It's the most serious protests in many years.  US Embassy is mostly shut down, La Prensa is up and running.  Looks like tourists have been getting out.

Edited: 04/23/2018 at 03:08 PM by ww

From Hacienda Iguana NSR: https://www.surfnsr.com/nicaragua-surf-report

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

The educated people are tired of a dictatorship.  Ortega got back in power and then changed the laws so he could keep getting "re-elected".  Ironically the civil war that helped bring him to power was for the same reason.  My friends down there say most of the conflicts are in Managua and Masaya.  Our driver has made sereral airport runs with some delays but he got guests in and out of the airport without a problem.  Life at the beach really hasn't been affected.  Rivas markets are a little more crowded but no violence.  We will see how it plays out. Hopefully Ortega gets the message and bails before too many more people get hurt or killed.  

I remember my first trip in the 80's, was in the middle of a riot fresh off the plane, headed for the beach. Ortega is and was a menace to peace, he will not go peacefully

Thanks for the report.  It took a while for the pressure cooker to heat up, and in good Latin American tradition the protests are centered around the university.  So now I need to finally get around to visiting once things calm down.

Just booked a 7 day trip for July to Nicaragua. Anyone have an opinion on that? I noticed the issues were in cities far from the airport and even further from where we are traveling to.

Informally, it looks like protests, panic buying, and perhaps some looting may have spread almost everywhere (I'm counting a Facebook contact that I can't verify but seems credible, plus La Prensa).  

I would keep the July plans, but be ready to chuck them.

flights are cheap!

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I troll 2L.com to be a better person in real life

Atlantic has a serious story on what's going on.  Probably more useful to read La Prensa.  

Managua is cut off by barricades.  Another headline:  Así fue la agonía de los últimos años de Somoza en el poder (This was the agony of Somoza's last years in power).  

2 dead in Granada.. no bueno. I wonder if this will thin out the Brazzo posse?

An old buddy of mine used to HALO into "Hondaragua" with a Team to take care of business back-in-the-day.

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Dora Hates You

Sadly it has gotten very bad there.  Many at the beach have packed up and left the country.  Tourism has pretty much stopped.  The roads are barricaded in many directions.  The grocery stores have very limited food and the gas stations are rationing what little gas they have.  Many restaurants have closed due to lack of supplies.  The Atlantic article pretty much sums it up.  I don't think this is going to end well. Masked missioary soldiers are running around with guns. Dictatorships are brutal.  Pray for these poor people.

Met with a newer employee today at my job. He grew up in Nicaragua. He and his family just canceled their yearly trip due to fear of safety and this guy isn't a wilting violet.  Be safe to those who brave it.

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"The best surfer out there is the one having the most fun."
~Phil Edwards

This was posted by Buzz, it must be pretty bad...

PLEASE READ ALL, THIS WILL BE MY LAST REPORT FOR THE NEXT 2 MONTHS. Due to all the unrest in the country I am shutting down my business and canceling my guests for the month of June and July, I will still pay all my employees and support them and there families even though we will not receive any new business or income. The safety of my guests are my #1 concern, there is little to no gas or food in the towns as of today and if I can not give you 100% of the Nica X Treme experience I would rather not stay open as many of my guests know of me, there are many blockades up and down the coast highway from Managua and do not want to put anyone in jeopardy, please understand they are not targeting tourists or foreigners and you can fly into airport behind us from Liberia C.R though surfboards could be a problem, this is not a post to scare anyone but use your good judgement before coming here. I want to thank everyone for your support and promise when things get better and I can provide the services you all have been used to you will be the 1st to know. Buzz..........

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"Don't count the days, make the days count." -Ali
#rydyrstrong

Thanks for comments.  The backdoor via Liberia is somewhat encouraging.  Ortega seems holed up in his compound resisting a "coup."  US is restricting visas for Ortega supporters.  

Meanwhile, the volcano disaster in Guatemala is looking bad.  

I just got to Hacienda Iguana yesterday and figured I'd give a little report on the drive.

We flew in on the late morning spirit flight on Thursday morning at about 1 am, and had to sleep in the airport until 7 since the roads are shut down at night due to thugs taking advantage of the state of the country at night. On the drive from the airport we took multiple detours but actually made pretty good time (about 3 hours). We hit about 6 roadblocks that took money to pass, along with countless abandoned roadblocks with nobody at them that we just had to drive around. Each roadblock only took about a dollar for the whole car. The roadblocks ranged from bricks taken from the road, to trees, to burning tires and trash. Each one had people with homemade mortars, we saw one person shoot one in the air but neither of us ever felt in danger. The biggest one we hit had quite a crowd of locals around it and they seemed to be debating what to do and weren't letting many cars through. Eventually one of the older locals told the guys at the roadblock to let us pass since we were tourists. I think the board bags on our van actually helped us stop from getting hassled as much, one roadblock even checked the inside of our car to make sure we were real tourists with luggage, which was a little unsettling but still not too scary. Most of the people at the roadblocks were actually very polite and friendly with us.

Once we got near Rivas, the road was completely shut down with a line of parked semi trucks with no drivers as far down the road as we could see. We made a U-turn and took a tiny dirt road that i'm pretty sure our driver had never been on before as he asked literally every person he saw for directions to confirm he didn't miss a turn and that the last person's advice was correct. It ended up being a pretty cool detour over a mountain.

I'm not sure if the rental companies will continue doing airport transfers much longer, but either way I would definitely recommend the flight to the airport at Hacienda Iguana over driving if you have a trip planned down here. Like I said I never felt in danger, but it is probably best to leave the protesters and roadblocks be. Other than that now that we're at the beach everything is pretty normal though there is obviously a lot of talk and uncertainty about what's going on.

Was there a little over a month ago. skatensurf is describing a much worse scenario. Ortega is attempting to pull and Assad in not going but he can't rain down that kind of terror. He could have walked a while ago but now he and the VP (his wife, no really) are probably screwed. I'm thinking Western Hemisphere geopolitics won't let him remain in power.

So is Colorado's empty?

Even if Colorados wasn't full of brazzies... it would still be a shadow of its former self. Last 4-5x I surfed it, it just wasn't working right. I think that place depends on the river. If it isn't running the break sucks. So many better waves around.

I landed in managua the night after the protests started and left a few days later. I wont be back there for a while.