I had planned to only spend a day in Rio Dulce doing what seemed to be the one major excursion that everyone had come to do: a boat trip up the Rio Dulce river to Livingston. So I was quite happily surprised when I learned about another natural attraction that begged for me to add another day to my itinerary. Finca Paraiso is a series of hot, yes, hot waterfalls cascading into a cold tributary of the Rio Dulce in a deep part of the jungle about an hour’s micro ride outsi

As backpackers, we’re mostly prepared for the harmless little lies we are told by tour operators,travel agents, and hoteliers that we book with. “Yes, the shuttle will take you directly to the ferry terminal”, when you have to take a taxi, or, “You should arrive by 2pm”, when you know you’d have to break the sound barrier to achieve this, and “Yes, we have hot showers”, when the water is tepid at best. We brace ourselves, smile, and reason that especially in developing coun

I always start with the best of intentions to write a summary of my travels once I'm home. Something about the return to the familiar surroundings of reality usually squishes any creative impulse left in me to write; its as if the inspiration created by the constantly new stimuli fades away leaving nothing but...despair. Yes. The culture shock of coming home is bad. All who have traveled for an extensive period of time are aware of this. Well. Let me tell you: it is made eve

I find myself writing this to all of you from the charming colonial town of Granada, in southern Nicaragua. It is a beautiful little town, with colorful stucco homes and cobbled streets, all the brochures talk about its tourist appeal. However, at dinner tonight, the truth of the hardships faced by so many native Nicaraguans painted a much more real picture of this town and land for everyone sitting at my table. We were about half way through our meal when two people, a young