Doesn't that sound glamorous, "a weekend in Nicaragua"? Yes, the life of a travel agent, jetting off to exotic locations at the drop of a hat. Sort of.
It was an invitation to come and check out the first luxury resort in Nicaragua, called Mukul - Virtuoso gave it the best spa award, Forbes named its golf course as one of the top 5 new resorts to know, Robb Report listed it in their Best of the Best winners. It was too tempting not to go regardless of the full day of travel each way and only having 3 days there to jam as much in as possible. And it was the wet season, turns out they have just 2 seasons - wet and dry.
There's roughly 6 million people and about a third live in Managua where you arrive. Unless you're on business, there's no reason to linger. Spanish is the spoken language and it helps a lot if you speak even a little as English is not so much. Bordered by Costa Rica to the south, Honduras and El Salvador to the north, our guide said it had been fairly peaceful for about 20 years (yes, this was the land of the Contras and Sandinistas). It is still a developing country and you'll see very poor living conditions in most of the villages, surprisingly it also has the lowest crime rate in Central America. The Pacific coast is where you want to travel, the Caribbean side is rural and undeveloped with little infrastructure.
It's a couple of hours drive from Managua to Mukul so after arriving at late at night we overnighted in Managua. Leaving first thing the next morning, we made a day of it and stopped in Granada, the oldest city in the Americas and getting a lot of attention as one of the colonial cities. It's pretty, not dramatic, with a lovely Cathedral and some pleasant walking streets with shops and cafes - and a great leather store called Soy Nica, a must stop for any shopper. From there it was an easy side trip for a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua and with the sky threatening, we decided to go for it. And almost made it till the return trip across the lake when it simply threw buckets of water out of the sky! So now we understand what wet season means.
After a damp late lunch back in Granada we continued on to Mukul Resort and on arrival, their marketing slogan "there's a secret" made sense. You've been driving on 2 lane roads, passing farmers driving an oxcart and avoiding the horses that wander into the road, now the road is dirt, and there appears an enormous adobe looking wall with huge wooden doors which magically swing open on your arrival. And suddenly everything changes as you drive up the hill and see the ocean, then descend through the tropical foliage to be greeted by cold towels and warm smiles.
The resort is new and the staff is working hard to show guests their country and you can feel it in every exchange, it's genuine and they want you to love Nicaragua as they do.
I would love to have seen more of the country, the colonial city of Leon in the northwest, some of the really good eco resorts that dot the coast nearby, hike a volcano or two, spend a night in Granada....in 3 days we did manage to visit the towns/cities of Granada, Masaya, San Juan del Sur and still have time for a spa treatment while getting to know the "secret" of Mukul!
