The last part of my trip to Nicaragua was simply amazing, and included a relaxing day on Laguna de Apoyo, a personal tour of Flor de Caña's distillery, steaks perfectly barbecued in a metal barrel, and a pineapple farm tour.
Laguna de Apoyo
This is one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever visited and is a regular stop whenever I visit Nicaragua. Laguna de Apoyo is a volcanic lake nestled in a nature reserve located between Masaya and Grenada. We took the family here for a day trip and met up with friends to barbecue, relax, and enjoy the warm waters.
Enjoying a cold beer and some hammock time after lunch...
Flor de Caña Tour
The next day we drove out to the country to tour the country's top rum distillery, Flor de Caña. The distillery is located on the company's own sugar cane plantation in the town of Chichigalpa, about a 30 minute drive northwest of León. One of the friends we went with was able to arrange a personal tour that included drinking 29-year aged rum straight out of the barrel...muy yummy!
The tour starts by the sugar cane fields...
Where we get to see a relic of Nicaragua's old railway system:
Sadly, the railway that once connected the country was sold for scrap in 1993 on the promise that it'd be modernized. For a country whose primary exports are agricultural and transport routes through the country rustic, it is a big loss to the economy not having a cheap means of heavy transport.
Heavy transport is mainly done by truck (as opposed to this tractor-based rig) these days:
The barrels are made from reused Jack Daniels bourbon white oak:
And here we are drinking 29-year aged rum taken right out of the barrel...the grand finale of the tour!
Later that night we grilled some steaks the way Nicas often do, with wood charcoal in a half-cut metal barrel:
Christmas Lunch on a Pineapple Farm
My wife's cousin had us out to her house for Christmas lunch. Again, the food was delicious and it was fun meeting new people, but another cool part was that I was able to tour their adjacent farm. Their two main crops are bananas and pineapples.
Here's a banana field:
With a good looking bunch ripening:
And here's the pineapple field:
And here I am trying not to get stabbed by the sharp leaves:
And here's the master griller who also gave us some fresh pineapples from his fields:
Snakes are a natural pest control system, and this boa caught on the farm was released back into the pineapple fields:
After some cool pictures, of course...
This type of farm is a great example of how Nicaraguans get by with such a controlled economy. People make a living however they can, and family farms like this supplement multiple sources of income. You can bet that most of these businesses are informal, the labor informal, and sales informal.
That's just life, and forcing these types of businesses to comply with myriad bureaucratic rules, their gatekeepers, and taxation will not do be doing regular non-government people any favors.
Hasta Luego Nicaragua
So that's the end of my Nicaragua trip this year, but I still have a lot more to say about the economy and how blockchain technology can make life better for so many people largely cut off from global markets or just caught up in bad policies.
That'll have to wait for another article, so stay tuned!
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Rob Viglione is a PhD Candidate in Finance @UofSC with research interests in cryptofinance, asset pricing, and innovation. He is a former physicist, mercenary mathematician, and military officer with experience in satellite radar, space launch vehicles, and combat support intelligence. Currently a Principal at Key Force Consulting, LLC, a start-up consulting group in North Carolina, and Head of U.S. & Canada Ambassadors @BlockPay, Rob holds an MBA in Finance & Marketing and the PMP certification. He is a passionate libertarian who advocates peace, freedom, and respect for individual life.