Nicaragua
Nicaragua is usually described as the “land of lakes and volcanos.” After a short drive from the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border, visitors set eyes on just that: the great big lago de Nicaragua, the second-largest lake of the Americas, and in the middle of it, two volcanos: the tall, active, almost perfectly conical volcán Concepción and the smaller, extinct volcán Maderas. The two volcanos, which are connected by an isthmus, form the island of Ometepe, a Nahuatl name that means “two mountains.” At one point in the road, both the Nicaragua Lake and the Pacific Ocean are visible. It’s easy to understand why an inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua has been repeatedly proposed. The canal would follow the same route that people from the East coast took during the Gold Rush to reach California. From the Atlantic side, travel San Juan River up to Lake Nicaragua and cut across the isthmus of Rivas to reach the Pacific. Even 17th century pirates took advantage of the connection between the Caribbean and Lake Nicaragua to ransack the rich colonial city of Granada.
Friday, April 3, 2009