We're very pleased to announce an update to both our books, Moon Nicaragua (now in its 4th edition) and Living Abroad in Nicaragua (now in its 2nd edition). As you can imagine, this was the product of a lot of field work, many late nights writing and editing, and a whole lotta blood, sweat, and tears. We are confident these are the best editions ever!

I've written about choco-tourism before ("On the Chocolate Trail"), but mostly in Belize, where both Mayans and foreigners have begun raising cacao, making craft chocolate products, and letting visitors join in the process. Folks in Nicaragua are also tapping this sweet tooth and offering it to tourists.

First, there was El Castillo del Cacao, in Matagalpa, where you can experience the entire bean-to-bar chocolate making process. Now, for those who don't care to venture north to Matagalpa, there is a weekly workshop in Granada. I have not had a chance to experience this yet, but I've been told that travelers in Granada can now attend a "HANDS-ON CHOCOLATE MAKING WORKSHOP" every Wednesday at 2 p.m. at PURE, a self-described Natural Health and Fitness Center on Calle Corrales (from Convento San Fransisco, 1.5 blocks towards the lake).

The first book I ever read about Nicaragua was Blood of Brothers, by Stephen Kinzer. It was 1997 and I’d just received my invitation from the U.S. Peace Corps to work in Nicaragua as a forestry volunteer. All I knew about Nicaragua was that it was in Central America, it sounded exotic, and I would be living there for the next two-and-a-half years, little else.

Kinzer gave a sharp, alluring portrait of a country during its hottest hours (the Sandinista revolution of 1979 and subsequent social experiment and civil war that lasted till 1990); but I was looking for more. The second book I read about Nicaragua was also non-fiction, by a Nicaraguan this time, also about the war. And the third. You get the picture. It took some digging to find other periods of Nicaraguan history, and still I found few descriptions in the literature about the life in store for me, about modern-day, small-town Nicaragua.

That’s where Silvio Sirias should have come in, but alas, this was before he had even conceived of Bernardo and the Virgin, his 2005 novel based on real events and characters from deep within the Nicaraguan culture and countryside. I would have to wait ten years to read Bernardo, which also deals with recent history, but in a more personable, creative way than any nonfiction attempt I’d read.

Nicaragua remains, for the second consecutive year, the third leading nation in Latin America when measuring foreign direct investment (FDI) as a percent of each country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a 2009 study conducted by the Latin Business Chronicle which analyzes FDI data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and GDP data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In 2009, Nicaragua reported US$434 million in FDI and its GDP reached US$6.2 billion, which translates into a FDI/GDP rate of 7.1 percent. Even when experiencing a 31 percent decrease relative to 2008, Nicaragua's FDI figures can be considered positive when compared to the rest of the Central American region, as other countries that have traditionally been strong recipients of FDI experienced drastic drops, such as Honduras (-46.1 percent) and El Salvador (-45.5 percent).

More here: 24-7Pressrelease.com

Nicaragua has been chosen as the new location for Spain's version of the reality show Survivor (Supervivientes) Season 11, expected to air in May 2010. The Spanish television network, Telecinco, announced that the destination for this season will no longer be the Cochinos Keys in Honduras like the previous four seasons; instead, the participants will travel to Nicaragua's South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS, for its acronym in Spanish), specifically to Corn Island and the Pearl Keys.