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?