Go to Nicaragua: Interview with Joshua Berman

Travel Blissful recently contacted award-winning guidebook author, writer and editor Joshua Berman to learn more about his recent project – Moon Nicaragua.

Joshua’s previous credits include Moon Belize and Living Abroad in Nicaragua.

The author in Granada, Isla de Ometepe in background

Erica Johansson: The third edition of Moon Handbooks Nicaragua which you co-authored with Randall Wood is now available. How long did you spend researching in the country?

Joshua Berman: Our books are based on more than a decade of traveling, living, working, and writing in Nicaragua. For our first edition, Randy Wood and I spent six straight months working day and night, researching every corner of the country-and that was after we’d both completed two-year Peace Corps tours in Nicaragua. For this latest edition, our research spanned several months and utilized our vast network of friends and family across the country.

Why do you think Nicaragua is Central America’s least visited nation?

It took nearly two decades for Nicaragua to lose its bad-boy, black-sheep status among other Central American countries. Misconceptions about its relative safety and other things still abound, so there are still only a fraction of the number of tourists than in, say, neighboring Costa Rica. It also took that long for the tourism infrastructure to develop; the upscale market is still relatively new.

For someone who has never been to Nicaragua, what places or activities would you say are a must?

The easiest thing to do is to start out in Granada, which is a fine base for a load of activities, including kayaking, hiking, church-hopping, shopping, etc. If you’d rather leave the beaten path, you’ll find very few fellow travelers anywhere in the north of the country, especially up the Cosigüina Peninsula or in the coffee-carpeted mountains around Matagalpa and Jinotega. For more ideas on sample itineraries, pick up our book, or join the user forum at http://www.GoToNicaragua.com/

I recently read about your round-the-world trip at http://www.joshuaberman.net/honeymoon.html It sounds like the perfect journey. Apart from the places you’ve already been, where do you want to travel in the future?

My wife and I have a 10-month-old baby girl who we just took to Belize for two weeks. Apart from that, I just took a job as a Spanish teacher at a school in Boulder, so there is a lot less extended travel going on these days. Still, our plan is to eventually live abroad with our children so they get an outside-America perspective early in their lives. We’ll always return to Nicaragua. Beyond that, keep an eye on my blog, The Tranquilo Traveler. Wishing everybody happy, safe, sometimes-scary travels.

For more information about Joshua Berman and his work, visit http://www.joshuaberman.net/

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