Life after wartime: Nicaragua transitions to adventure tourism
SLEDGING at top speed down a live volcano is not something I would ever choose to do on vacation. But we were travelling in Nicaragua with our teenage kids, and volcano sledging was their No. 1 choice of excursions.
As I flew down the steep pebbly face of the black volcano astride a rustic wooden sledge, I plastered a grin on my face and tried to focus my jittery mind on being brave rather than terrified so my children wouldn’t think I was a wimp. It probably wasn’t the best time to forget our guide’s instructions on how to brake.
The ensuing high-speed wipeout and bloody abrasions on my face and leg earned me the nickname “Gnarly Mum” from our teens for the rest of the Nicaraguan adventure - so, of course, it was worth it.
Ascending and sliding down Cerro Negro, an active volcano near Leon, was the most memorable of many novel experiences that we had when my husband, Andrew, 17-yearold Celia, 19-year-old Solomon and I travelled to Nicaragua for a week in December. We chose Nicaragua because the three of us enjoy practicing our Spanish (and watching Andrew butcher the language with good-natured enthusiasm). We also sought a mix of outdoor and cultural adventures similar to our Costa Rica trip a few years back.
Even the early morning drive to the volcano was fascinating. Most Nicaraguans in the countryside grow and raise their own food and have chickens, pigs, cows, (bony) dogs, and horses. Besides the animals, we shared the road with children pulling wagons full of sticks, whole families riding motorcycles (three people – often including a baby - on one bike isn’t uncommon) and carts pulled by beefy oxen.
We knew we were in for the kind of adventure our food-andnature-loving family favours when, during the 90-minute drive from Managua to Leon, we pulled over twice to order street food such as fried cheese, plantain chips and quesillos, and once more for a photograph on the shores of Lake Managua with the famed Momotombo volcano in the background.
The Central American country is becoming a hot destination for North American and European travelers for good reasons, and the country is working diligently to embrace and entertain adventurers. While many Americans still associate the country with revolution and civil war, today’s Nicaragua shows few traces of the violent conflicts that ended 27 years ago. The country is peaceful and the agricultural and tourist economy are flourishing.
With a college sophomore and a high school senior, we are keenly aware that we likely have few opportunities left to explore the world together. Nicaragua, a country in transition, turned out to be a perfect spot to connect with each other as our family moves toward an empty nest.
We stayed in three places during our eight-day trip: Charming boutique hotels in the colonial cities of Leon and Granada, and thatched bungalows nestled into the cliffs at Morgan’s Rock, a small ecoresort near the Pacific beach town of San Juan del Sur. Each served as comfortable, colorful bases for our families’ daily explorations.
Leave your stilettos at home. Nicaragua is a casual country we found no occasion to dress up - and the cities, while pedestrianfriendly (even for stray horses and donkeys) have uneven sidewalks and gaping holes in the pavement (a.k.a. ankle breakers). Using a wheelchair or a walker would be a huge physical challenge. Even pushing a stroller would be tricky.
Leon is a university town, the second-largest city in Nicaragua. It is nicknamed the “City of Poets” and is the cultural hub of Nicaragua. Like most colonial towns in Latin America, Leon is built around a large central square lined with a cathedral, cafes, restaurants (the crowd favourite is El Sesteo, right on the square), important civic buildings and hotels.
In Leon and Granada, the squares were bustling with live music, food, cheerful families, artisan marketplaces and street performers. The bustling food markets are adjacent to the squares, and although they are pungent and intriguing with giant papayas, piles of plantains and vats of pickled chiles, they lack the sensory charm of markets in France and Turkey.
We explored the colourful city on foot from lovely Hotel El Convento, where the beautiful, peaceful interior courtyard is populated with birds bathing in the centre fountain in the morning and bats darting around the banana trees in the evening.
Many families update the colours of their houses during the holidays every year, so the doors and walls along the streets of Leon are a delightful mix of greens, blues, pinks and yellows.
Given the tropical climate, many restaurants and cafes operate in open air and have inviting gardens and hammocks where guests can relax during the wait for food and drinks which, especially in Leon, could be quite lengthy.
While waiting for lunch one afternoon at a charming cafe called Las Dos Fridas, I swung gently in a hammock to quell my hunger-induced irritation at the delay. But the dishes, once served, were prepared with such care, and the setting was so relaxing, that I felt silly for importing my US-style impatience.
From Leon we also took a half-day kayak trip to the Juan Venado Island Nature Reserve. Paddling through the estuary, we spotted dozens of species of exotic (to us) birds such as great blue herons and snowy egrets nestling among the mangrove forest.
The highlight of the outing was cradling newly hatched olive ridley sea turtles that were being protected by naturalists posthatching and would be released into the sea that evening to ensure their best chance of survival.
After a well-earned, delightful lunch of fresh fish at a funky hostel on the beach, we stopped in the small village of San Jacinto, known for its boiling volcanic mud pits, which serve as breathing holes for the nearby volcanoes. The village children hawk the mud (and rustic crafts made from it) to tourists, swearing that they treat everything from acne to insect bites.
After walking through the mud fields, we had a tortillamaking tutorial from a woman who supports her daughter and herself by making the tortillas for families in the village.
We cooked the fresh tortillas on a hot comal (cast iron grill over an open fire), then she treated us to a snack of fresh cheese and freshly pressed melon juice, which we enjoyed with our tasty, if misshapen, creations.
We drove two hours south for our two-night stay at Hotel Colonial in Granada. The city sits on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, a massive freshwater lake filled with nearly 400 small islands, including some that boast active volcanoes.
Granada feels more international, with tourists from all over the world, more shopping options, more aggressive vendors in the central square, more upscale hotels, bars and a wider variety of restaurants including Irish pubs, sushi bars, and Starbucks-style coffee shops where you can get Nicaraguan grown coffee in a to-go cup. (We opted to sit and savour ours as the Nicaraguans do.)
But even in Granada, stray horses and skinny dogs share the restaurant strip with wobbly travellers who have imbibed too many Macu’s (rum-based fruity cocktails).
Our family took a motorboat ride to explore some of the isletas on Lake Nicaragua. While the highlight was the great variety of migrating and nesting birds, we were also intrigued by the elaborate mansions on some of the islands and momentarily tempted by the “en venta” (for sale) signs on a few. Some of the islands have restaurants or night clubs; one is an abandoned fort erected to protect Granada from invaders. — WP-Bloomberg
The Central American country is becoming a hot destination for North American and European travelers for good reasons, and the country is working diligently to embrace and entertain adventurers.