Central America

Burger King Pitches Penny To Tomato Pickers

Culinary Travels in Costa Rica: Part 1

A view of Volcan Arenal from a hiking trail that traverses old lava flow from its 1992 eruption. Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world. We hiked through rainforests and gasped at volcanoes, lounged on white sand beaches and wound our way around perilous mountain passes. Oh yes, we al ... More >>

Epic Opening Tonight

Area 31 makes its' debut tonight on the 16th floor of Brickell Avenue's Epic Hotel. Executive chef is John Critchley, who trained under Boston's renowned chef Ken Oringer (Clio) and was known to make a mean morcilla at his own Beantown tapas bar. The sommelier is Emily Wines (from San Franciscos's F ... More >>

Pirates Know Best

Area 31 makes its' debut tonight on the 16th floor of Brickell Avenue's Epic Hotel. Executive chef is John Critchley, who trained under Boston's renowned chef Ken Oringer (Clio) and was known to make a mean morcilla at his own Beantown tapas bar. The sommelier is Emily Wines (from San Franciscos's F ... More >>

Disguising the Tentacles

Behold the mighty octopus

Open Wide!

SoBe Wine and Food is baaaack

Hate Shack, Not Where It's At

The new, not-entirely-improved lifeguard shacks are making South Beach locals cringe

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR/WEST

Doral Ale House

Best Nicaraguan Restaurant

Madroño Restaurant

Fruity World

Fruit & Spice Park

Best Central-American Restaurant And Club

Yambo

Redland Summer Fruit Festival This Weekend, Get Fresh, Local, Tropical

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

See Spanish Royalty Rock

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

Panama!

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

Shows at the Freedom Tower and the Moore Space explore strife and displacement

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

Face the Crowd

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

Colombian urban fusion act Choc Quib Town makes its Miami debut at Kukaramakara

image via fruitandspicepark.org Tomorrow and Sunday at Fruit and Spice Park, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. Life's a mango, dig in at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival where exotic varieties of the plentiful bounties intrinsic to our tropical paradise will be featured and showcased on the ... More >>

Biggest Cheese Bust in Memory in Miami

Alex Izaguirre​Two Hondurans were busted Monday for illegally selling diseased cheese to more than 30 people in Miami.The pair -- Francisca Josefina Lopez, 40, and Jorge Alexis Ochoa Lopez, 34 -- was nailed for importing $322,000 of the stuff from Nicaragua and then illegally reselling it. Mo ... More >>

Update: Tons of Contaminated Cheese Sold in Florida, Texas, California, New York

Alex Izaguirre​Yesterday I described what might have been the largest cheese bust in history. Eighty-five tons of the stuff, most of it contaminated with staph, was sold to at least 30 people. Today I learned some of the cheese made it out of Miami to Texas, California, and New York. The FDA has ... More >>

Rich Gringo, Dead Chica, Case Closed

Alex Izaguirre​Yesterday I described what might have been the largest cheese bust in history. Eighty-five tons of the stuff, most of it contaminated with staph, was sold to at least 30 people. Today I learned some of the cheese made it out of Miami to Texas, California, and New York. The FDA has ... More >>

Miami Free Times: Harry Potter for Grown-ups, Gringo Nightmares, and Literary Art

The history of pill-pushing is at Advertising for Health.​Miami's $15 cocktails are hard to swallow. Here's a list of six free things to do this week so you can leave your ATM card sheathed in your wallet. Monday: Think naïve Harry Potter could use a dose of the real world? Tonight, at Books & ... More >>

Tacontento Coming to South Beach in June

Coming Soon!​Arriving in South Beach early next month will be Tacontento, a fast/casual full service Mexican restaurant. Tacontento translates to be happy, and if the slogan, "The best tacos... period," comes anywhere close to being true, we will be. Tacontento started in the late '90s as a taco s ... More >>

A Nicaraguan Breakfast at Pinolandia

Jacob KatelFried cheese front and center, and sweet plantains, chorizo eggz, rice and hot sauce clockwise from there.​Pinolandia is a 24-hour Nicaraguan fritanga in Miami's Little Havana. It takes its name from pinol, the Nica national beverage of ancient mesoamerican origin made from a rough powd ... More >>

Manuel Noriega, Miami's Favorite Dictator, Gets Seven Years in French Prison

​Poor Manuel Noriega. Sure, it was a rough fall from grace to go from the iron fist ruling all of Panama -- from the Atlantic to the Pacific and all 20 miles in between -- to a jail cell in Miami. But there was some dignity there, at least. Miami and fallen Latin American strongmen go together ... More >>

WikiLeaks Just a Drop in the Bucket: Top 5 Best Leaks in Recent History

SilliCilli's on FlikrHistoric leaking.​There's been a lot of leaking lately. First, it was Mel Gibson's heavy-breathing tirade, and now something that is just a tad more relevant -- WikiLeaks' releasing thousands of pages of allegedly classified documents pertaining to the War in Af ... More >>

Giant Guatemala Sinkhole Still Open; Temporary Protected Status In Limbo

​In May, a tropical storm and a volcano eruption devastated Guatemala, leaving hundreds dead, and a giant sinkhole that swallowed a three-story building in the heart of the capital city. In response to the natural disasters, its government asked the United States to extend Temporary Protected Stat ... More >>

LeBron James and crazy quotes

Dumb things people have said since the baller signed with the Heat.

Mermelada Bunch Brings Jam Band Insanity and Venezuelan Beer to La Covacha October 22

Don't mess with Mermelada.​A late night with Venezuelan big band Mermelada Bunch feels like a fast-forward trip through the musical looking glass. The uninitiated should expect a wild mish-mash session scattered all across the Latin pop-rock spectrum. One minute, you're being bombarded by electron ... More >>

Florida Cities Dominate List of "Divorce Capitols;" Miami is Number 26

​Florida's constitution strictly forbids gays from marrying, but what about the Sunshine State's straights? They're obviously doing such a fine job of upholding the sanctity of marriage, right? Apparently not so. The Daily Beast has compiled a list of "the 50 cities with the worst divorce rates," ... More >>

Mermelada Bunch at La Covacha October 22

​Florida's constitution strictly forbids gays from marrying, but what about the Sunshine State's straights? They're obviously doing such a fine job of upholding the sanctity of marriage, right? Apparently not so. The Daily Beast has compiled a list of "the 50 cities with the worst divorce rates," ... More >>

Boxing Morena

​Florida's constitution strictly forbids gays from marrying, but what about the Sunshine State's straights? They're obviously doing such a fine job of upholding the sanctity of marriage, right? Apparently not so. The Daily Beast has compiled a list of "the 50 cities with the worst divorce rates," ... More >>

Manuel Noriega's Last Days Memorialized In Leaked U.S. Embassy Documents

Manuel Noriega promised retribution against "Panamanian traitors and their U.S. Masters" One week before his ouster, Panama strongman Manuel Noriega was preparing to crack down on his opponents and rally his troops, according to Prudence Bushnell, at the time U.S. Ambassador to Panama.Bushnell's ana ... More >>

Gaybies: South Florida same-sex couple travels to Central America for a family

Manuel Noriega promised retribution against "Panamanian traitors and their U.S. Masters" One week before his ouster, Panama strongman Manuel Noriega was preparing to crack down on his opponents and rally his troops, according to Prudence Bushnell, at the time U.S. Ambassador to Panama.Bushnell's ana ... More >>

Photos: Redland Market Village Bargain Town Boasts the Original Miami Food Truck Court

​You can easily while away most of a weekend day at Redland Market Village Bargain Town, which is located at the intersection of South Dixie Highway and SW 244th Street. The name, perhaps, sums up the many functions of the indoor/outdoor complex. Yes, it sprawls to nearly the size of a small town, ... More >>

Viva Arte!

​You can easily while away most of a weekend day at Redland Market Village Bargain Town, which is located at the intersection of South Dixie Highway and SW 244th Street. The name, perhaps, sums up the many functions of the indoor/outdoor complex. Yes, it sprawls to nearly the size of a small town, ... More >>

Greek Out

​You can easily while away most of a weekend day at Redland Market Village Bargain Town, which is located at the intersection of South Dixie Highway and SW 244th Street. The name, perhaps, sums up the many functions of the indoor/outdoor complex. Yes, it sprawls to nearly the size of a small town, ... More >>

Juán Ramón O'Farrill, Popular Anti-Castro Priest, Accused of Sexually Abusing Boy in '80s

NE Second Street between First and Second Avenues is named after Father O'Farrill​Padre Juán Ramón O'Farrill's sermons against Fidel Castro and the communism that had taken root in his native Cuba were so passionate that when he died, a stretch of NE 2nd St. was renamed in his honor. But a lawsu ... More >>

Vote Yes On Question #56 And Fight Public Corruption

Norman Braman's advice to voters notwithstanding, there is a measure on the ballot that deserves a resoundingly emphatic YES! And that is the question asking voters to make the Miami-Dade Inspector General's office a permenant part of the county's home rule charter -- in effect our local constitutio ... More >>

Miami's Curd Cowboys: Is Cheese the New Cocaine?

​On December 18, 2010, a freighter named America Feeder arrived at the Port of Miami from Nicaragua. Federal agents were secretly running surveillance on one container, marked ARLU 5102167. Five days later, the container was hitched to a truck and driven, with agents trailing, to a cold-stora ... More >>

Do That Conga

​On December 18, 2010, a freighter named America Feeder arrived at the Port of Miami from Nicaragua. Federal agents were secretly running surveillance on one container, marked ARLU 5102167. Five days later, the container was hitched to a truck and driven, with agents trailing, to a cold-stora ... More >>

Get Your Panther Coffee Starting This Saturday

Paula Niño​The wait is over. After temporarily opening during Art Basel and Wynwood art walks, Panther Coffee will open for good this Saturday, June 11. Permitting delays kept owners Joel and Leticia Pollock from permanent operation of their coffee shop earlier this year as planned. The P ... More >>

Submarines and Cocaine: 56 Members of "Bandas Criminales" Indicted for Trafficking

​More than 50 members of the Colombian "Bandas Criminales" (AKA BACRIM) drug-trafficking organization have been rounded up after a joint operation based out of Miami. It's the biggest bust of the emerging drug-trafficking gang since Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern Di ... More >>

The River Seafood & Oyster Bar keeps flowing

View photos of the River Seafood & Oyster Bar.

Animal Love Affair: Female Wolf has Crush on Panama City Family's Pet Dog

via News Herald​Someone call up Pixar, because boy do we have a situation definitively calling out for some sort of animated movie treatment here in Florida. You see, a female wolf has been hanging around the  yard of Panama City resident Nathan Didier. The reason? D ... More >>

Nicaragua Stays Left, Guatemala Goes Right in Central American Elections

Otto Perez MolinaDaniel OrtegaA leftist former guerrilla retains his grip on power while an ex-general promising mano dura sweeps into office.Yesterday was election day in two Central American countries. In Nicaragua, early results show Hugo Chavez ally and current president Daniel Ortega easily win ... More >>

Smash Face, Repeat

Otto Perez MolinaDaniel OrtegaA leftist former guerrilla retains his grip on power while an ex-general promising mano dura sweeps into office.Yesterday was election day in two Central American countries. In Nicaragua, early results show Hugo Chavez ally and current president Daniel Ortega easily win ... More >>

Tabou Combo's Yvan "Kapi" Andre Talks Voudou, Kompa, and The Rolling Stones

Tabou Combo's Yvan "Kapi" Andre.​Tabou Combo has one of the most revered funk breakdowns in all of musicland. And between the voudou beats, big soul horns, salsa turns, merengue runs, and rockin' drums, this band is the most eclectic kompa crew in the world. The group started in 1968 under the na ... More >>

Florida Man Uses Fake KKK Cross Burning to Try to Save His Marriage

​The flames of hate rarely relight a dimming flicker of love, but L.B. Williams of Panama City decided to stage a fake KKK-style cross burning in his front yard as a last-ditch effort to get his wife to call off their planned divorce. Instead, the bizarre romantic scheme ended with Williams b ... More >>

Luis Posada Carriles Could Be Extradited to Panama for Allegedly Plotting to Kill Fidel

via NewscomLuis Posada Carriles​Former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles may have beaten charges in Texas last year, but the aging anti-communist operative ain't in the clear just yet.A Panamanian lawyer requested his extradition today on charges that he plotted to kill then-Cuban president Fidel Cas ... More >>

Bull's Balls at Yambo, Home of Top-Notch Neighborhood Nicaraguan Fare

Open 24/7, Little Managua's Yambo serves large portions of authentic Nicaraguan fare at exceptionally modest prices. Aside from the finger lickin' quality and enormous size of the platters, the ambiance and the décor makes this labyrinth a destination-place -- it feels extremely homey while transpo ... More >>