Horse riding, surfing, hiking, biking in Tola
All inclusive deal for $995 per week for THREE persons - just $332 per person per week including transport & catering.
On Our Way South to
Costa Rica...
We were looking for somewhere to hang out for a few days in Nicaragua
before heading further south. Ideally we wanted to find somewhere with a
nice beach and good surf but not overrun with tourists… especially surf
tourists. We found a beach called Playa Colorado located a little north
of San Juan Del Sur.
The Beach and the
Surf - Panga Drops and
Colorado's
The beach had two main breaks which were said to be quite different from
each other but both good waves in their own right. ‘Colorados’ was a
hollow beach break which formed off the mouth of the Rio Colorado.
Further up the beach was ‘Panga Drops’ this was more mellow wave which
broke further out over a rocky bottom and was known for it’s consistency
and for being a great swell magnet for smaller days. The surf was a
good size during
our stay and I managed to get a few waves.
If anything, it was
too big. And the wind came onshore a couple of days in the afternoon
during thunderstorms. But all in all I'd say it is a great location to
base yourself for a surf holiday, and between Panga's and Colorado's you
get a very wide range of different waves. I'm glad we didn't rent a
car as it would have been wasted!
Where to Stay? Everywhere seemed
to be very expensive...
After researching a little further
we found that if we wanted to stay at Playa Colorodo we would have to
rent a house or condo inside the gated community of Hacienda Iguana.
Renting a whole house for just two of us was an overkill and the condos
weren’t a lot cheaper so we were glad to find James on the internet.
James lives at Hacienda Iguana with his wife and son, he’s one of the
few ‘full timers’. They have a beautiful home on the golf course and
rent out their guest-house which is adjacent to the main house. We
managed to get hold of James easily and arranged for him to pick us up
from Granada the next day.
We ended up staying for a week for
$500!
It was nice to be in a house again
after spending weeks in hotel rooms. We had a
kitchen/ensuite/AC/wi-fi/access to the pool. Everything we could want.
There’s only one restaurant nearby so we’d brought a bunch of groceries
on the way out and cooked our own meals- a nice change too. We spent our
days exploring the local area. We walked to the village of Gigante
which is about an hours walk down the beach and around two headlands;
it’s separated from Playa Colorado by a pristine deserted beach. Gigante
is sleepy fishing village with a few locals and a small community of ex
pats.
Mountain Biking in Rancho Santana
In the other direction around the
northern headland is another resort community called Rancho Santana. It
can be accessed through a network of tracks that connect the two
communities. James has a few bikes for guests to use so we rode these
over one afternoon. It was a killer hot day so we rested a while at the
Rancho Santana beach bar to get enough energy for the ride back.
Horseback Riding, Golf and Fishing
There is a working ranch next to
Hacienda Iguana which offers horseback riding. It’s a fairly casual set
up and our Spanish is non-existent but we managed to find the right
person and before we knew it he’d saddle up a couple of horses and sent
us on our way… alone! It was nice way to spend a couple of hours
walking around the community and riding along the beach. We’d intended to shoot a round of golf and try
our luck at fishing off the rocks but between surfing/horseback
riding/walks and catching up on a few emails we found time slipped away
and it was time to move on again…refreshed and ready to go back to our
travels.
Thanks!
All the best,
Dave & Nadya
Here's a link to our travel blog to
find out more: http://www.travelpod.com/members/nadav