Steven A. Melnick ⁽⁷⁰⁾

It was an "unexpected journey" that Bilbo would have been proud of, except there was no party the night before, no wizard to guide us, and no dragon horde of treasure awaiting us at the end. But one similarity to "The Hobbit" was the frightening…

The vagabond life is never boring and two weeks ago was no exception to that rule. Navigating the legal system in a foreign country can be challenging. Much more so when you only understand a little of the language. In the United States (at least in Pennsylvania…

On Sunday we took a short trip to the Masaya Volcano which is just 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) outside of Managua. The area actually includes two volcanoes and five craters. The Masaya Volcano is also known as Popogatepe ("mountain that burns") in the language of…

Laguna de Apoyo Along the way to Granada, former capital of Nicaragua and old Spanish colonial city, we stopped off at a small town up on the mountain called Catarina. From the top of the mountain in Catarina you are able to look down onto…

Proprietor of Sal y Pimienta (Salt & Pepper) Since we arrived in Nicaragua, we have been in search of authentic Nicaraguan cuisine. A number of the restaurants in the area seem to attempt to produce food the tourists want but it results in bland imitations.