“Beauty and The Beast” Part I

I continue my writings about our families trip to Nicaragua, the homeland of my wife to which she had not been back in 30 years. The country of Nicaragua is a country of stark contrast, or what I’ll call over the next two weeks Beauty and The Beast. This week I’ll write about the beauty.

There were several locations that we journeyed to during our eight day visit that were very beautiful. The most beautiful to me is what they call Laguna De Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon). Nicaragua has more volcanoes, some dormant and some active, than you can shake a stick at. The Apoyo Lagoon was created when one of these volcanoes erupted thousands of years ago. The lagoon is now surrounded by vast hills and the dormant volcano known as Mombacho. The water is crystal clear blue and is great for swimming. We rode horses down a mountain trail and after a 1 ½ hour horse ride, the swimming was fantastic. After a horse ride back up the mountain, we were treated to some breathtaking views from the hill tops (See photos on the right).

Another location that we enjoyed was the beaches of Las Penitas / Poleloya / Playa Roca. These beach areas are on the west coast of Nicaragua and feature the Pacific Ocean. Playa Roca (Rock Beach) features some very large rock formations on the beach that my wife’s grandfather would take all the grandchildren to many years ago. When the tide is just right, these rock formations create tidal pools that youngsters can enjoy, safe from the hard pounding waves of the Pacific. By the way, those hard pounding waves are a favorite of the surfer dudes, several of which came from the United States just for the surfing.

In the towns of Granada and Leon we also visited several of the Cathedrals that date back to the 1700’s. While I’m not much on architecture, even I could appreciate the craftsmanship that built these cathedrals 300 years ago. In Leon we toured one of the cathedrals (they have 18 in the city) and the artwork and interior were stunning. Our tour took us to the top of the cathedral for fantastic views of the city.

While not necessarily beautiful, one fascinating stop that we made was at the Volcuno Massaya National Park . This park features an active volcano (Massaya). You can drive to the top, park you car and then peer over the edges of the volcano. You can see the actual crater as well as see and smell the gases billowing from the volcano. That was quite a sight.

Next week I’ll write about “The Beast,” as there were plenty of aspects to the country that were not at all beautiful. But there are parts of the country that are certainly worth seeing and, Simply Put, I will treasure the opportunity to have seen them.

From the front porch: Uncle Bob said he doesn’t mind the wrinkles on his face because wrinkles only go where a smiles has been.