I promise this will be the last post about my vacation, but I want to tell you about our experience. We had a great time in Nicaragua. Despite the fact that I blog about shopping and deals, I loved missing the Black Friday craziness. I did chuckle when we saw Black Friday signs in Managua considering that they don’t have Thanksgiving.
I was not sure what to expect when we planned our trip after I won the Passports With Purpose raffle for three nights at an eco-lodge called Jicaro Lodge. We got all kinds of reactions – the most prominent being “is it safe?”
Well, we were blown away by our experience. We found it to be very safe, beautiful and full surprises. We added six days to our three in Jicaro and went to Granada, Ometepe Island and a ended at a lavish hilltop private apartment complex in Managua.
Some things I found especially cool:
- The guides like other Central American countries we have visited are super knowledgeable and take so much pride in their country. We especially loved how the Ometepe Island guides felt like they were the luckiest people in the world. Our tour operator, Nicaragua Adventures, was AMAZING. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Each guide and driver was better than the last.
- It was VERY safe. At Jicaro we had no keys for our casita. At the ferry port in Rivas, the driver left his car running while he picked us up. Aside from Managua, people told us everywhere was safe and great/easy for tourists. We could not have agreed more! (LP- you have to go back!)
- Nicaragua has (roughly) 74 protected natural wildlife sanctuaries and 27 volcanoes. We visited 2 active and two dormant volcanoes. They were amazing. We learned that 6% of the biodiversity in the world is in Nicaragua. I don’t recall the number of species of animals and plants, but it was astonishing.
- The things we take for granted like water coming from the sink, water pressure and electricity are not all guaranteed – even in the nicer places/cities. However, I got 4 bars or better on cell phone on a ferry to Ometepe Island (all over actually)!
- The food is simple and delicious. (But they don’t eat turkey! At least not often. Alas- I had some Thanksgiving fish and the husband had steak!) I loved plantains, fruit, corn tortilla and delicious seafood. A major export is coffee and we visited a coffee farm on the Mombacho Volcano. The coffee everywhere was strong and delicious. They also grow cacao but admit that their chocolate is not the fine chocolate of some other countries (very honest). I tried some and it was pretty tasty all the same.
- We stayed on a small private island, in a city hotel in Granada, at a farm on Ometepe Island and at an exclusive villa apartment in Managua. We loved the variety and all of the different experiences. I thought we might be bummed to go from the “high end” to the “rustic”, but we had fun and laughs everywhere. I got the husband to try stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), we went hiking to a waterfall on volcano and around a volcanic crater, we tried cigars that were rolled for us and I ran up and down on a 2K dirt trail to and from the farm to the great chagrin of the locals and hotel workers who passed on bikes, motor bikes and even ox!
- We found the Nicaraguans to be friendly, genuine and happy. The happiest guides we met were living what we would consider very simple lives. They cared about family, health and took great pride in their work. They were also honest on the successes and pitfalls of their government programs, they were interested in learning about the world, but most people we spoke to planned to stay put in Nicaragua.
And now we are back and vacation is over. There were many places we learned of in Nicaragua that we would love to visit and when we discussed our list of desired travel destinations on this trip, it grew very long. Alas, the world is large. I am so happy that we had this time in Nicaragua and recommend it highly!
Thank you for indulging me in this bit of travel writing! How was your Thanksgiving? Any trips?? Tell me about them!
PS. Don’t forget to check out the Passports With Purpose raffle for this year and there is still time to enter my Giving Thanks giveaway!