I think you were looking for comments about the content. I didn’t even notice the black border. So, nice report and analysis, Vik. I never pass up a chance to go to Nicaragua. I love the place.
I do take issue with a couple of things you said:
The recent tourism boom of Costa Rica has led to an unfortunate Americanization of the land of the Ticos. Prices are at best the same as in the USA, and at worst sky-high. One is surrounded by Americans and workers that are strangely fluent in English; at times it feels like it is an ecotourism Disneyland.
I don’t buy this assessment of Costa Rica. The boom in CR is not recent. Tourism began to take off in the mid-90s and has never looked back. Save for the 2008-2010 seasons where things dipped following the worldwide financial crisis, numbers have increased markedly every year for the past two decades. CR welcomed 2.7 million visitors last year. CR does offer a more polished product than Nicaragua does, and many more people here speak English. (Education levels are simply higher.) That does not mean that CR has somehow become "Americanized." After 20 years here, I realize it is still a very foreign country, and not at all American, nor does it have any desire to be.
I think that it is only a matter of time until Nicaragua explodes into the next "it" destination. My advice: go now before this happens, it is worth a visit.
You know, people have been saying this for years. In fact, "Go now before everyone discovers Nicaragua" was the theme of an article I wrote in 1999. Visitor numbers to Nicaragua have increased. They were at 1.4 million in 2015. I still don’t think the country is in any danger of being overrun.