Honey, Moon?
Having gone for something a little different for the wedding we thought we should be similarly different for the honeymoon.
Beach wedding in Costa Rica - ergo City honeymoon, so we hopped over the border to Nicaragua and started our honeymoon in Granada. It's a lovely little town an hour or two from the Costa Rican border and dates from Spanish colonial times. It, like the country itself, has had a chequered past most recently being burned down in the 19th century by the fleeing William Walker.
Nicaragua is not too big on the tourist map at present which made it a really great choice but you can already see them making moves to encourage tourism, particularly eco-tourism. This can only mean good news for the country and it's people as it recovers from it's recent turbulent history.
Granada is typically mediterranean with very colourful buildings and equally colourful people. I loved the fact that 95 percent of buildings are only one story high, there are a handful towering two stories into the sky and the only buildings higher are the multidinous collection of Catholic churhes.
More pictures are in the galleries...
As it was our honeymoon we decided to splash out from our usual budget somewhat. One night in our hotel with a huge balcony overlooking the main square and it´s resident church cost us the same as 10 nights at our average rate over the last 6 months, or we could have stayed at our cheapest hostel in Laos for over a month! However, taken in perspective to western prices it was a steal!!!
Needless to say we rarely stepped out of the hotel bedroom the first two days - however what does need to be said is that this was becasue I was watchng the progress of the English teams in the Champions League semi-finals...
I don't smoke and being married hasn't driven me to it already but I thought I should sample the local produce - Nicaraguan cigars made from 100% Cuban seeds, the best cigars that money can buy!! I sat myself on the balcony watching the locals and the humming birds go about their daily activities and found the cigar... disgusting, it left the taste with me for the next two days but I have kept the other half of it to celebrate number one sprog whenever he or she appears!!
We have now moved on to Leon, a similarly hstoric colonial town perhaps lacking the marketable colourfulness of Granada but making up for it in undiluted authenticity and volcanic activity!!
Technically the honeymoon is over now we have left Granada but technically it still has 6 months to run; glass half empty or glass half full?
Beach wedding in Costa Rica - ergo City honeymoon, so we hopped over the border to Nicaragua and started our honeymoon in Granada. It's a lovely little town an hour or two from the Costa Rican border and dates from Spanish colonial times. It, like the country itself, has had a chequered past most recently being burned down in the 19th century by the fleeing William Walker.Nicaragua is not too big on the tourist map at present which made it a really great choice but you can already see them making moves to encourage tourism, particularly eco-tourism. This can only mean good news for the country and it's people as it recovers from it's recent turbulent history.
Granada is typically mediterranean with very colourful buildings and equally colourful people. I loved the fact that 95 percent of buildings are only one story high, there are a handful towering two stories into the sky and the only buildings higher are the multidinous collection of Catholic churhes.
More pictures are in the galleries...
As it was our honeymoon we decided to splash out from our usual budget somewhat. One night in our hotel with a huge balcony overlooking the main square and it´s resident church cost us the same as 10 nights at our average rate over the last 6 months, or we could have stayed at our cheapest hostel in Laos for over a month! However, taken in perspective to western prices it was a steal!!!
Needless to say we rarely stepped out of the hotel bedroom the first two days - however what does need to be said is that this was becasue I was watchng the progress of the English teams in the Champions League semi-finals...
I don't smoke and being married hasn't driven me to it already but I thought I should sample the local produce - Nicaraguan cigars made from 100% Cuban seeds, the best cigars that money can buy!! I sat myself on the balcony watching the locals and the humming birds go about their daily activities and found the cigar... disgusting, it left the taste with me for the next two days but I have kept the other half of it to celebrate number one sprog whenever he or she appears!!
We have now moved on to Leon, a similarly hstoric colonial town perhaps lacking the marketable colourfulness of Granada but making up for it in undiluted authenticity and volcanic activity!!
Technically the honeymoon is over now we have left Granada but technically it still has 6 months to run; glass half empty or glass half full?
