Great article on Ometepe. I'm originally from Minneapolis now living permanently in Nicaragua and working as a tour guide with Buen Viaje Tours. Our biggest challenge is getting people to abandon everything negative they think they know about Nicaragua from the past and give them something based in today's reality. Nicaragua is a beautiful country, brimming with possibility. Thank you for sharing your positive take on Nicaragua with fellow Minnesotans.

After living both in the US midwest and Central America - it is interesting to read this very biased column by professional travel writers. They didn't do their research about all the foreign owned businesses they promoted in their travel article. Where are the locally owned businesses in this "hot spot" promotion? Totoco is a multibillionare Eco-lodge that robbed the local water system building massive water holding tanks thereby forcing hundreds of local islanders to use the lake water for everything from cooking, washing, etc..for years until the islanders put in a new water system which is owned by the local community - Totoco even put in a pool which is banned by the community water committee. The land that Totoco bought and developed was part of a cooperative and had legal issues with some local families. Nicaraguan law prohibits foreigners from buying cooperative land. Totoco and other foreign owned businesses often uses foreign workers "volunteers" who pay to stay and work on their gardens, etc..reducing jobs/training for islanders. The locally owned hotels and restaurants which have been established thru years of hard work by island families suffer when these foreign businesses open and thrive due to the internet travel sites which are promoted thru these sites/blogs and are difficult for many reasons for islanders to equally participate in. Many of the foreigners do not have legal residency to work in Nicaragua and often have drug issues and even promote drug use/abuse and prostitution - often with violent consequences. Each of the foreign owned businesses in this article are promoted on the internet but are not people respected in the local communities. This is a rural island with humble hardworking people who are often with out resources, education or opportunities to resist the extreme changes that are coming to their beautiful tranquil homeland - their farmland is being sold to foreigners cheaply and the resources destroyed and polluted by tourists and tourist businesses, with the lowest wages if there are even paid jobs offered. Resentment towards foreign owned businesses is growing rapidly in San Juan del Sur and Granada which are both on the mainland and have so many issues related to tourism - often about resources such as land and water and fair wage employment! This type of travel article needs to offer a balanced perspective to provide Minnesotans and foreign travelers awareness and consciencous tourism and development. The police, and government is easily bought to ignore the laws in place to protect everyone. Nicaraguans especially islanders are not readily open to discussing these issues with foreigners or strangers but with a bit of interest and research - these issues could have easily been exposed in this article instead of easily promoting foreign owned businesses.