travel » Nicaragua Vacation Guide

Another video of the Lot!
Roy just sent me this:
Schedule Issues
Until now I always thought that the design phase would take 3 months. After talking to Roy and Maria some more I realize that there are some thing I didn’t took into considerations. The design phase can take 3 months. It might be longer if I have many comments. After that it takes about a [...]
Video of the lot!
Roy just sent me a video he took on the lot this morning. I was discussing the “cut height” with him and Maria so he sent us this video of the lot so we have better idea at what we’re discussing. Here it is with some annotations I’ve added for orientation: It’s very exciting to [...]
Surfing Nicaragua
Nicaragua has some of the best surf beaches in the world! The pacific coast has many great surfing spots with a great offshore wind. Still relatively unknown, these amazing beaches are a great opportunity to ride amazing waves without the crowding so common in Costa Rica or the Bahamas. Your browser does not support iframes. [...]
Bird Watching
Nicaragua has an amazing wildlife and thousands of bird species. While bird watching can be challenging in the humid climates of Central America, the pacific coast of Nicaragua offers many birdwatching opportunities in a dry and comfortable climate. You can enjoy a stay in upscale, modern resorts, and take birdwatching trips. Ornithologists always have a [...]

Reaching Rancho Santana

Feb 182010

From Granada we drive to the city of Rivas, the capital of the Rivas department. There are about 150,000 people living in Rivas. After a short pit stop we head towards Rancho Santana.

Rancho Santana is one of several developments on the pacific coast of Nicaragua, and probably the most advanced from all of the other developments. The developers of Rancho Santana bought the 1,700 Acres around 1999 and ever since they invest in it while selling properties in it.

Reaching Ranco Santana takes about 20 minutes ride on a decant dirt road from Rivas that leads west towards the Pacific. When me and the group I’m with reach the gates of the development we enter the welcome center and get a short brief about Rancho Santana. Marc, the salesman of the development, promises that this would be the last sales pitch we would hear and that the development would do the rest of the “selling”.

The welcome center has a nice maquette of the development where we can see the different “neighborhoods”, main club house, the surfing beaches, diving beaches, and the “natural reserve” area.

– 21-Feb-2010

From the welcome center we drive down to the club house down at the beach. The club house serves as a hub for the people who live at Rancho Santana. It has a restaurant, a pool, lounge, bar and some guest rooms. Near it is the SPA, stables and local convenience store.

I’m eager to see the available lots and sign to join the first tour around the development.

I drive around the development with Marc. We stop here and there to get some views of the place. It’s stunning! The whole area is hilltops and Pacific beaches. Few houses are build here and there, but there is tons of open land in between. The views are breath taking.

– 19-Feb-2010

One of the lots we see catches my attention immediately. Lot M25 is a 1.7 dunam (about half an acre) lot on top of a high cliff. Most of it is sloped sharply towards the ocean and doesn’t allow much space for the house but the location is absolutely stunning. Full panoramic view to the west offers an unobstructed view of the Pacific ocean, with an amazing sunset just in front.

M25 – Look to south-south-west – 22-Feb-2010

After that Marc shows me the small condominiums project they built. It’s 6 buildings, each with two 3 bedroom and two4 bedrooms apartments located literally on the beach. They are on last stages of construction and some of them are already populated by owners and renters.

– 19-Feb-2010	– 19-Feb-2010
– 19-Feb-2010	– 19-Feb-2010

The beach right outside of these windows is Santana beach – a world class surfing beach. Marc, a self proclaimed surf fanatic, can hardly take his eyes of the waves. I begin to understand what he meant by that… The apartments are well build in top class utilities including central propane, electricity and water. The kitchens are well equipped to US standards and the whole feeling is of a great comfortable place to stay.

In the evening we enjoy cocktails with some of the local owners. Later I retire to sleep in one of the houses in the development.

Landing in Nicaragua

Feb 172010

I’ve landed in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua two days ago after 25 hours of air travel. I took off from Israel, flown through the Netherlands to Panama, and from there to Nicaragua.

A driver took me straight to Granada, an almost 500 years old city, for a night’s rest.

I spent one day in the beautiful city. It’s quiet and relaxed and there seem to be a an international poet convention in town.

– 17-Feb-2010

I’ve stayed in Granada for another day to take a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua. It was a great tour between some of the 365 little islands in the lake. We had a chance to see many types of fish and some local monkeys.

Tour on Lake Nicaragua Tour on Lake Nicaragua – 18-Feb-2010	– 18-Feb-2010
– 18-Feb-2010	– 18-Feb-2010

Heading back to Granada we stumbled upon a local parade. I’m not sure what the was the celebration about but the costumes were amazing and the music great!