November 2007

Issue: 2007 - 9

Attracted by a Blend of Centuries and Cultures
Ciudad Of Dreams
Overlooked Managua is a proud city with a wild landscape
My long and winding road... to fitness.

Press Articles

Next Stop | Granada, Nicaragua

Attracted by a Blend of Centuries and Cultures

By JEFF KOYEN
October 14, 2007

ON a recent Saturday night, an invitation-only dance party was in full swing at Asia Latina, a Thai-style restaurant in the Nicaraguan city of Granada. The lights were dim, the music electronic and the kitchen that usually serves up pad Thai closed. And though the blistering sun had long set, a lingering heat hung in the room, which was decorated with Thai tapestries and Indian batiks.

The crowd, a lively mix of the city´s young and well dressed, was almost exclusively male. Out front, a rainbow flag sagged in the heavy air. “People talked about that for months,” said Rafael Faria, the restaurant´s youthful 40-year-old owner. “I figure if they want to come in, welcome. If not, eat somewhere else.”

Such unabashed liberalism was unheard of just a few years ago in this conservative colonial town. Racked by years of war � most recently by the pro-Marxist Sandinistas from the Iran-contra days � Granada clung to its Catholic roots.

But with the Sandinistas voted out in 1990 and a growing free-market economy (though Nicaragua is still one of the hemisphere´s poorest countries), the country is fashioning itself as a cheaper alternative to Costa Rica. And, in doing so, Granada is not only opening up to Western dollars, but Western cultural influences as well.

At the forefront of the tourism push are former exiles like Mr. Faria who, like thousands of other Nicaraguans, fled the country in the 1980s. He was barely a teenager. Sensing a sea change, Mr. Faria moved back three years ago, trading his tiny Manhattan apartment in Clinton for a town house a few blocks from Granada´s center.

“I had really fallen in love with the country,” Mr. Faria said.

And with tourism on pace to outstrip coffee as the country´s largest industry, even Sandinista leaders like Daniel Ortega, who was elected president in 2006, are banking on tourism to lift the country out of poverty.

Nicaragua´s tourism industry is bullish for good reason. The country´s beaches are among the finest in the Americas, and among the least developed. Dozens of volcanic peaks offer treks through rain forests teeming with a rich biodiversity. And large tracts of nature reserves offer an eco-tourist wonderland.

But when it comes to Nicaraguan culture, new and old, nothing compares to Granada.

Founded in 1524 by the conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Granada is one of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas. It was also one of the most frequently sacked, thanks to its location on Lake Nicaragua, which reaches the Caribbean by way of the San Juan River. But despite frequent sieges by pirates and would-be imperialists, a good portion of the city´s colonial architecture remains miraculously intact. Add the narrow, cobblestone streets and courtyard cafes, and it´s one of Central America´s loveliest spots.

Like many colonial towns, Granada comes together in a tree-lined Parque Central, or central park. This one is lorded over by a massive, mustard-yellow cathedral that shines bright in the afternoon sun. When I visited this past summer, the square´s western edge was lined with horse-drawn taxis. Across the park, hot dog vendors sought refuge under the palm trees´ slowly shifting shadows, their carts painted with slap-dash cartoon characters like a Mickeyesque mouse and a clumsily drawn Pokémon.

Along the park´s northern edge, vendors had set up small folding tables, selling bracelets, rings and other jewelry from local artisans, with prices ranging from $1 to $100.

As the sun set and the heat let loose its grip, I came across an open-air market a few blocks south, where everything from household goods to live chickens and fresh vegetables were on sale. Then, I got lost among the winding streets lined with tiny clothing shops, scruffy coffee shops and cantinas filled with laborers fresh from their shifts. The area was anchored by two other colonial-era churches: the stunning Iglesia de Guadalupe near the lake and, to the west, the Iglesia de la Merced with its Baroque facade.

After dark, it was time to join the crowds of tourists and locals who fill the half dozen restaurants along Calle la Calzada, a bustling street filled with live guitar music and outdoor cafes that runs east from the central park.

At El Tranvia, an elegant, colonial-style restaurant downstairs at the Hotel Dario, a button-down crowd feasted on a Latin-Caribbean menu that included grilled fish straight from the lake and Creole-spiced steaks from local farmers. The crowd was split among young Nicaraguan couples enjoying the romantic atmosphere and American baby boomers poring over a list of Central and South American wines.

Granada´s tourism upswing is also spilling over to the country´s western coastline. While backpacking surfers have long passed through Granada, the new wave of well-heeled tourists is spurring new restaurants, hotels and tour companies outside of the city.
Among the fastest growing areas is Lake Apoyo, a nearby freshwater lake inside a volcanic crater. Several guesthouses have opened on the lake, including Norome Villas, a thatched-roof resort set in a mango grove with a spa and conference center.

Still, the lake remains relatively undeveloped, free of unsightly hotels and resorts. The crater´s rim is lightly forested: green in some spots, Utah-brown in others. And thanks to restrictions on motorized watercraft, the water is clean, clear and dark blue.

But make no mistake, development is afoot. Back at Calle la Calzada, just a few blocks away from Asia Latina, there´s a popular new sports pub, Zoom Bar. Instead of tapestries and batik, this transplanted honky-tonk is decorated with college football jerseys and lewd bumper sticks. The house specialty is a bacon cheeseburger with curly fries.

On a breezy Thursday afternoon, Wayne Grath, a California native who opened the establishment with his wife, Cheryl, was standing behind the bar, loudly pontificating on the city´s real estate market. A pair of heavily tattooed tourists listened closely, eager to get in on the action.

It may already be too late, Mr. Grath said.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Several airlines fly from Kennedy Airport to Managua, none nonstop. Fares start at about $300 (and a $10 tourist card must be purchased upon arrival). Granada is an easy one-hour drive from Managua. Several major car rental companies, including Hertz (505-233-1237) and Avis (505-233-3011), have offices at the A. C. Sandino Airport in Managua.

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Plaza Colón (Calle la Calzada; 505-552-8489; www.hotelplazacolon.com), in Parque Central, is one of the city´s finest hotels. The most expensive suite goes for $179 plus tax; the standard double is $99.

Hotel Dario (Calle la Calzada; 505-552-3400; www.hoteldario.com) offers quality double rooms for $100 plus tax. The luxury suite is $125.

Both hotels offer a courtyard pool, air-conditioning and high-speed, in-room Internet access.

Norome Villas on Lake Apoyo (505-270-7154; www.noromevillas.com) has 144 rooms including 66 Caribbean-style villas starting at $65 plus tax in the low season and $85 in the high.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

Asia Latina (Calle la Libertad; 505-552-4672) serves Thai and Asian-fusion cuisine like “Korean tacos.”

At El Tranvia (Calle la Calzada; 505-552-3400; www.hoteldario.com), the chef Vernon Hodgson shows off his Caribbean-coast roots.
Zoom Bar (Calle la Calzada, three blocks from the cathedral; 505-643-5855; www.zoombar.biz) is known for humongous burgers, cold beer and plenty of sports talk.

Café Don Simón (505-884-1393), next to Hotel Plaza Colón, serves breakfast, lunch and light dinners. The coffee comes from local growers.

Ciudad Of Dreams

By JOSEPH HOOPER

Published: September 23, 2007

The last time I was in Granada, Nicaragua, was in 1984. My “solidarity gringo” friends and I, in the country to support the embattled Sandinista revolution, were taking a break from the capital city of Managua, where it seemed like every other person had an automatic weapon slung over their shoulder. But in Granada, it was as if we'd been airlifted out of the materially deprived, militarily consumed country and dropped into a charming Mexican colonial town. The houses had red-tiled roofs and brightly painted facades; the outdoor markets actually had fresh fruit and vegetables in them.

We took a boat trip to a nearby island in Lake Nicaragua, on whose northwestern shore Granada sits. At the time I regarded the experience as little more than a brief timeout from the country's real business, which was defending and preserving the gains of the revolution.

Returning to Granada recently, I found that the city looked much the same, despite the increase of cafes, a expat restaurant or two and some hip backpacker hangouts. The Catedral de Granada and the Convento de San Francisco were still painted in hot, jazzy yellow ocher and baby blue, and the place exuded the same humid tropical beauty. From the top of the weathered bell tower of the Iglesia la Merced, I could see the hulking Mombacho volcano looming over those tiled roofs. The setting was book-cover perfect, down to the tree-lined Parque Central at the center of town, festooned with gazebos and peddler stalls and surrounded on all sides by colonial-style buildings from which modernity has mostly been expunged or simply failed to take root. The horse-drawn carriages that waited by the Parque were almost overkill. “Granada is like a time warp,” one well-to-do Managuan lady sniffed to me at a party I went to later. “Nothing happens... except tourists.”

Indeed, the tables have turned since my last visit. After a war-exhausted citizenry voted out the Sandinistas in 1990, the conservative governments that followed promoted a consumer economy and courted foreign investment aggressively enough that in the last three years or so, a tipping point has been reached. Tourism, once the dessert option in Nicaragua, is now the main course, and one of the country's chief sources of hard cash. Understandably so. Packed into an area the size of Louisiana are some of the best aspects of the entire Central American isthmus: huge tracts of forests teeming with endangered species, like in Costa Rica; the kind of sultry colonial cities you'd find in Guatemala; and unsullied surfing beaches as good as those in El Salvador. Nowhere are these pleasures more centralized than in Nicaragua's Pacific southwest, in and around Granada. There's a local expression: “Granada is Nicaragua; the rest is just mountains.”

Founded by the conquistador Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba in 1524, Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua -- although Leon, to the northwest, vies for the title (it was founded the same year). Truth be told, austere Leon is better preserved, but its touristic comforts are still in an early stage of development. Granada, by contrast, is the showoff. Its felicitous location by immense Lake Nicaragua (the 10th-largest freshwater lake in the world) made it a wealthy trading center and a magnet for pirates and other firebrands, who once sacked and burned the city.

If the town's most historic buildings have been rebuilt many times over, somehow the idea of colonial elegance is the one thing that has been flawlessly maintained. In fact, escaping much of the turmoil of Nicaragua's recent past has been Granada's particular genius; the city was mostly hors de combat during the revolution. The city fathers were -- and still are -- more preoccupied with family bloodlines and old historical battles, in a way that would be recognizable to anyone familiar with the American Old South. Granada is even famous for older folks passing the late afternoon on their front-porch rocking chairs, catching the breeze off the lake. This is a city of porch philosophers, not revolutionary martyrs.

One morning I paid a call on Granada's leading citizen, Gabriel Pasos Wolff, 86, one of the owners of the venerable Hotel Alhambra and an owlish doyen of the rocking-chair set. Pasos and his wife live just cater-corner to the hotel (with its atypical Moorish-Vegas facade) in a mansion filled with dour oil portraits that could pass for a colonial museum. He served me an iced tea and graciously offered up a pocket history of Granada, with an emphasis on the defining catastrophe of another era, the sacking of the city in 1856 by the American William Walker. He led his own private army in a bizarre effort to conquer Nicaragua and install himself as president. (The United States government briefly recognized Walker's claim before the warring Granada and León factions united to drive him out.) “Granada is like the Ave Fénix,” Pasos declaimed, the phoenix rising from the ashes.

A vivid sense of history and tradition is one of the place's most enduring charms, even when it erupts at 6:30 a.m. Early one morning I was blown out of bed at the Alhambra by booming, cannon-like sounds. I rushed out into the street and caught up to the procession of San Antonio, a ragtag army of local schoolkids led by teenage girls in short brown skirts and high leather boots doing the pompom-and-baton shake and shimmy. Behind them followed younger girls dressed up in white nuns' habits and little boys in monks' cassocks, holding miniature prayer books. The whole procession, powered by a cacophonous brass band in the rear, redounded to the greater glory of San Antonio. Later that morning over breakfast, I asked an Alhambra waiter what San Antonio had ever done to deserve this. “He's a saint, so we adore him,” he told me, “but I don't remember. Ask a padre.”

The rhythm of a Granada stay often goes something like this: the early mornings and the evenings are for city pleasures. When the heat begins to build toward noon, it's time to head into the surrounding naturaleza. Although a bunch of outdoor-excursion companies have lately sprung up here, I headed out with two friends of friends of friends: Pomares Salmerón, a young naturalist who runs his family's private nature preserve near Managua, and Alain Creusot, a French volcanologist in his early 60s whose final ambition is to climb and study every volcano in the New World, from the Aleutian Islands to Tierra del Fuego.

In Salmeron's S.U.V., we chugged up the paved switchbacks that took us to the upper reaches of the Mombacho volcano cloud forest, a curtain of green occasionally broken by the red flower of the malinche tree. We stashed the vehicle at the ranger hut and hiked a trail to a lookout above the volcano's largest crater. Mombacho hasn't had a proper eruption in centuries, which has allowed the crater to evolve into a huge sunken bowl of vegetation. It's a nature preserve within a nature preserve, inhabited by howler monkeys and -- so people say -- some small jungle cats. Salmeron said the crater has become a kind of sacred site for the pagan shamans who operate out of the surrounding towns known as pueblos brujos (“warlock towns”).

As we cut back to the road and the steep climb toward the summit, Creusot expounded on the country's state of affairs. One of the few foreigners who chose to stay in '79, when the insurrection against the United States-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza erupted, Creusot directed journalists and Sandinista fighters to the abandoned cars and gas supplies at the French Embassy and joined them for rides through the urban battlefield. Having faced danger to witness a new country being born, he feels personally let down at how things have turned out. Nicaragua is enduring a severe energy shortage. Ortega, back in power, is now regarded as merely a man of the back-room deal. And the U.S. State Department pegs the country as the poorest in Latin America (which, for anyone who has spent time in Honduras, is truly remarkable). “Nicaragua, which is the richest country in Latin America from all points of view, is last,” Creusot said. “This I cannot accept.”

At last the cloud cover broke and we were granted a view down the lake. Zapatera Island emerged, known for its pre-Columbian archeological sites and, more grandly still, Ometepe, one of the largest freshwater islands in the world, with its smoldering Concepción volcano. Another spot gave us a view of Las Isletas, which stretch out just beyond the Granada shore. Formed by a Mombacho avalanche eons ago, they looked from this distance like pearls from a broken necklace scattered over the water's surface. They are indeed tiny, as I saw later while exploring them by kayak. Most islands are big enough to accommodate only a single thing: a school, say, or a cemetery for the peasant fishermen who get around in old wooden rowboats. Some have been snapped up by wealthy Nicaraguans and foreigners for vacation homes. And others look like science experiments gone awry. One island has a resident population of scrawny kittens, another a fast-breeding colony of spider monkeys (reportedly descendants of an original few dropped off by a local biologist).

Another day we drove to Masaya, just outside Granada. Of modest size and lumpy shape, Masaya nonetheless impresses with its sheer volcanism. Plumes of sulfurous smoke rise from its crater with industrial constancy. As we peered down, a flock of parakeets zipped over the surrounding green field, hovered overhead and then dove in formation into the crater in what looked to be a highly organized suicide mission. The birds, Creusot explained, spent the night down there, breathing currents of fresh air sucked into the pit by the high temperatures. They can have it. At one point in our visit, the wind shifted and we found ourselves in a sulfuric whiteout.

We made it to the top of the crater's lip and took the measure of the 33-foot cross planted there, first erected by the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s to counter the bad vibes from the volcano, which they regarded, not insensibly, as the gates of hell. Local lore has it that the pre-Columbian Chorotega priests sacrificed virgins down there. In Nicaragua, Christian theology always seems to be at war with a landscape that feels more pagan. Even on Mombacho, as quiet a volcano as you'll find, I had crossed the old battle lines. On a canopy tour, harnessed to a zip line cable and flying from giant tree to tree, I was joined by about 40 high school evangelicals on a mission from Omaha. One girl asked me if I was a Christian, and as there are no atheists 40 feet off the ground, I answered truthfully, “No, but I'm a fan of Jesus.”

Back in Granada, I paid a call on the Costa Rican expat Glenda Castro Navarro at El Tercer Ojo (the Third Eye), a cafe and restaurant decorated with Buddhist and Hindu icons that she opened four years ago with her husband, the French painter Jean Marc Calvet. “The Third Eye means 'Open your eyes and see,' “ Castro said. “I try to follow many of the teachings of Buddhism, and here it is very Catholic, so people say this is a very diabolic thing.” Castro can grow impatient with the town's sedulous pace (“things pass so slowly here, it's unreal”), lacking perhaps the native affection of her friend who joined us, the filmmaker Mariano Maran. “Mi Musica,” Maran's film about Nicaraguan music, had been playing around town. “To die a Granadino is tremendously powerful,” he said. “My mother is 93, she still lives here, she still sings, she still drinks.”

For someone like Mar�n, Granada's pull is internal, the force of family and shared history. (“I'm like an elephant; I always come back home.”) But as the very existence of El Tercer Ojo makes plain, all sorts of people are drawn into the city's colonial vortex for all sorts of reasons. The paradox of Granada is that its aura of antique timelessness is the very thing that attracts the restless New Agers and the bohemians. And for this reason, there is a whiff of improbability: Granada of the somnolent heat and the aristocratic airs bring reconceived by foreign visitors as a model of town-and-country multisport efficiency and as an exotic stage for private obsessions. But the beauty of the place is that the different Granadas don't collide. They rub off on one another in lively, unpredictable ways.

On my next to last night in town, I settled in for dinner at Alabama Rib Shack Bar and Grill, which everyone knows as Jimmy Three-Fingers, a few blocks from the Parque. (The baby-back ribs are first-rate.) After dinner, the proprietor, a singer-contractor-chef from Florida's Gulf Coast by the name of Jimmy Three-Fingers -- he had an accident with a table saw -- belts out Jimmy Buffet and John Denver songs in a phlegmy, nicotine-stained voice to a barroom half full of nonplussed Nicaraguans and curious stray gringos. I suggested “Margaritaville.” (When in Rome....) “Back on the Gulf Coast, the tip jar used to have a sign on it,” he shot back. “´Requests: 5 cents. “Margaritaville”: $25.´ “ Repertory notwithstanding, his young Granadina girlfriend was enchanted. Hands beatifically pressed to her chest, she cooed, “I surrender every time he sings.”

The moment reminded me of something the poet and former Sandinista operative Gioconda Belli had told me before my trip. “If there is a city that has been changed by tourism, it's Granada,” she said. But unlike some other picturesque spots I can think of, Granada hasn't become an imitation of itself. There is room for both the ridiculous and the sublime -- a festival in February, for instance, when some 200 poets declaim their verses from church atriums within earshot of Jimmy Three-Fingers' microphone. “It feels much more cosmopolitan,” Belli said approvingly. But still, somehow, like Granada.

ESSENTIALS GRANADA, NICARAGUA

Getting There

There is a small airport outside of Granada, but it's easiest to fly into Managua. From there, it's about an hour by car to the city center.

Guides and Logistics

Tours Nicaragua (www.toursnicaragua.com) and Nicaragua Adventures (www.nica-adventures.com) can arrange private trips to the country, covering culture, nature and adventure. Both can plan either an entire trip or just basics like hotels and transportation. (Unless you're comfortable with chaotic driving conditions, do not rent your own car.) Mombotour (www.mombotour.com) conducts day trips around Granada, including the canopy tour on Mombacho and kayaking tours of Lake Nicaragua (from about $25 to $51 per person).

Hotels

La Gran Francia Hotel and Restaurant. The top luxury hotel in town, with an elegant Nica-Euro fusion restaurant (entrees $9 to $20). 011-505-552-6000; www.lagranfrancia.com; doubles from $105. Hotel Alhambra. A venerable classic, if a little rough around the edges. 011-505-552-4486; www.hotelalhambra.com.ni; doubles from $55. Hotel Patio del Malinche. Basic but lovely small colonial hotel. 011-505-552-2235; www.patiodelmalinche.com; doubles from $67.

Restaurants and Cafes

Alabama Rib Shack Bar. and Grill First-rate American grub with a Latin American theme. Calle El Consulado; 011-505-552-8115; entrees $4.50 to $9.50. Las Colinas del Sur. Pure down-home Nicaragua outside of the city center, specializing in fresh fish from the lake. Shell Palmira; 011-505-552-3492; entrees $7 to $14. El Zaguan. Granada's best traditional churrasco-style steakhouse. Calle El Arsenal; 011-505-552-6451; entrees $7 to $11. The cafes El Tercer Ojo (Calle El Arsenal; 011-505-552-6451) and Café Dec Arte (Calle Calzada; 011-505-552-6461) are Granada's twin temples of expat bohemiana.

Travels with Lonely Planet: Nicaragua

Overlooked Managua is a proud city with a wild landscape

By Regis St. Louis

Nicaragua's volcanoes, coastlines and colonial towns are no longer a secret among travelers seeking authentic Central America - and they have fewer crowds than neighboring Costa Rica. Yet despite the growing popularity of Granada, Leon and San Juan del Sur, certain places remain well off the tourist radar.

Managua, the capital, is one of Nica's most overlooked destinations and has long been dismissed by foreign visitors, who linger in the metropolis only long enough to change planes or catch the first bus out of town. Those willing to scratch beneath the surface, though, find a proud and fascinating city with a wild landscape and rich history.

Excellent restaurants and nightlife, cozy colonial hotels and a surreal assortment of sights make for rewarding exploring, and help put this land of lakes, poets and revolutionaries into context

To continue reading about Managua, click here.

Perched along the shores of the Lago Xolotlán, Managua is a low-rise city of winding streets. Woven into its geography are picturesque crater lakes, with volcanoes to the north and south and the Meseta de Estrada mountain range to the northeast.

A city of tropical verdure, it's also one of constant reinvention, an essential quality given the wounds that nature has inflicted. Monstrous earthquakes have twice leveled the city, once in 1931 when it was still a tiny municipality, and again in 1972, when 5 square miles of the city were instantly wiped out, leaving some 20,000 dead

Since then, the former downtown near the lakeshore, known as zona monumental, was largely abandoned. This forlorn collection of former museums, plazas and government offices was the bustling heart of Managua before the quake. Abandoned for a generation, the neighborhood is slowly being revitalized, and capatalinos (Managua residents) have recently started returning to the area

The streets end at the lake, where the malecón (boardwalk) skirts along a colorful assortment of lakeside kiosks and a rickety theme park. Morning is the best time to visit, when songbirds fill the trees around the parks and a cool breeze blows off the lakefront. Among the highlights here is the shell of the old cathedral, whose hauntingly beautiful fa�ade is decorated with murals and stone angels. Despite promises, it has never been restored

On a grassy plaza a few blocks south is the country's most evocative revolutionary monument. The Monumento de la Paz is a lighthouse built atop the destroyed remains of thousands of weapons, including a tank, from the Sandinista-Contra War of the 1970s-'80s. These were forever encased in concrete by former President Violeta de Chamorro. The nearby Palacio Nacional de la Cultura has impressive exhibits on the conflict and Nicaragua's more distant past.

Also in the area are the Casa Presidencial, where current President Daniel Ortega works, and the Centro Cultural de Managua, the city's former Gran Hotel. The first floor contains the Bar La Cavanga, a 1950s-era gem, which stages live folk and jazz shows in the evenings. A few blocks north is the Teatro Rubén Darío, a graceful building that was one of the few in the area to survive the earthquake. The second-floor balcony boasts pretty lake views.

There are numerous ways to experience the dramatic scenery (and perhaps see some wildlife) within city limits. Among four crater lakes in Managua, Laguna Tiscapa is the easiest to reach and offers splendid views over the lushly forested lagoon. A zipline whisks down the hillside (for maximum adrenaline boost, opt for the "Superman" pose).

A short drive south of the capital, the Montibelli Wildlife Reserve has 162 hectares of tropical dry forest. Along the trails, visitors have spectacular views of nearby volcanoes Masaya, Mombacho and Cerro Ventarrón, and impressive glimpses of birds, butterflies and howler monkeys.

In the evening, Managua comes into its own, with dozens of lively, music-filled bars and restaurants about town. Not far from the zona monumental is Ruta Maya, an airy thatch-roof bar where a laid-back crowd comes to hear live son nicarag�ense (Nicaraguan folk music).

For a denser concentration of nightspots, head to the Zona Rosa, an upscale district in the south of the city. In addition to trendy bars and restaurants, this is the neighborhood of the intimate Casa de los Mejía Godoy, a club (and nonprofit foundation) started by the legendary Godoy musicians Carlos and his brother Luis Enrique. Catch them live on Thursday to Saturday night.

The Bello Horizonte rotunda in the northeast corner of town is another great place to head. An epicenter for party people, this area provides premium strolling past discos and bars, fritangas (grill stands) and fast-food joints. Wandering bands of sparkly, big-hatted mariachi musicians add to the fray.

Where to stay

* For true Spanish colonial charm and a friendly welcome, book a room at Hotel Los Robles (www.hotellosrobles.com; 011-505-267-3008). The setting is superb - with an attractive courtyard, antique-style wooden furnishings and fantastic amenities (guests receive a complimentary cell phone during their stay), amid a pleasant, tree-lined neighborhood.

My long and winding road... to fitness

Oct 3 2007 by Ian Hernon, Liverpool Echo

PETER Kilfoyle arrived back in Liverpool this week after walking across Central America. The quadruple heart bypass survivor braved the malarial swamps, jungles, mountains and volcanoes of previously war-torn Nicaragua to raise cash for charity.

During his arduous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts the Walton MP also met heavily-armed commandos, “wonderful” local people, a Scouser, an ex-Liverpool university student and teenage Reds fans.

Landing at John Lennon airport he said: “It´s great to be home.”

And he ruled out a repeat trip saying: “No, not now I´ve done it.”

He added: “It was the experience of a lifetime but seeing the poverty in Nicaragua brings it home to me how lucky we are in Liverpool.”

The former defense minister has already raised �30,000 in sponsorship. And a TV documentary should increase donations to the British Heart Foundation and a Nicaraguan peace charity.

During his two-weeks Mr Kilfoyle walked 160 miles. He traveled another 60 miles on boats through mangrove swamps. With him was a commando squad for protection again insurgents and criminal gangs � and his son-in-law John Gill, a qualified nurse.

“It was a long, hard haul and I was very badly bitten by mosquitoes and other insects... but it was worth the effort,” he said.

Two years ago, during a more sedate Parliamentary visit, the MP arranged for surplus Liverpool FC kit to be airlifted to football-mad slum children on the eastern coast.
“The youngsters were waiting when I arrived � all dressed in their kit,” he said. “That was the start of some extraordinary links with Liverpool.

“I was walking down the side of a volcano on Ometepe island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. I was approached by a Scouser [(a person from Liverpool)]. He was Armando Mena who lives in Aigburth but who was visiting his grandmother while his wife and children stayed on Merseyside. Two of his sons work for the housing corporation� It could only happen to me�I´m in the back of beyond and still among Scousers.”

A few days later he was in the capital Managua and ran into former Liverpool student Joanna Adkins. She went to Nicaragua as part of her course to help street children, glue-sniffers, and the desperately poor. Mr Kilfoyle said: “She stayed to do more, it´s that sort of place.”

Of his son-in-law he said: “He was meant to be for my safety. But he saved the life of one of the back-up team by diagnosing early deep vein thrombosis.”