Responding to strong pressure from within the LGBT community, gay rights activist Marvin Mayorga and his coalition, the Sexual Diversity Initiative for Human Rights, decided to keep pocketed their list of closeted lawmakers.

Mayorga had threatened to “out” some 20 lawmakers whom his organization claims are living “secret lives” as closet homosexuals. His group had planned to publicize its alleged list during today’s gay-rights march, in retaliation to the National Assembly’s refusal to include homosexual and transgender couples in the country’s new Family Code.

For the moment, however, Mayorga says he’ll keep his list in the closet.  

Marvin Mayorga

“We decided not to release our list because there are too many people in the sexual-diversity community who are against us outing lawmakers; they think that would be blackmail or a low blow,” Mayorga told The Nicaragua Dispatch this afternoon. “If we publicize the list now, it would only polarize the LGBT community, and that’s the wrong thing to do at the moment.”

Mayorga says many people in the LGBT community, including Sexual Diversity Ombudswoman Samira Montiel, asked him to respect the privacy of the closeted lawmakers, saying it would be traumatic for several congressmen who are “living in fear of their sexuality.”

As a result, Mayorga says, he’ll keep his list folded and stashed for another day.

In the meantime, Mayorga says his pressure tactic seems to have worked even without having to publicize his list. The activist points to the fact that de facto Ombudsman Omar Cabezas surprised the country yesterday by lobbying congress to include homosexual couples in the Family Code. Mayorga says that was a “very important step in the context of Nicaragua.”

Cabezas, who makes as many annual appearances as a groundhog, yet with less charisma, popped up in the National Assembly yesterday to deliver his version of an annual human rights report. During his presentation, Cabezas called on lawmakers to include homosexuals in the Family Code, which is still be voted on in National Assembly.

However, not everyone heard Cabezas’ request. The opposition Nicaraguan Democratic Bloc (BDN) boycotted the presentation, calling the de facto ombudsman an “abuser of human rights”. “I’d rather step out to drink a cup of coffee rather than listen to Omar Cabezas,” said opposition lawmaker Santiago Aburto.

Those who remained behind to squirm through Cabezas’ presentation were shocked that the Sandinista functionary dared stray from the party line—at least on the issue of assuring equal rights for the LGBT community. No Sandinista lawmaker has supported the inclusion of homosexuals in the Family Code.

The LGBT community also heard Cabezas’ advocacy, and are applauding the old guerrilla leader for finally making a stand for human rights.

“This shows that there isn’t consensus among the political class on this issue,” Mayorga said. “We hope that others will also start to raise their voices.”

Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope just returned from Nicaragua where we covered the historic grandeur that was Granada and the natural glory that is the Reserva Biológica Indio Maíz. The more than 1,500-square-mile reserve is located in the southeast corner of the country, bordering the San Juan River.

From the river town of El Castillo we traveled six hours by boat down the river to the Río Indio Eco-Lodge.  Our adventures in Granada, along the river, at the lodge and in the reserve are part of our Nicaragua PBS television episode that will air as part of Season 7 of Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope.

My fear is that by the time the show airs in 2013, Costa Rica will have completed the building of its ecologically disastrous, 100-mile road along the south bank of the wild and beautiful Río San Juan. Inaugurated by Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla on Feb. 17, 2012 and costing approximately $20 million, at places the hideous scar in the landscape is less than 30 feet from the river. 

Although I am not at this moment familiar with all the details, plans, historic animosities, political egos, border disputes and other reasons behind this horrific decision, I can tell you that traveling down the Río San Juan with road construction as your constant companion is at once heart-breaking and surrealistic.

As you head downriver look to the left towards the Nicaraguan side and you see what is considered the largest expanse of virgin lowland rain forest north of the Amazon basin.  In the branches of trees reaching upwards of 100-feet and beneath the protected jungle canopy live more than 600 species of birds of every size and hue – fantastically decorated toucans, macaws and parrots among them.  In addition, the Nicaraguan riverside reserve shelters 200 species of mammals such as jaguars, howler, white-face and spider monkeys, as well as rare orchids and a rainbow of brilliant butterflies.  This is still the “Unpeopled Paradise” that Mark Twain witnessed and wrote about during his travels in Nicaragua in 1867.

Two different views: to the right is Costa Rica, to the left is Nicaragua (photo / Kamilo Lara)

Look to your right and the Costa Rican river bank is denuded of forests as far as you can see and is largely populated with farms, fields of crops and roaming cattle. Center stage in your view is a large, bare swath of earth that slashes through the landscape and teams of earth-movers and bulldozers who are churning and beating down the soil and rolling out the highway. The overwhelming sense is one of loss, helplessness and sadness as your mind begins to absorb the enormity of what is transpiring and what it says about the contrasting environmental priorities and philosophies. You can only find relief from the road’s stark reality by placing yourself in the boat so that you are always facing the Nicaraguan side.  Thankfully, the road is not as yet complete and the Río San Juan returns to its natural state about two hours before it empties into the Caribbean at San Juan de Nicaragua.

Twenty-two years ago when I traveled to Costa Rica for my travel radio show, Oscar Arias was the president and had just brokered a peace treaty in Central America that won him the Nobel-prize. Costa Rica and its people, including its huge colony of expatriates from the United States (estimates I found range from 25,000 to 50,000), were basking in the glow of Costa Rica’s reputation as a peaceful, conservation-minded country. Well, it seems the times they have changed and Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla and her ministers have declared war on the environment.  And, to what end?

Nicaraguan environmentalist Kamilo Lara, quoted in the Nicaragua Dispatch (www.nicaraguadispatch.com), offered this suggestion, “Costa Rica wants to build this road to bring tourists to the Rio San Juan, but the only thing the tourists are going to see is all the environmental destruction that Costa Rica has caused in the region.”

Fortunately, Nicaragua has sovereignty over the Río San Juan so the river may still avoid the complete environmental degradation and commercial overdevelopment that plagues most of the scenic rivers of the world. While a mid-19th century treaty between the countries grants Costa Rica the right to transport “objects” on the river, Nicaragua holds that the stipulation does not include tourists, unless, of course, Costa Rica intends is to sell them. The last time I checked slavery has been illegal in Nicaragua since the days U.S. adventurer and self-proclaimed Nicaraguan president William Walker was dispatched by a firing squad in Honduras in 1860.

For now, my best advice for prospective travelers to Rio San Juan is: Don’t wait. Follow Mark Twain’s journey down the river while you can still witness what he saw when he wrote, “The changing vistas. . .revealed new wonders beyond, of towering walls of verdure-gleaming cataracts of vines pouring sheer down a hundred and fifty feet, and mingling with the grass upon the earth—wonderful waterfalls of green leaves as deftly overlapping each other as the scales of a fish—a vast green rampart, solid a moment, and then, as we advanced, changing and opening into Gothic windows, colonnades—all manner of quaint and beautiful figures!”

Created more than twenty-five years ago by travel journalist and broadcaster Joseph Rosendo, TRAVELSCOPE® is a multi-media organization dedicated to educating travelers about other cultures, as well as travel destinations, values and opportunities. This multiple award-winning company encompasses five major components that work in concert to provide total exposure to our viewers, listeners and readers. This blog was first published May 16 on http://travelscope.net

Gridiron action

The Nicaraguan American Football League (LNFA) would like to invite all football fans to come out to watch this season’s championship game between last year’s defending champs, The Gladiators, and this year’s top-place team, The Mad Dawgs.

The two teams were the top finishers in this year’s regular six-week season.

The championship game will be held this Saturday afternoon, May 19, at Cranshaw Stadium in Managua (next to Denis Martinez baseball stadium). Kickoff will be at 2:30 p.m.

Entrance is  free to all spectators and food and beverages will be sold at the stadium.

The final standings for this year’s LNFA season are:

Mad Dawgs:  5- 1

Gladiators :    4- 2

Iron Wolves:  2 – 4

Lobos:            1 – 5

Visit our facebook page here for more info.

The Government of Costa Rica today sent a letter to Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry expressing its “most energetic protest” against the Sandinista government’s dispatch of more Sandinista Youth to occupy a zone of disputed borderland claimed by both countries.

Costa Rica charges that Nicaragua is violating the March 8, 2011 order issued by the International Court of Justice, at The Hague, which called on both countries to pull back from the disputed holm until a definitive border is drawn.

The disputed piece of land, a swamp islet in the Rio San Juan, is claimed by both nations. Nicaragua calls it Harbour Head and Costa Rica calls it Isla Calero. The World Court ordered both countries to withdraw security personnel from the disputed region until the matter can be settled. Nicaragua, however, has maintained a nearly constant presence of Sandinista Youth in the area, allegedly as part of an ecological brigade.

“Despite the past protests by Costa Rica, Nicaragua has continue to increase its presence of citizens and government functionaries in the zone where the International Court of Justice has prohibited their presence,” said Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo, in his note of protest sent this morning to the Nicaraguan Embassy in Costa Rica.

 “Moreover, according to the evidence gathered by Costa Rica, these contingents are not only just squatting in various camps in the aforementioned territory, but they are affecting the wetland area and putting its [ecological] recovery in danger,” Costa Rica’s protest letter reads. “Costa Rica also notes with much concern that the presence of Nicaraguans in this zone are part of an alleged academic program for students on the Rio San Juan, supported by the Government of Nicaragua.”

Costa Rica says the Sandinista government’s “strategy” is only “aggravating the dispute” between the two nations by “inciting Nicaraguan youth to occupy Costa Rican territory.” The Tico government says all the actions by Nicaragua represent “serious violations” of the World Court’s order.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica insists the Central American Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to rule in the case brought by Nicaragua against the Tico’s 160-kilometer roadway built last year along the southern bank of the Río San Juan. Nicaragua claims the highway has caused irreparable harm to its river. Costa Rica, however, doesn’t recognize the Central American Court, which last Thursday heard opening arguments by Nicaragua. Costa Rica boycotted the hearing.

Nicaraguan politics has always been a bare-knuckle, anything-goes affair. But gay-rights activist Marvin Mayorga is about to deliver a political punch that some consider a “low blow” even by Nicaraguan standards.

In an effort to pressure—or perhaps embarrass—Nicaraguan lawmakers who have excluded homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender individuals from the country’s new Family Code, which defines a family as the legal union between man and woman, Mayorga says he is going to “out” some 20 congressmen whom he claims are “living secret lives” as closet homosexuals. Mayorga, who represents an activist movement known as the Sexual Diversity Initiative for Human Rights, says he will release his list on Thursday morning during a protest in front of the National Assembly, where LGBT activists have been protesting to little effect for the past month.  

Officially, none of Nicaragua’s 90 lawmakers identify as homosexual, bisexual or transgender. But according to Mayorga, more than 20 percent of legislators—mostly men, he says—are not being entirely forthright about their sexual preferences. He says many of the lawmakers on his list are married with families of their own.

Mayorga, too, is not being entirely forthright when it comes to explaining how he compiled his list. When pressed on the matter, Mayorga refused to explain the methodology of his list-making, limiting his response to oracular comments about how his sources in the gay community have provided information on which lawmakers are “living secret lives behind their mansion gates.”

Mayorga says his group’s tactics are fair play in a political system where lawmakers have all the power to determine the rights of the LGBT community and refuse to listen to any input from those whose lives they are affecting with their legislation. He says lawmakers are “public figures” who should be subject to full disclosure, not only of their personal finances, but also of their bedroom behavior. But mostly, Mayorga admits, his “outing” campaign is a guerrilla politics tactic to use the power of information—or perhaps the power of defamation—in a human rights struggle that has made no forward motion after a month of respectfully waving rainbow flags in the street outside the National Assembly.

If lawmakers are going to meddle in the family lives of the LGBT community, Mayorga says, then the least they can do is return the favor.

“Some could possibly see this is a form of blackmail, but if we are all equal under the law in Nicaragua, then why are politicians legislating against the gay minority?” Mayorga demands.

In a conservative society where political and religious discourse have become helplessly intertwined, many Nicaraguans do object to the threat of publically sweeping out the congressional closet. Congressman Eliseo Núñez, head of the opposition Nicaraguan Democratic Bloc (BDN), says the LGBT community is wrong to target a handful of lawmakers for representing the will of Nicaragua society, which he says is “80 percent conservative.”

“The gay community has not done enough to permeate the public opinion of society, and that is reflected in the National Assembly,” says Núñez, who says he’s not gay.

LGBT protestors have been outside the National Assembly for almost a month (photo/ Tim Rogers)

The lawmaker notes that some progress has been made to address the individual liberties of the LGBT community. For example, in 2008, the National Assembly repealed Article 204 criminalizing homosexual relations. Other recent advances under the Sandinista government, which seems to be fighting a constant internal conflict between the revolutionary ideals of its youth and the conservative convictions of old age, are new public health regulations to protect everyone’s access to health services, regardless of sexual orientation, and the creation of a special ombudsman’s office for sexual diversity. 

But those advances have come more as hesitant concessions than revolutionary strides. And virtually nothing has been done to address old societal prejudices—even in the National Assembly.

“Even if the gay community outs all 90 lawmakers on Thursday, they aren’t going to win swing the vote in their favor,” Congressman Núñez says. “In fact, they’ll probably just polarize society even more.”

The LGBT community is already divided on the outing efforts. “I think that forcing lawmakers out of the closet is absurd,” says “Maria,” who wished to remain unidentified. “I am a lesbian and I want to be able to tell the world that without being blackmailed into doing so. I don’t know which lawmakers are gay, but I respect their right to remain in the closet. It took me a long time to come out of the closet and it was painful for me to tell my family.”

Forcing people out of the closet, Maria says, is nothing more than a “gay inquisition” that “violates people’s dignity” and ultimately “makes us in the gay community the same as those who discriminate against us.”

Nicaragua’s forthcoming Family Code, expected to be passed into law this week, defines families as unions between heterosexuals. It excludes all forms of sexually diverse couples and denies homosexuals the right to get married, adopt children or enjoy any other connubial comforts or tax benefits.

Though gay marriage has never been legal in Nicaragua, rights advocates claim the new Family Code will only institutionalize old prejudices. For a Sandinista government that likes to gush about how it is restoring  people’s rights and promoting revolutionary change, the Family Code fails on many counts, activists argue.

“Lawmakers have to represent the population, and the population is all of us,” says Samira Montiel, the Sandinistas’ special ombudswoman for sexual diversity. Montiel says she is not swayed by the argument that “Nicaraguan society is not ready for this” because it’s the role of the government to create a legal framework for social inclusion and equality, even if it means going against the conservative tendencies of society.

For Montiel, respecting the rights of the gay, lesbian and transgender populations is about being consistent with revolutionary principles—ones she hopes the Sandinista Front would live up to.

“In Latin America, the principal advances in the area of respect for sexual diversity have come from governments on the left, so we can’t expect anything less from this government,” she says.

This article was written as an Untold Story for the Pulitzer Center, as part of the Nicaragua Rewind series.

(posted May 15, 7:00 p.m.)- To the surprise of nobody, the Sandinista-dominated National Assembly today approved President Daniel Ortega’s electoral reform package proposed last month after weeks of breathless hype by First Lady Rosario Murillo. The vote was passed with the enthusiastic approval of all Sandinista lawmakers and a dozen minority legislators.

Where dreams become reality

Sandinista boosters claim the reforms will “purify” the voting registry, create voting centers and improve citizen participation in Nicaragua’s “direct democracy” by fattening municipal governments with a clutter of additional city councilmen.

The reforms will also allow the reelection of mayors, vice mayors and city councilmen, which is good news for mossback politicians who are otherwise unemployable. The reforms also guarantee that 50% of each party’s candidate list for municipal elections are women, giving equal opportunity to political sycophants of the fairer sex.

Opponents to Ortega’s political project claim the reforms are intended to institutionalize the role of the Sandinistas CPCs, or neighborhood Councils of Citizen Power, by incorporating the partisan votaries as paid councilmen.

(posted May 15, 12:50 p.m.)-Despite Nicaragua’s strong economic recovery from the financial crisis of 2008-09, the country must grow its economy even faster to reduce poverty, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Following a nine-day IMF visit to the Nicaragua, which concluded May 11, Marcello Estevao, IMF mission chief for Nicaragua, said Nicaragua has done a good job recovering its economy—growing at  clip of 4.5% annually—while keeping inflation in check and strengthening the Central Bank’s international reserves. Estevao also noted that Nicaragua’s economic outlook for 2012 is “generally positive,” despite slowing growth levels this year and an expected inflation rate around 8-9%.

But to really move the country out of poverty, Nicaragua needs to grow its economy even faster, says Estevao.

Nicaragua must do more to reduce its informal economy, the IMF says

“Higher economic growth is essential to reduce poverty rates significantly over the medium-term,” Estevao said, according to an IMF statement released today. “In this regard, measures to further strengthen institutions, reduce labor-market informality, and enhance the effectiveness of public spending while reducing budget rigidities will be key. Boosting growth and reducing the high dependence on oil imports require strengthening the electricity sector, including with predictable rules that attract new investments. In addition, reforming the pension system is necessary for inter-generational fairness and long-term fiscal sustainability, and a more equitable tax system would also generate resources for needed infrastructure investment and social spending.”

Estevao said that risks to this year’s economic outlook include, “Lower global activity, an adverse terms-of-trade shock, and sudden changes in concessional assistance or foreign-direct investment.”

The IMF urges Nicaragua to maintain “prudent macroeconomic policies” to respond  to any herky-jerky behavior by the world economy.

“In this context, keeping public spending pressures at bay, including by targeting subsidies and moderating wage increases, while preserving the room for social and infrastructure spending, is a priority,” Estevao said.

On Sunday, May 13, at exactly 6:30 a.m., more than 2,500 runners participated in Nicaragua’s Inaugural “Green Race” (La Carrera Verde). Dr. Jaime Incer, former Minister of the Environment and founder of FUNDENIC-SOS (Fondo Natura), initiated the race with the ceremonial gunshot, which was followed immediately by the Las Colinas fire truck whistle, making for a memorable commencement to the country’s largest organized road race to date. 

La Prensa, Las Galerias, Sherwin Williams, Banpro and Centrolac decorated the route with inspirational banners. Hundreds of volunteers from American College, UTN, the Scouts of Nicaragua, Fundenic and the US Embassy provided the manpower needed to operate the route’s four Powerade- and Glacial-supplied hydration stations. 

The race was organized to support Fondo Natura’s reforestation efforts at Reserva Natura, which is located at Kilometer 54 on the Masachapa Highway, heading towards Montelimar. The nature reserve is run as a joint venture between Fondo Natura and NAVINIC.

The Finish Line: Dr. Jaime Incer, Josue Stephens and U.S. Ambassador Phyllis Powers greet runners at the donation ceremony (photo/ Gil Fiallos)

On June 2, the reforestation begins. Four trees will be planted on behalf of each of the 1,500 registered runners. Plot assignments are already underway at Reserve Natura. Many of the Carrera Verde’s 36 sponsors are adopting land that they will reforest and care for in the years ahead. The vision is that Fundenic’s 1000-manzana reserve and watershed will become Nicaragua’s leading example for sustainable forest management.

Casa Pellas, a platinum Green Race sponsor and donor of this year’s race medals and trophies, recently constructed Reserva Natura’s environmental classroom, which is being used used to teach high school and university students from Nicaragua and other countries about sustainable forest management.

Every registered runner that completed the course received a race medal. The first 100 runners to cross the finish line received gold-colored medallions with the Green Race and Casa Pellas logos. Everyone else received medals from recycled wood. 

The medals were presented by the ambassadors from Colombia, El Salvador, Germany and the United States, along with senior representatives from Las Galerias, La Prensa, Casa Pellas, Movistar, and American College. These individuals, along with Canada’s top diplomat in Nicaragua, presented the race winners with their trophies and other prizes. In addition to receiving Movistar cell phones, the race’s top male runner (Alvaro Vasquez, who finished the race with a time of 15:42) and female (Yamania Portacarrero, 23:46) received free American Airlines tickets.

La Carrera Verde also featured a raffle. The top prize was a solar water heater from Ecami, which was won by Banpro’s Gabriela Estrada. Other raffle contributors included Café Las Flores, American Airlines, Ecolodge Hato Nuevo, Cisa Agro, Delisoya, Morgan’s Rock, Ave Maria University, Hilton, Intercontinental, and Crowne Plaza.

Josue Stephens, coordinator of Ometepe’s Fuego y Agua Marathon, facilitated the donation ceremony, kicking-off his team’s effort to provide 400 pairs of running shoes for Nicaraguans in need. Josue, along with Dr. Jaime Incer and US Ambassador Phyllis Powers, presented ceremonial shoes to two of the anticipated recipients. The shoe-donation project is a team effort coordinated by Managua Runners, Fuego y Agua, Casa Pellas, and the American Nicaragua Foundation. Fundenic and the US Embassy, two of the Carrera Verde’s key organizers, are happy to be associated with this important project.

La Carrera Verde—the country’s largest green event in history, with broad-base participation from businesses, NGOs and diplomatic missions—provided Nicaragua with many ‘firsts.’ Thanks to Banco ProCredit, the Carrera Verde was the first truly national race, with registrants signing up at any of the bank’s 25 nationwide branches. Inscriptions were sold in Jalapa and Ometepe, as well as in major cities like León, Rivas and Chinandega. The event got great press coverage thanks to Latidos, which did all of the design work, press facilitation, and were incredible throughout the process.

Thanks are also on order for the kind donations from event sponsors, La Carrera Verde enabled Fundenic and Managua Runners to strike a long-term partnership whereby La Carrera Verde purchased a high-end ChronoTrack RFID time-measurement system for the Green Race. 

Reforestation Begins: This young green thumb wasted no time planting the sapling she got from B2Gold at the Carrera Verde’s environmental festival.

Going forward, all Managua Runners races will feature this high-tech time-measurement system, which will allow the additional competitive categories. ChronoTrack will be used every May to support La Carrera Verde.

All registered participants received race kits that included Gildan shirts, Banco ProCredit hats, United Airlines thermos, Banpro reusable bags, BAC magnets, Bovina Boutique coupons, and Yo No Tiro Basura stickers. Most of the items were adorned with the Green Race and Yo No Tiro Basura logos. 

In addition to the trees that will be planted over the next three months, there were several other green aspects to the events. Through Reninsa and Recinsa, all waste from the race was separated and recycled wherever possible. Water station volunteers conducted an extensive route cleanup immediately after the race. Environmental non-profits were present on Saturday and Sunday, promoting their organizations and building support for their efforts.

The race was accompanied by an environmental festival and numerous concerts. Many of Nicaragua’s biggest bands made the concert memorable—La Cuneta Son Machín, Katia Cardenal, Philip Montalban, Malos Hábitos, and several more were on hand to be part of the inaugural Carrera Verde. Movistar, in coordination with Crack Creativos, was largely responsible for the success of the event’s concert components.

Event organizers were especially proud of the renewable energy companies that signed on to support the event.  AEI (owners of the Amayo wind farm), Blue Power and Priza Holdings (whose wind farm goes on line next month), Mesoamerica Energy and Arctas (partners in creating the Eolo wind farm which goes on line later this year), Tumarin (which will provide 253 Megawatts of hydroelectric power beginning in 2015), and Ecami (one of the nation’s premier distributors of solar power systems), all combined to show that the renewable energy sector takes its commitment to the community very seriously.  

The focus of the events were three-fold: to unite the community behind a noble and important cause; to raise funds for a massive reforestation project; and to increase awareness across all sectors of society about everyone’s shared responsibility in protecting the environment. 

The Inaugural Carrera Verde would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of the event’s organizers and sponsors. Many have already inquired about how to sign on as a sponsor for next year’s Carrera Verde.  If interested, please contact Florian Doerr (florian.doerr@giz.de) of Fundenic-SOS (2276-2556). The 2013 sponsor campaign will begin in August.

This Year’s Best Times:

Men (overall):

1st: Alvaro Vasquez 15:42.0

2nd: Christian Villavicencio 17:00.3

3rd: Johnson Gudiel Cruz 18:13.4

Women (overall):

1st: Rafaela Hernandez con 21:07.9

2nd: Zeneyda Maria Castillo 21:41.9

3rd: Claudia Fernandez 22:08.4

Women (1-24 years)

1st Yamina Portocarrer 23:36.5

2nd Lucia Masis Muñoz 24:08.6

3rd Karen Elizabeth Alva 26:29.0

Men (1-24 years)

1st Moises Alejandro Salgado Gonzalez21:04.1

2nd Luis Himberto Bonilla 22:22.2

3rd Florian Schmid 22:42.9

Women (25-34 years)

1st Zeneyda Maria Castillo 21:41.9

2nd Claudia Fernandez 22:08.4

3rd Diriana Arguello 24:53.5

Men (25-34 years)

1st Alvaro Vasquez 15:42.0

2nd Johnson Gudiel Cruz 18:13.4

3rd Alvaro Baltodano 19:53.4

Women (35-44 years)

1st Karla Vanessa D’Trinidad 28:08.1

2nd Gladys Paniagua 28:48.5

3rd Nelly Alexandra Alvarado 28:48.7

Men (35-44 years)

1st Christian Villavicencio 17:00.3

2nd  Juan Vicente 18:16.8

3rd Alexis Rosales Benavides 19:57.8

Women (45-54 years)

1st: Rafaela Hernandez 21:07.9

2nd: Consuelo Lopez 29:51.9

3rd: Maria Auxiliadora  Pacheco30:31.1

Men (45-54 years)

1st: Patrick Leonard 19:23.0

2nd: Jovel Azofeifa 22:35.8

3rd: Ricardo Dario Trejos 22:42.6

Women (55-99 years)

1st: Amelia Mallona 32:12.4

2nd: Phyllis Powers 41:47.7

3rd: Monica Seoane de Cuadra 42:43.4

Men (55-99 years)

1st: Scott Deitler 21:53.5

2nd: Stefan Platteau 25:22.0

3rd: Jose Silva Rodriguez 25:58.4

The race’s sponsors were: 

Platinum:

Gildan

AEI

Grupo Casa Pellas

La Prensa

Movistar

Las Galerias

Gold:

Banco ProCredit

United Airlines

American Airlines

Arctas

Priza

Blue Power Energy, S.A.

Silver:

Deloitte

Fundacion Telefonica

B2Gold

VeryKool

Banpro

Bimbo

Centrolac

Bronze:

Publimovil

CisaAgro

Tumarin

Glacial

Ecami

Powerade

Centrales Hidroelectricas de Nicaragua, S.A.

Cafe Las Flores

Ecoactua

Mesoamerica Energy

Sherwin Williams

Hospital Metropolitano

DHL

KIA Motors

Restaurante Ola Verde

BAC

TOLA—After quietly developing a reputation as an alternative surfing destination with excellent beachbreaks and consistent conditions, Nicaragua’s waves are about to go mainstream.

From July 14-22, the world’s top over-35 surfers will compete in the 2012 International Surfing Association’s World Masters Surfing Championship on the waves at Colorado Beach, at Hacienda Iguana, in Tola. Tourism Minister Mario Salinas estimates the event—the largest international surfing tournament in Nicaragua’s history—will be followed by some 150 million surfers worldwide and will increase the country’s surf-tourism industry by 30,000-50,000 additional visitors by next year alone.

Hosting the World Masters Surfing Championship will ratify Nicaragua’s position on the world surfing map and culminate a coming-of-age that happened faster than it takes most surfers to learn how to ride a barrel.

Wax On: Nicaragua’s surfing scene has also attracted a younger generation of Nicaraguan surfers (photo/ Tim Rogers)

“Nicaragua is not in the surf-frontier category anymore; we are no longer a place where surfers go because there is no one else here,” says Bryan McMandon, founder of The Nicaragua Surf Report, the country’s only daily update on surfing conditions. “Now it’s a family surf destination. Nicaragua is coming into its own and standing on its own two legs.”

McMandon first came to Nicaragua in 2004 for a week of surfing at the Popoyo Surf Lodge, Nicaragua’s first surf camp, run by J.J. Yemma, one of the founding fathers of Nicaragua surfing. McMandon was so impressed with the surfing conditions here that he quit his corporate job in San Francisco, sold his apartment and returned to Nicaragua a month later with four surfboards, a backpack and no clear idea what he was doing.

“I never had a definitive plan, just a fuzzy idea that I was going to come down here and surf, have fun and learn Spanish,” McMandon says. “I decided that I was going to do it as long as it’s fun, and eight years later, I’m still here and it’s still really fun.”

McMandon was not the first guy to discover Nicaragua’s waves, but even in 2004 he was still on the tail end of the first group of surfing pioneers establishing Nicaragua’s surfing scene. Guys such as J.J. Yemma, Lance Moss and Dale Dagger—the Mount Rushmore of Nicaragua surfing—were already offering surf tours on different breaks along Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. But there was a dearth of information for outsiders who wanted to learn more about surfing conditions here, McMandon says.

“Nicaragua was still off the surfing map. There was no promotion and no information online. There was no way to find any info about the wave conditions,” he says.

Maturing Gracefully: Bryan McMandon

So McMandon decided to do something about it. In 2004, he set up a simple blog—NSR, or NicaraguaSurfReport.com—to brag to friends back home about Nicaragua’s surf conditions. “I couldn’t believe how good the waves were here, so I put up this blog and started posting pictures for no other reason than to convince my friends to come visit.”

It didn’t take long for other surfing enthusiasts to discover McMandon’s blog and start emailing him with random questions about where to stay and where to surf.

“Then it just started to snowball,” McMandon remembers. “From the very beginning it was evident that people wanted to know more about Nicaragua surfing, so I got a photographer to follow me around and started posting daily surf reports from different beaches. That was the seed of NSR. It was never meant to be a business; we were just sharing info.”

Today NSR is a business, complete with vacation rentals, real estate, and two surf shops. NSR is also the country’s largest digital archive of Nicaragua surfing, with a searchable seven-year database of pictures and reports on the best waves and surfers to pass through Nicaragua.

McMandon now runs property sales for Rancho Santana and has bequeathed the day-to-day management of NSR to his wife Heather and partner Carl Segerstrale, who writes biweekly surf reports for The Nicaragua Dispatch. McMandon’s personal maturation from adventurous frontier-surfer to businessman and family guy has mirrored the evolution of Nicaragua’s surf scene, which has also become more family-friendly in recent years.

“We are starting to get into the center of the bell curve where there is a huge market of surfers who have families,” McMandon says. “These are people who need tourism amenities and activities for their kids and spouses. These are people with corporate jobs and one or two weeks a year to plan a surf-trip family vacation. These are people who have the money and want to spend it.”

That’s where Nicaragua has an incredible advantage over other countries in the hemisphere. The combination of beachbreaks and steady offshore winds provided by Lake Cocibolca gives Nicaragua some of the most consistent surf conditions in the world. So for people who are going to drop several thousand dollars to bring their family on a surf trip planned six months in advance, Nicaragua is their best bet to find good wave conditions, McMandon says. And that’s as good as gold for Nicaragua’s tourism industry.

“You don’t understand how huge that is,” McMandon says. “Many surfers have gone to other places—Costa Rica or Mexico—for their family surf trips and when they show up the waves are bad that week and they are bummed because that was their trip for the year. You significantly increase your chance of getting good waves if you pick Nicaragua over almost any other country in this vicinity.”

Plus, McMandon adds (with a level of disclosure that borders on blasphemy in the surfing world), Nicaragua has at least 40 different surf spots that are so good they are worth traveling for. McMandon says he has spent the past eight years mapping out the coastline, from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and has identified over 100 surf spots in Nicaragua, which he divides into four categories: San Juan del Sur, Tola, Central Nicaragua, and León/Chinandega region.

In Tola alone, he says, there are 17 “named” surf spots, 10 of which are “top quality.” That diversity, quality and consistency makes Nicaragua a great destination for a week-long surfing vacation, or—in McMandon’s case—and eight-year surfing adventure.

“Just staying here in Rancho Santana, you can surf 17 spots, all of which are no more than 30 minutes away out the front door,” McMandon says. “That is awesome and it stands up to anywhere in the world.”

Realtors Follow the Surfers

Surfers aren’t just good for tourism, they’re also good for real estate and development. While more cautious investors think: “Nicaragua? That sounds unstable. No way!” Surfers think: “Nicaragua? That sounds unstable. I bet the waves are uncrowded. Let’s go!”

 Frontier surfers are not typically ones to fret about creature comforts, macroeconomic stability or the long-term geopolitical implications of a born-again neosocialist government with an impulsive foreign policy and a fondness for employing a macaronic jumble of religious blather and hackneyed revolutionary boilerplate.

 “There is a saying with property, it’s ‘Follow the surfers.’ Surfers have found some of the best property in the world 10 years before anyone else has known about it,” McMandon says. “If the waves are good, the beaches are usually beautiful. That’s the way it is in Mexico, Costa Rica, Bali and the list goes on. We are always looking for the next frontier, the place that everyone else hasn’t yet found.”

Nicaragua may no longer be in the unmapped category of “Here be Dragons,” but for most people that’s fine.

Nicaragua deserves a chance to evolve beyond its dragon and dinosaur phase. And if surfers are going to help Nicaragua get beyond the breakers of its past, then surf’s up! 

(posted May 14, 1:30 p.m.)- The Nicaraguan government needs to decentralize its efforts to provide food security and combat malnutrition, which affects 19% of the population—one of the highest levels in Latin America, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Gero Vaagt, the FAO’s representative in Nicaragua, told the local press today that the government ought to create municipal commissions to respond to problems of malnutrition and food insecurity in each of the country’s 153 municipalities. The issue, he said, needs to be approached as an “inter-institutional issue,” according to El Nuevo Diario.

Vaagt stressed that Nicaragua is in a unique position to respond to the issues of malnutrition and food insecurity if it were to diversify its agricultural production more and take advantage of world prices to produce basic grains for export, rather than importing foods that can be produced here.

The FAO notes that malnutrition in Nicaragua has dropped from 52% in 1989 to 19% in 2010, but says that number still represents about 1 million people.