Growing up, going to Nicaragua during our summer break was one of my highlights of the year. It was an opportunity for me to visit with family, see new places, and gain a different perspective on life. Sadly, as my sister and I got older, it was harder to coordinate trips due to our busy schedules. So when my parents surprised us with a trip this summer, I was elated. I hadn't been to Nicaragua in quite a few years, so I didn't know what I was going to find. I didn't know if it would be just like I had left it last or if it had completely changed on me. Well, let's just say that leaving this time, left me more in love with the country than I had ever been and very proud that I am able to call this beautiful place my second home.
I remember quite a bit of our travels when we were younger had the same themes. We'd visit family in different parts of the country, eat our favorite food, and of course, make sure we had a couple trips to the beach. But, for this trip, I wanted to do something new. I wanted to see the history, the parts of the country that maybe we hadn't been to before. So, with twelve days, my sister and I hoped to balance a bit of traveling around and spending time with family, and it worked out very well.
Site One: Granada
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| If I imagined my dream home in a Spanish style building, this would be it. |
The city of Granada is known for its beautiful Colonial buildings. Walking down the streets with brightly colored buildings intermingeled with modern cafes made this such a fun place to visit. Everywhere you looked, there was something beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, this was only a day trip for us, so all we really did here was walk around looking at all the pretty buildings and stopped for some fish and chips. Something that is apparently newly popular in Nicaragua is the craft beer scene. As a Chicago girl, this is right up my alley, so I had to try some of what Granada had been brewing. Just as I expected, it was delicious and really refreshing after walking around in 80 degree weather.
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| The old cathedral |
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| The new cathedral |
Site Two: León
This trip had many memorable moments and visiting León is certainly at the top of my list. Before heading out of the country, I was looking up ideas for things that I wanted to do and something that I came across on several travel blogs was to climb to the top of the cathedral in León.
For a small fee, you buy a ticket to visit the top of this gorgeous cathedral. I am not quite sure how much it was because our cousin's bought our tickets (you get a discount for being a Nicaraguan citizen), but the experience is so worth it. You take a set of stairs up the side of the cathedral and when you get to the bell tower, they ask you to take off your shoes before stepping out onto the roof. The guard will go through the rules with you (basically, don't step on the domes, don't sit on the ledges, and don't put your shoes on) and then you are free to roam around. Honestly, walking around felt like I was in a completely different world. The views were breathtaking and I just felt so free. We took a ton of pictures and just enjoyed the experience before going back to the real world. If I can recommend something to do in Nicaragua, it'd definitely be to come and check this out.
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| The inside of the cathedral. |
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| Fun fact: I played Veronica in our stations play in 8th Grade. So Naturally, this is my favorite scene. |
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| With my travel buddy<3 |
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| Pretending she didn't just take a tumble down these stairs before posing for a glamour shot. |
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| Sadly, there was a fine for ringing the bells. |
Site three: San Juan Del Sur
Visiting this beautiful beach town was one of the main focuses of our trip. Last time I was in the country, we had just stopped in for a brief visit to the beach, so this time I wanted to make a weekend out of it. I searched online and found this cute little resort called
Villas de Palermo where you can rent little one- or two-bedroom villas. Each villa has a kitchen and living area, so it served as a perfect homebase for our weekend trip. We packed up the car on a Friday morning and made the three-hour drive from Managua.
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| The master bedroom that I shared with my sister. |
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| The view from our deck. |
Our first night, consisted of relaxing in the villa followed by dancing the night away at one of the local bars. Iguana Bar on the beach front had an amazing D.J. and not to mention a super tasty piña colada, so you can only imagine it was a great time. We made it back rather late, but we still decided to go for a dip in the pool before ending the night.
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| Getting ready to take on the day! |
The main plan for day 2 was to make a trip to the Cristo de la Misericordia statue. It is quite a long hike if you decide to do it entirely by foot, but thankfully they do have an option where you can at least drive up most of the way, which is what we decided to do. Even so, I would say the hike would've been well worth the view. It was an awesome way to see the whole bay. The view was so stunning that I swear I could've stared at that view all day, but the beach looked way too good to not take a dip.
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| The pic doesn't even do the view justice. |
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| It was definitely "booty day" with all the stairs we had to climb. |
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| View on the way up. |
The remainder of the day we spent at the beach followed by more dancing at Iguana...If you couldn't already tell, I really like to dance. It was our last night there, so we wanted to soak in all of the party vibe that San Juan has to offer. We only stayed out for a little while before heading back to the villla to just drink and chat with our cousins. My cousin Chris and I got the idea to stay up, so that we could drive to the beach to watch the sunrise. Of course, as a med student, being a night owl is in my blood, so we decided to go ahead. Unfortunately, we didn't get the exact view we wanted, because we were looking at the wrong side of the bay, but the view was still pretty. That and there's just something so special about the dawn. So, I took a moment to just soak it all in before heading to the villa for some well deserved rest.
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| Sunrise at the beach |
A couple hours later, we took a little trip to the pool before getting our stuff ready to head back to managua. I really wanted to check out this cafe called Dale Pues that I had come upon while doing my pre-trip google search, so we decided to grab brunch there. And let me say, omg was it amazing. The place itself was super cute, and the food was amazing. Sadly, I ate my breakfast burger so quick I didn't get a chance to take a picture.
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| I got the mug version of this. |
Saying goodbye to all the fun we had over the weekend was pretty rough. That and we had reached what I called the "down hill" portion of our trip as it would be our last couple of days before heading back to the U.S. on Friday. We snapped the pic below on our way out of town and with heavy hearts and full tummies, we made our way back to Managua.
Site Four: La Laguna De Apoyo
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| I was living for the geofilters. |
The lagoon is part of a national reserve nestled between Granada and Masaya. There is a whole bunch of cool stuff to do at the reserve, but we only headed for lunch and a swim on the edge of the lagoon. The lagoon is the remnant of a volcanic crater, so if you go past the edge, there is a very steep incline, making it a very dangerous place to swim. Since we just hung out on the edge, it was perfectly fine. I'm sad I didn't get to snap a picture from the water because the view from where we were sitting was amazing. You could look off in the distance and see the smoke rising from Volcan Masaya and the water was so crystal clear making for a very zen experience.
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| The National Palace |
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| Catedral Santiago de Managua |
The remainder of the trip we spent doing last minute shopping, hanging with family, and just soaking in as much of managua as we could before heading back home. On our last night, we went out to the national palace to take pictures and to revel in the fact that we had just spent such a wonderful time in such a beautiful country. The memories I brought back with me filled me with so much love for the country that I am proud to call part of my heritage and a desire to make it back there really soon.
-Genesis<3
