2.01.2012

oh my... an amazing getaway!

view looking out from the deck of the beach house in san juan del sur, nicaragua
have you ever wanted to just get away from your everyday busy life?  just go to the beach and relax with no worries?  but, even when you go on vacation, it still seems busy? and when you get home you need a vacation from your vacation? ha.  well...  my husband and i just took a trip for our 25th anniversary (ok, our anniversary was in june, but it took us a while to finally sit down and plan the trip)... and it was one of the most amazing vacations we may have ever been on!  seriously. in nicaragua!

this is what i like to refer to as "our" beach house! cool, huh?
 we stayed in a wonderful house on the beach partially in the 'jungle' secluded from most of civilization.  now, this house was a cross between a beach cottage and camping...  meaning, it had everything we needed: plenty of space, a full kitchen (no dishwasher), bathroom, amazing views, the beach all to ourselves except for a few locals fishing once in a while, hammocks, and lots of peacefulness.... but, no hot water, showers that might have lizards once in a while (hey, they live there, it is what it is), have to go outside to get from one building to another. there were 4 buildings: one with 2 bedrooms, one with a bathroom, one with the kitchen/deck and a bedroom, and one more with a bedroom.  this place holds up to 16 people... but we had it all to ourselves!

taking a little afternoon siesta.  so great.  hammock... i miss you!

and the best part... we were allowed to just relax, not worry about going places. not worry about the internet, phone, tv, radio. just walk along the beach, lay in hammocks for hours, eat whatever easy stuff we wanted to make (lots of fresh fruit from the local market), and lay around some more, watch the sunset every day, wake up to the beautiful sunny pacific ocean out our bedroom 'window'.  oh, fyi, there were no windows, just screens.  and huge sliding doors that you would open up, then you just had a huge outside room! 

this is up on the lookout by the large jesus statue... san juan del sur is in the background.
(and this is the sweetest man i know smiling at me!)
we did take a trip into town one day.  did the canopy zipline, went up to the high point where a large statue of jesus looked out over the harbor, and ate dinner at a nice restaurant on the beach.

pool and lounging around area at hotel plaza colon in granada, nicaragua
we also traveled our last 3 days to two other cities. grananda, a colonial city with beautiful old buildings, a large open air market, lots of restaurants to eat outside and watch the action, went to a active volcano, visited an artisan marketplace in masaya, went up a mountain with amazing views. the hotel (hotel plaza colon) was simply amaaaaazing.  beautiful pool/common areas, great food, and the people working there were so helpful and nice.  i highly recommend it if you travel to nicaragua...  which i highly recommend you do.  we hadn't even left the country before we were trying to figure out how soon we could go back. 

this is a delivery truck arriving at the open air market...
can you believe how much is packed onto it? 
beans & grains for sale at the market in granada
 the last night we stayed in managua (the capital) so we would be nearby for our flight out the next day. so sad. anyway, we had the privilege to eat at a peruvian restaurant up the street from our hotel which was great. funny to think we were americans in nicaragua eating in a peruvian restaurant.

did i mention the amazing fresh fruit?  i don't know what this one is...
but we made smoothies with it... delicious! 
i am going to attempt to make a video out of all the pictures (probably a thousand!) which i will post in the next week or so, depending on how long it takes me to figure out how to do that. ha.

this is the beach in front of "our" beach house.  the mountains in the distance
(far right side) are costa rica. 
 if you have any questions about our trip, leave a comment below, and i will try to answer the best i can... but did i mention that it was a most amazing vacation?  would go again in a heartbeat.

another view of a sunset from our deck/eating spot/hammock swinging area...
 now maybe i can get back onto a regular schedule for my blog.  when i am not daydreaming about 'our' beach house....

~ julie

2 comments:

  1. ***sigh**** this looks amazing! I feel all calm just reading it :) Glad you had a wonderful time!

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  2. woohoo!! Nicaragua is awesome! So glad you and Uncle Phil had a good time. xo Lauren

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