Simon Leysen strongly recommends a trip to Nicaragua, one of Central America’s holiday gems.
When you’re bored in a train or plane, try picking a country at random and visualise the first scene that comes to mind. For Fiji that would probably be palm trees and white sandy beaches, for Brazil it might involve a rainforest or a beach with scarcely clad, but rather charming, ladies. For Nicaragua, however, the picture is more muddled. For many of us (the ones with a few more miles on the clock), the first thing that comes to mind is blurry news footage of men in camo gear in the jungle and chain-smoking CIA operatives training guerrilla fighters.
Yet, this is Nicaragua no more. Now probably the safest Central American country to travel in, Nicaragua is one of the few countries I would advise to anyone to visit – right now. It still feels unspoilt, undiscovered and people display a kindness that is not akin to waiting staff in the US, but is actually real kindness. This is a country that has, literally, emerged from the ashes and has so much to offer.
From Culture to Ash Surfing
While on the topic of ashes, Nicaragua is the only places where you can ash surf off the side of a volcano. But this it only the start of the diversity the country has to offer: stunning empty Pacific beaches, rainforests in the clouds, a warm culture and untouched colonial architecture, all in a single country.
A new level of luxury
If there is one place that exemplifies the renaissance of this Central American paradise, it is Mukul. The brainchild of Don Carlos Pellas, one of Latin America’s most prominent business people, it was built to be a flagship of new Nicaragua. And a flagship it is.
