Lonely Planet Asia — April 2017

Plan your trip MAP ILLUSTRATION: ALEX VERHILLE. PHOTOGRAPHS: SAM ARMSTRONG/GETTY, PHILIP LEE HARVEY, FRANK SCHWERE/GETTY, ANNIE ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE ON THE ROAD HOW TO GET THERE Augusto C Sandino Airport in the capital Managua is the main hub for Nicarag ...

40 APRIL 2017 The San Juan River winds through the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, which features trees up to 50 metres tall and ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE APRIL 2017 41 Follow in the wake of pirates and adventurers GREAT ESCAPE APRIL 2017 41 ...

F OUND IN POCKETS, CASH tills and stuffed down sofas across Nicaragua is the 100 córdoba note (about US$3.15), showing the Cathe ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The 1915 Cathedral of Granada; locals chat outside a hairdresser’s; the city’s ch ...

Ojo de Agua is one of Ometepe’s natural water holes, and is popular with swimmers ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE GREAT ESCAPE S TANDING UNDER A PICTURE of the Archangel Michael, Captain Donald Jarquin rests his hands o ...

I T IS JUST BEFORE SUNRISE ON the San Juan River, and the sounds of the jungle stir like an orchestra tuning up. There is the pe ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE GREAT ESCAPEGREAT ESCAPE A view across the San Juan River from La Fortaleza, a 17th- century fortress bui ...

N ICARAGUA IS A COUNTRY with beguiling geography, from its two vast lakes to the chain of volcanoes along its spine. This means ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE GREAT ESCAPE Little Corn is blessed with numerous palm-fringed beaches coconut production was the island ...

OLIVER SMITH is senior features writer at Lonely Planet Traveller and was last year named AITO Travel Writer of the Year. I T IS ...

NICARAGUA GREAT ESCAPE A woman sells baskets at the side of the street. RIGHT The Mexican-style Baroque Recolección church. FAR ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL Buddhist New Year is the time to see Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second city, at its most animated, from th ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL Temporary pumps are installed to suck water from Chiang Mai’s city moats, but any water source will be ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL ‘Ahead lies a four day, man-made monsoon, which will saturate the city’s streets and all who sail in t ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL Songkran parade dancers in Chiang Mai. LEFT Prayer flags are thought to bring luck Songkran in full sw ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL overflow with an extraordinary blend of the decorative and the practical: lotus-blossom bouquets, neat ...

THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL ‘The monks’ bowls overflow with lotus parcels packed with sticky r ice’ Families wander through the ba ...