Somoto Canyon
The stunning river gorge that cuts deep through ancient rocks to create the Cañón de Somoto in northern Nicaragua provides one of the country’s most exciting adventure experiences in some of its most beautiful natural surroundings. A four-hour descent of the narrowest part of the gorge involves scrambling over rocks, floating down rapids, and jumping from very high rocks into deep pools. The more adventurous can opt for a six-hour trip that includes abseiling down cliffs and visits to spooky caves inhabited by bats. The easy route involves a trip upstream in a rowing boat and a gentle float back down in an inner tube. What makes the whole experience more amazing is that the gorge only came to the world’s attention when two Czech geologists stumbled across it in 2004.