new people.

I envisioned that this intrepid trekking from city to city, country to country, and culture to culture coincided with some bohemian ideal of ruthless adventure. But mostly, I am just lazy when it comes to advance planning, and whimsically making my way north across South and Central America was just easier.

Tired? Hungover? Sick? Diarrhea? No problem, just camp out in this hostel bed for three days reading. So you’ve made a drunken fool out of yourself last night? No problem, just move on to the next city where you are a tabula rosa. Someone looked at you funny? Fine, leave the country and never come back. (more…)

The NY Daily News ticks off some of their favorite hotspots this summer in Latin America. A few may not exactly be terribly insightful (it’s a given Buenos Aires and Rio are great to see come late November), but there were a few good suggestions here I’d take some time to check out.

Nicaragua’s San Juan del Sur is a surfing paradise on the country’s Pacific coast that supports a thriving fishing community and promises to be uncrowded despite its emergence as one of the country’s premier vacations spots.

Belize’s St. George’s Caye is an island just a few miles off the coast of Belize City that’s home to a whopping 20 people (who gets to be mayor do you think?). Though sitting on the world’s second-largest barrier reef system in the world, Moon Travel describes the island as being “far from commercialized — on the contrary, it’s very quiet, with mostly residential homes and their docks.”

And finally, for a historic Mexican experience head to Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, a town dating back to 1542 situated over a mile above sea level. Though a mecca for artists, performers and musicians, Fodor’s warns of the town’s descent into a “yuppie” friendly, “. . . Mexico-lite destination.” At least they’re not afraid to tell you what they really think.

Hop on a short ferry ride from the shores of Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s largest lake, and head to Ometepe, an island formed by two giant volcanoes and one of Nicaragua’s most well-known, but not necessarily most-visited spots (also rumored to be gunning for the 74th spot on the seven natural wonders of the world — yeah doesn’t make much sense does it?).

Inhabited by monkeys, various exotic birds, and probably way too many pesky insects; and with hiking, swimming, kayaking, and the many charming towns all around the perimeter, there’s plenty to see and do in your time spent between swatting away at mosquitoes.

Did you know that Nicaragua is called “the country of Lakes and Volcanoes” (at least by good friends)? Take a look at what it’s like to visit a few of these spectacular sights. My highlight is at 1:10. Come on, a volcano lake has got to be better than your standard lake, right?