Did you know that Mark Twain traveled through NICARAGUA on his way to NEW YORK from SAN FRANCISCO? He made mention of the volcano CONCEPCION on the island of OMETEPE, and the beautiful WOMEN of Nicaragua. Nicaragua was used alot for TRANS-ISTHMIAN travel, however, it was not developed in such a grand scale as that of the PANAMA CANAL. The main reason was due to the harsher volcanic terrain, hurricanes, and earthquakes Nicaragua was more prone too. Betch ya didn't know that.