I just returned from a week in Nicaragua with my wife, and the country is amazing. If you have any desire to go to Central America, then I would strongly urge you to consider Nicaragua as your destination. I have been to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, but Nicaragua was the best by far. I will save the trip details for another day.
I wanted to share a story that was relayed to me by a tour guide I had for a couple of days in Nicaragua. Roberto Lumbi was driving Kelly and I from San Juan del Sur to catch a ferry from Rivas to Isla de Ometepe (about 2-3 hour journey). His english was excellent and he knew a lot of American slang, so I asked him where he learned English. He told us he had lived in Texas and Miami from 1982-1991 because of the civil war in Nicaragua. The story goes like this:
At the age of 8, Roberto and his father lived in Matagalpa running their coffee farm. He had 3 younger siblings at the time (1 boy and 2 girls). During the beginning of the Sandinisto reign in Nicaragua, Roberto's father's coffe farm was taken by the Sandinisto governement and distributed to a number of Sandinisto supporters. The family had to immeadiately move. They went to Managua and bought a house. Now, Roberto swears his family was not frand Contra supporters, but apparently they were harassed by Sandinisto supporters. Graffitit was painted on their home. One night, a friend of Roberto's father told him to leave Managua, because the Sandinisto's were collecting signatures to have him executed.
In the middle of the night, they took all their cash and whatever the family could carry. Roberto was 9 years old with three younger siblings. The father lead them throught the mountains of Northern Nicaragua to Honduras. From there, they caught a bus to the Mexico/US border (which is a long trip). They crossed the border at night - it cost $1200 per person (4 kids and two adults =$7200).
They made it to Texas and Roberto's father worked with cattle. They then moved to Miami where he set up a construction business. When the war ended in 1990, they decided to return to Nicaragua and reclaim their coffee farm in Matagalpa. They were never able to get the farm back, but they bought a smaller farm outside Managua which the family still owns today. Roberto now has 6 siblings, but his father died two years ago from a heart attack. He works with a successful tour company and is a genuinely great person.
The politics of Nicaragua from the 70's to the early 90's is very complex and most of you remeber at least some bits and pieces of our involvement. I encourage everyone to read about this fascinating time in our neighbor's history. The Nicas have a saying that "everyone has a story" from that terrible period in Nicaraguan history, and from talking with the people, I would agree. I meet a number of Nicas whose families fled during the civil war (to the US), but amazingly, they all returned to Nicaragua as soon as the war was over and democracy was established. Despite living the American dream, these immigrants wanted to return home. After experiencing just a taste of their culture and their country, I am ready to becoma an ex-patriot and join them.