Nicaragua Adventures #5: Rancho Santana
Welcome Back My Bathing Beauty Passengers:
Now that I am home (and Finn isn’t) and we’ve moved our son Adam from San Diego to Orange, CA and I’ve been cleared from jury duty, I finally have time (and headspace) to finish chronicling my Nicaraguan adventures.
BTW, Finn is having a great time learning Spanish, volunteering at a local farm, reading lots of books, and spending time in the field with the Ivana, the local vet, through Artemisa.
While I asked for daily pics as proof of life, they are choosing to be a typical teenager and I am not getting them. Am I missing Finn? Not really. Finn spent so much time in their room avoiding us when at home, that not much is different other than we are not getting the teenage angst and moodiness.
Back to Nicaragua… on June 4th, after doing a bunch of work in the morning, we ventured out of the gates to travel 20 minutes north to Rancho Santana.
Our plan was to hang out by the pool, play some tennis and have dinner while enjoying a different paradise bubble.
The roads in the area are mostly unpaved and super bumpy. The rains wash out the roads on the regular and periodically they try to fix them. Big machines were holding up ‘traffic’ as theyworked on one section at a time by moving some dirt around to make it an easier ride. Christy said it wouldn’t last long and I believed her.
“Rancho Santana is a world-class resort and residential community located on Nicaragua’s pristine Emerald Coast. “The Ranch” boasts 2,700 acres of rolling hills, five unique beaches, a variety of dining options, and activities from adventure sports to a menu of wellness offerings.”
While we spent the afternoon and evening at the resort, one night we joined Christy and about 30 other women for a potluck/dance party hosted by a gal named Suzanne who had a house in the Rancho Santana hills. The house was gorgeous and it was such a joy to dance with abandon under a huge palapa that was part of the main house. We even managed to get Finn out on the dance floor.
But it was the following day and we got to see the resort’s main building and pool with the expansive views of the ocean. As with most tropical facilities, it had a sprawling, open air design.
The architecture is stunning. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with many fountains creating a very peaceful setting.
As we exited the building and walked towards the pool, we saw (and heard) the ocean just beyond the lawn and the bocce ball court.
Christy and I made our way to the pool while Finn beelined for the end cabana to read and nap out of the sun. They’d had enough sun for the week.
Christy and I took advantage of the lounge chairs in the pool to hang out and chat while remaining somewhat cool. We pretty much ignored the group of kids in the pool behind us.
Just beyond the lawn and bushes, we could see the beach. If you look closely you can see the ox and cart used to clean up the beach and the panga boat. Just south of here closer to where we were staying with Christy in Hacienda Iguana, one of the beaches was renamed Panga Drops after a panga boat sank there.
There were tidepools that unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to get down to check out. Next time. There’s so much to do next time. And yes, there will be a next time (with my husband Zeke).
Christy and I left Finn in the cabana by the pool to go play tennis with a few of Christy’s friends. It was a short drive and still within the gates.
We picked up some kombucha at La Tienda to go with the gin we brought, poured ourselves cocktails, put on our tennis togs, and had a friendly game with Roslyn (an Australian) and Denise (an American lawyer from Colorado).
While kombucha and rum the night before was a tasty treat, the kombucha and gin combo tasted like the sweet milk dregs in the bottom of a sugar cereal bowl. Not bad but weird.
We got back to the pool in time for sunset.
The sunsets in Nicaragua are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. And it was so strange to look out at the Pacific Ocean knowing it’s the same one I put my feet in when we go to Half Moon Bay where it is so much colder. Sunsets are beautiful there too when you can see them (fog is an issue).
After a quick change, we went to La Boquita for dinner and enjoyed wood fired pizzas looking out over the ocean.
Christy’s retreat starts this weekend and the final dinner is in the gorgeous place.
It was pretty dark so it was hard to get good pictures of us and the food. I enjoyed a delicious cocktail with a slice of dried pineapple followed by some sangria. I think we had some amazing potstickers and a veggie/pita/hummus appetizer too.
Finn will most likely hate this picture because their eyes are squinty making them look stoned. They weren’t. It’s the other child who imbibes.
After dinner we went back to Christy’s place to assume our positions on the back balcony to watch the stars and the electrical storms in the distance. I definitely miss this. It was a great way to end the day (after putting on some bug spray to ward off the mosquitos which while not visible, somehow feasted on my blood).
Each night I had to take a Benadryl to be able to sleep (and not scratch).
We did go back to Rancho Santana on Sunday afternoon and our experience was quite different. The rains started shortly after we arrived and we hid out in the cabana waiting for the storm to pass. Since the sides were open, I hunkered down and hid under a towel. It wasn’t cold but it wasn’t comfortable either.
Finn took the opportunity to take a nap since we’d been up late the night before.
Christy and I did the same as we were up even later (3 AM) after hosting a few friends for dinner and then an impromptu dance party. The guards came twice to tell us to keep it down. Hilarious. We simply closed the front door and then opened it back up. Christy and I ended the night laying on the roof looking at the stars.
The sky kept getting darker as the wind picked up and it eventually started pouring rain. There was a trio of women that got out of the pool when it started raining and then appeared to say screw it, grabbed their cocktails, and got back into the pool where they continued their loud and joyous conversation.
We caught them taking a few last selfies in front of the resort before they left for the day. They were not young and it was lovely to see them having so much fun together.
I snapped a few more pictures as we left the rain-soaked resort. It’s no wonder everything was so green.
We made one final trek to Rancho Santana for dinner on my last night. We dined at La Finca and El Mar where we were joined by these cute kitties. Yes, we fed them. As Finn said, they aren’t our problem.
As we were waiting for our food, Christy taught us the joys of watching gecko racing as they raced each other for bugs up on the wall. We shared this with a little girl sitting at the adjacent table. She couldn’t figure out what we kept looking and cheering at because the geckos were behind the stone arch.
As we were leaving, we saw some crabs (pictured here) and frogs (not pictured). Christy said they are all over and in the streets after the rain. She tried hard to avoid running over them but in the dark, it’s pretty hard to avoid them. Fortunately there’s a strong circle of life here and the birds and other wildlife clean up the dead debris.
While we really enjoyed our time at Rancho Santana, the difference between how the people live outside the gate versus inside was stark. I’ll share more pics in the next post as I capture our trip to la finca (the farm) for Finn’s first work experience which they did on the Monday before I left. Teaser: pigs, chickens, horses, cows, multiple people on the same motorcycle, and a roadside produce stand.
With much love and gratitude,
Terri
P.S. Take the controls and be the pilot in your own life. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and you are cleared for takeoff.
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