Nicaragua Nicaragua, the Calm before the Storm

Today Nicaragua is in political turmoil , with protests against the government that has left students and journalists dead in the streets, a defiant Daniel Ortega who is unlikely to step down, and an uncertain future that overnight took Central American's most stable country to the brink. But just a few days before the bloody protests and calls for a new government, I was walking the streets of Managua, Siuna, and visiting the frontier town of Alamikamba.As someone who has been traveling to Nicaragua since the late 1990's, I have seen how much the country has improved over the years. But on this trip, there was a sense of uneasiness as I spoke to friends, both old and new. I hope that the people of Nicaragua plot a course that will ultimately make their country stronger.I struggled with how to share these images and what story I would tell about them. While I had planned on doing an updated feature on traveling to Nicaragua, with the current situation it didn't seem appropriate. So instead I am just going to share some of my favorite images from the trip, a pictorial showing, people, places, and the calm before the storm.