Sometimes the perfect place to stay is not comprised of walls. For me, it is the view from the windows. Small tastes of the local atmosphere can usually be found inside: the hammock hanging in the corner, the scent of mangos, or the buzz of mosquitoes. However, until you look outside, you may as well be at home. This is one of many reasons why I loved staying with my friend Megan in her small neighborhood called Batahola Sur. By the time I visited her, she had been a resident of the capital city of Managua, Nicaragua for over a year, living in a small house with four other volunteers. Managua is not sought out as a typical tourist destination, but this presented me with the opportunity to view life as the locals view life. During the evenings, children played ball in the streets as I watched from the front stoop. They waved at me and called out, “Hello!” As I returned the gesture, the small interaction registered itself as a memory worth preserving.

You'll have to do your own taste-testing when you arrive in Nicaragua, but Toña and Victoria are the main contenders for best Nica cerveca, available pretty much everywhere. And if the beer is cold...

There is an art and a skill to filming food. You have to keep it bright, shiny, and juicy and you have to surround it with people who are passionate about food. You can paint that hamburger with soy sauce to make it pop, but you also need people to eat it, praise it, savor it, and make it come to life. That’s one of the things I’ve learned anyway, working as a production fixer and location specialist on four food shows for the Travel Channel. Last spring, I assisted in the production of two new food shows for the Travel Channel. In the picture above, Carlos Vega, owner of Ceviche Express, a popular local chain of tiny snack booths in parking lots across Managua, walks us through the menu: octopus, conch, fish, shrimp, or “mixed.” That’s it, and that’s enough.

Managua has two main markets: the Huembes market and the Oriental market. Although Huembes is considered by locals to be the "tourist" market, I'd actually recommend it over Oriental because it's safer, easier to get around, less chaotic, and (as a traveller) you'll probably find more of what you're looking for. Yes, if you want everyday stuff (shoes, electronics, whatever), Oriental is slightly cheaper. But if you're looking for souvenirs, gifts to bring home, handmade clothes and jewelry, leather items, furniture, hammocks -- pretty much anything artisanal -- this is the place. The market also has a large produce section, where you can buy all sorts of local fruits and vegetables you've never tried (much less heard of!) before. Make a whole morning of it: do your shopping, then have lunch and a refreshing Coke drunk from a plastic bag with a straw, Nica style, at one of the market's many food and drink stalls.

I had a day to explore Managua and one of my favorite spots was the "Concha Acustica" with its bright Sandinista sunshine and immense plaza. All of the historic buildings - the cathedral, the National Palace, etc - were closed for some undisclosed event (top secret!), so I spent my time outside and loved the vast openness of this plaza and its "concha" which reminded me of Boston's hatch shell where the Pops play. The plaza might fill up for Ortega's political rallies but is otherwise a vast, empty space in a capital that struggles to feel like a city rather than 300 conjoined neighborhoods. If Managua had a center, this would be it.

La Chureca crouches just beyond Nicaragua's capital, Managua. With the 1,000 people who live in the dump, digging through trash to salvage any type of metal or recyclable in exchange for money, it doesn’t run like a democracy or even a form remotely close to any government sanctioned area. In many ways for a long time, it ran as a brothel. Families utterly desperate to survive resorted to selling whatever they could for first picking in the garbage, even their daughters. No, this is not your typical place to vacation. In fact, it's not your typical place to even put on a bucket list or 1,000 places to see before you die. Yet there is something about La Chureca that keeps people coming back year after year. It was like that for me, when I first visited with a volunteer group to help with La Chureca's school and their young scholars. My team had partnered with a couple who, with the help of others, was able to build and sustain a village of hope for young girls at risk of prostitution in La Chureca. (Photo: Courtesy of Mason Schroeder)

It didn't happen right away, but I've grown to love micheladas. This refreshing drink, which apparently originated in Mexico, has become popular in Nicaragua and you can now find it in lots of bars and restaurants around the country. Of all the micheladas I've tried, nothing has beaten the ones they make at Mexican restaurant Andele on the Carretera Sur. I haven't been able to figure out their exact recipe (though don't think I haven't tried to replicate it at home!), but it's a mixture of lemon juice, beer (I like Victoria Frost), tabasco sauce, steak sauce, and probably some other ingredient I'm missing, served in a salt-rimmed glass. At Andele you get a luxuriously giant, chilled, ice-filled glass that makes you feel like you're away on a resort holiday.

Guests at Jicaro Island Ecolodge, a nine-casita resort in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, can kayak around the lake's 365 islets which formed when the Mombacho volcano erupted thousands of years ago. Early morning is the best time for spotting birds like Montezuma’s Oropendula, Ringed Kingfisher, Purple Gallinule, and Northern Jacana. I took this shot just after sunrise. Mombacho is looming in the background and two local kids are casting nets for fish.

A string of random events had landed me with a house/dog sitting gig in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Every morning at 5am, before the temperature climbed well into the 90s I took the dog for a walk up the dusty road, greeting happy workers biking into work and children waiting to go to school. One morning a mare appeared out of nowhere. Hooves pounding the ground at a full gallop, she disappeared as quickly as she'd appeared, in a cloud of dust. A beautiful morning in Nica.

Definitely off-the-beaten path, the Treehouse requires precise directions, good pronunciation and a firm will to find. Hop on the bus or take a collectivo from Granada towards the coast about 15 minutes from town, ask to be dropped off at "Poste Rojo" and you'll find a road that goes through a field and up into the hills of the jungle. You'll know you're on the right path when you reach a staircase on a steep vertical. The company is eclectic, the staff are demonstrably having the time of their lives, a fantastic playlist is always provided and the hammocks are a-swinging. Playtime has arrived. Welcome to the treehouse! A long, suspended footbridge runs from the main hangout area over to a beautiful yoga deck that overlooks jungle with a killer vantage point. No matter how hard guests seem to jump, the bridge refuses to snap, so have at it. Howler monkeys can be heard in the not-too-distant trees and colorful birds spotted swooping in arcs, while the frogs' and toads' beeps and beats weave together for a surprisingly apt rendition of the Star Wars theme. The treehouse offers hammocks and dorms, and private rooms, casitas and treehouses, from $4.50/night. The non-hammock options feature gorgeous wooden beds with incredibly comfortable mattresses. The intimate community, family-style dinners, attentive staff and playful vibe is a refreshing experience from your run-of-the-mill stop.

Bicycles are my favorite mode of transportation and they just happen to be a great way to carry way more than most people would be able to carry by hand or on foot alone. At some of the huge traffic roundabouts in the countryside of Nicaragua you will find people selling fruit, vegetables, snacks and in this case fresh baked bread. This vendor is prepared for all conditions and even has a red bicycle pump strapped to the top tube of his bike frame. This style of utility bike is common all over the world and is regarded as rugged, reliable, safe and most importantly simple. Bikes are a great way for people and their products to get to market.

"Park facing out." This is what the signs say on parking spaces at the top of Volcan Masaya (yes, you can drive to the top). Y'know, just in case you need to make a quick getaway... Masaya is most definitely an active volcano. We visited on a cloudy day, so the gasses and vapor were thick and swirling, obscuring the bubbling hot lava down below. The smell of sulfur is strong, and the whole experience leaves little room to wonder why the Spaniards called this volcano the "gates of hell." Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya is a short ride from Masaya, Managua or Granada. It was a highlight of our trip for sure.

This highlight come from this past winter when I was living and traveling through Central America. While I had a base in Coco, Costa Rica, I spent three months traveling around Central America, including Monteverde, Palo Verde National Park, and San Jose in Costa Rica, and Granada, Lake Nicaragua, and Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. This photo comes from the bell tower of Iglesia La Merced in Granada.

El año pasado, la Unesco ha declarado a la Basílica Catedral de la Asunción de la ciudad de León antigua capital de Nicaragua como Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad. En ella yace en su interior la tumba del escritor “Rubén Dario” máximo exponente del modernismo de la lengua hispana, así como otros 27 personajes ilustres. La Catedral posee una característica única y singular del barroco erguida en 1747; siendo actualmente una de las más grandes de Centroamérica, a mi parecer es icónica ya que pese a los temblores y la proximidad de los volcanes Momotombo y Cerro Negro sus muros siguen en pie.

Soup is a Monday tradition in Nicaragua. Why Mondays? Because that's when everybody is recovering from a weekend of drinking, dancing, and partying, and needs to get over their resaca (hangover). You can get different kinds of soup - chicken, meat, mondongo (tripe), to name a few, and they're served in giant bowls, usually accompanied by corn tortillas and rice. You can try the restaurant Capri, located in cool, breezy El Crucero, just outside Managua, which has delicious and inexpensive soup, served any day of the week in bowls about the size of your head.

I was biking around the colonial university city of León, Nicaragua, running errands...a colorful building across the street caught my eye, and since I had my camera in my backpack, I stopped, got off my bike and took a couple of shots. But then, when I turned around to get back on my bike, I noticed that it was parked against THIS vibrant wall. Wow--COLOR! A humble wooden building, instead of the more typical stone-and-stucco structure--when I leaned the bike against the wall I hadn't even noticed it; I'd biked up and down this street many times without really seeing it. Stop and park. Notice.