View from Finca Magdalena, Ometepe

One of my personal favorite places in Nicaragua is found just uphill from the town of Balgüe is the famed Finca Magdalena, a coffee cooperative established in the 1980s on land confiscated from the Maltodano family. It now employs 27 families. Magdalena and its barn-like second story accommodation has been a must-see stop on the Central America backpacker trail for a decade, where everyone showers in the same bracing cold water piped directly from a spring up the slope.

It's not the most comfortable place on the island, but I don't go there for comfort, I go there for the atmosphere. And the atmosphere is fantastic: the bustle of a coffee farm, home-prepared meals cooked over a wood fire, horseback rides through the lower slopes of Volcán Maderas, and a rustic old building that's fully focused on farming, not luxury. Check out their home page or read more about it in the Ometepe chapter of the Moon Handbook.

Then check out the view. I snapped this picture back in 2000, but you might have noticed the cover of the second edition of the book was a much better shot from about the same place, with wildflowers in bloom - gorgeous.