Final Thoughts on Nicaragua

To me, traveling is the greatest life experience there is, especially when you can go somewhere that is, in the words of Monty Python, something completely different.  What you always learn is that even though the culture, landscape, food and art is different, people are always the same...welcoming, friendly, and just plain nice.

There were many things to love in Nicaragua...

The landscape...Nicaragua is a land of lakes and volcanoes.  And you can't get any better then the Island of Ometepe.  This place was so gorgeous.  Going over to the island on the ferry, with the two volcanoes of Concepcion and Maderas rising out of Lake Colciboca, is one of the great sites of the world.  We were lucky to have a clear sky, with just a puff of cloud on top of Concepcion.

The food...While I've had better in my life, I did have some wonderful food there.  The absolute best grilled fish I've had in my life is at a little shack of a restaurant in Merida, on Ometepe.  It was a 'guapote', a native fish from the lake.  Words really can't describe this amazing meal we had.  Also, in Granada there are some great restaurants and we had some fantastic steaks at Zaguan and some really good fish at El Mediteraneo.

The music and culture...we heard some really nice Nicaraguan marimba during the Diriamba festival.  This is classic Nicaraguan music and is beautiful to listen to.  During the festival of San Sebastian, we saw some wonderful traditional dancing and music...

The people....I think we met more people on this trip that we feel are now friends then on any other trip we've taken.  The Nicaraguan people are very welcoming and are very eager to show you their country. 

Here are just some of the nice people we've met along the way...

Don Alvaro Molina...the owner of the Hacienda Merida, Don Alvaro is a great guy.  As soon as we arrived at his hotel, he sat down with us to talk about his place, his island and his country.  He gave us a real perspective on recent Nicaraguan culture and, especially for Amy who always thought the Sandinistas were the only good guys, some new ideas on the reality of politics in Nicaragua.  Just imagine if you had had your property taken away by your government and you had to flee the country?  This happened to several folks we met there and made us realize that things aren't always as they appear. Here is Don Alvaro with one of his employees, Darwin...

Homero and Imelda Rodriguez...two wonderful ex-pat Nicaraguans, who are originally from Esteli in the north and are now living in Los Angeles, were visiting Ometepe with their friends Jeffrey and Sandy.  Both Homero and Imelda escaped Nicaragua when they were teenagers as their whole town was being blown up in the revolution.  Now, 30+ years later, they come back often to visit family and tour the country.  Homero and Imelda are great people and we had a lot of laughs with them (and Jeffrey and Sandy, who were being introduced to foreign travel by Homero and Imelda).  We also learned more about just what happens in a revolution and the shock of having to flee your home when you are so young.  Here is our picture with Homero and Imelda on the left and Sandy and Jeffrey on the right...

Roberto Rappaccioli...the owner of the hotel we stayed at in Diriamba, Roberto was so generous in showing us around town, introducing us to his friends and family and partying with us during the great fiesta.  We always seemed to run into Roberto at different times during the festival and we knew it was time for another good time with some local folks.  He even took us to his mother's house, where we got to meet many members of his family and eat some of his mother's wonderful Indio Viejo.  I especially want to thank Roberto for warning me about pickpockets at the festival.  Because of this, I only had $15 dollars pickpocketed from me instead of my wallet and credit card which I left in the hotel!

Rudy Carrasquilla...meeting Rudy was really serendipitous, as he sat next to us on the flight to Houston.  Rudy is from Diriamba also, although he has lived in the Bay Area for over 50 years.  Rudy is another fun loving guy who was down in Diriamba for the fiesta and to visit his 91 year old dad.  It was fun sharing stories of our time at the fiesta and showing Rudy our photos from the trip and it made our 3 hour flight to Houston seem like a 3 minutes.  With us all living in the Bay Area I know we will keep up our new friendship.

So we will keep many memories of the wondeful 8 days in Nicaragua (although it seemed like a month!).  I hope we go back some day to visit our new pals and enjoy the friendship of the Nicaraguan people. Just as with other place we go, Nicaragua isn't for everyone, but for those in search of a little adventure in their travels, Nicaragua is a great place to go.  And we just scratched the surface!!