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| The beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
Ahhh, the salty air in your face, sand between your toes, the sun on your skin.... that’s the life.
We decided that since our lives will be a little more hectic in the coming months it was time to take a few days vacation while we could. After renewing our Tourist Visa on Monday morning in Managua, we headed down to a little fishing village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua called Casares. We stayed in a small, boutique hotel called
Hotel El Casino – before you ask, NO there is no casino in the place and we didn’t find out why it was called that. The hotel itself is right on the beach and for $25.00 a night (add $10 for air conditioning) it was in our price range.
We arrived on Monday afternoon about 3:00 pm and quickly settled into our room and the holiday rhythm... you know, a dip in the ocean, a walk on the beach, a drink at the bar, and dinner on the patio! A person could get used to this life.
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| moving a boat - Casares, Nicaragua |
We had an ocean view room and were very surprised when we woke up on Tuesday morning at how busy the beach was yet surprisingly quiet. There had to be at least 100 people (men, women and children) going about the daily business of unloading the nights catch. We sat on the top deck with our morning coffee and watched as boats arrived with their catch and then were “moved” up onto the higher part of the beach. This was quite a process with logs being placed under the boat and the crew and family moving the boat backwards, moving the logs to the back of the boat and repeating the procedure until the boat was in its “parking” spot for the day.
Not being a fish expert I can’t tell you what types of fish were in the buckets that went past the hotel on the way to be sold at the markets but each day there seemed to be a good catch. The fishermen and their families all seemed to work really hard. It was sad to see young children working alongside their parents and not going to school.
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| relaxed from our vacation |
The sand on the beach is brown and you can walk for quite some distance before you reach some large rocks and a house that overlooks the ocean that stop you from heading any further towards La Boquita beach. On the beach you will find areas with large rocks that make it impossible to swim in the ocean. However, at some point in time a “swimming pool” was built into the back side of some rocks to catch the ocean water at high tide and thus allow for a nice swim in ever changing water. Unfortunately, there is a LOT of garbage on the beach and there doesn’t seem to be any effort to clean it up. Too bad because it truly is a beautiful spot.
The hotel had a good restaurant and the food was always fresh and delicious with a nice selection. There are a number of comfortable sitting areas where you could enjoy a book or watch TV.
We had a wonderful little getaway ..... here are some pictures from our trip.
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| moving boat equipment - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| Interior view, Hotel El Casino - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| Kids fishing - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| view from the beach, Hotel El Casino - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| rocks on the beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| pigs on the beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| boats on the beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| the nights catch - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| Fish - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| boats on the beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| Fish - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| pool on the beach - Casares, Nicaragua |
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| sunset - Casares, Nicaragua |
Wow! what a nice get a way!! There were some really big fish in those buckets. Rob and I have tried to get a couple of down days at the end of each service year. This year because our funds are going to coming to Nica, our mini-vacation is 2 days babysitting our granddaughters, but that's Ok we will have fun.
ReplyDeleteMy cousins daughter spent 3 months in Casares a couple of years ago. She really liked it there, but she found the language hard as she knew no spanish at the start, but enjoyed her time anyway. Glad you got away for a bit!
Gorgeous sunset!!