There always seems to be a sensation that defines how we experience a place, and we notice it as soon as we get there. Maybe the humidity, a sound, a view. As soon as we left the airplane, Nicaragua was defined by a smell. The smell of something burning. Something is always burning in Nicaragua. That was the smell that stayed with us the entire trip. Whether it was gathered piles of leaves, trash, something wafting out of a doorway in Granada, there was always the smell of something burning.

This year, we took Olivia and Cleo to Nicaragua. It was not our first choice, but after two hurricanes decimated the Caribbean, we scrambled for an alternative. Probably just as well, since Cleo had some trepidations about spending so much time on a boat. Where could we go that was interesting, fit in the time allowed and affordable? Apparently, Nicaragua is the new Costa Rica. Or may soon be. Currently, in its backpacker phase, it was a good time to go as it had not been sanitized for tourism, not overbuild or overcrowded. Places like Ometepe and Granada still seem untrampled while the Pacific coast is starting to see more overflow from Costa Rica’s coast, where surfers are moving north. That was San Juan Del Sur. A mix of overpriced restaurants on the beach, incredibly affordable fresh fish, and condos on the hill owned by expats.

We crammed a lot into our ten days. Spent equal time in Granada, a historical town on Lake Nicaragua, Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes in Lake Nicaragua, and San Juan Del Sur, the up-and-coming town on the Pacific. We stayed in houses that we found on Airbnb, which gave us extra bedrooms, kitchens, and were just much more interesting than hotels. Debbie got us hooked on Euchre after a couple of challenging lessons, we had breakfast while horses played in the lake, hiked to waterfalls, woke to the sound of howler monkeys at five in the morning, and spent an entire day at a beach with no one else there. You can read more about the day-to-day over here: set-a-course.com

A good trip.