My good friend Matt is kicking around Nicaragua for a while and started a blog. I think he's a solid writer, who does a good job of travel writing in a way not geared toward selling guidebooks or tourist packages. Instead, he paints very human pictures of the locales he visits in a way that is both bleak and hopeful, even if it is some shitty little town at the end of a dirt track.
Good read, you ought to invite Matt to post his own links here, I'd follow them/him. He's a really good writer, I enjoy the imagery and descriptions. For example:There is something unsettling about a disheveled police officer. They walk the sunny streets and beaches in pairs, every bit as weary as the stray dogs that follow. Wrinkled trousers and an unpressed, faded blue shirt are good indications of lawful indifference. They seem to say, I have no reputation to uphold so I will save a few cordobas on laundry. No two officers in San Juan wear the same uniform. There appears to be a semblance of dress code that encourages pants, shoes, and a young, shapeless mustache. Some don’t even have belts; nothing resembling order or discipline. They might easily be mistaken for attendants of a parking garage or a hotel elevator. Earning around 50 dollars a week, they could almost be called volunteers. The veterans of the outfit are known to supplement their incomes by shaking down tourists caught drunkenly urinating on the beach. They will ask for a hundred dollars in a serious tone, but will settle for four with a smile.
-That's damn fine writing.