Why not do something completely different during your vacation time? Wouldn’t it be great to learn a new language, surprise your friends and family with exotic dishes you discovered while in a foreign country, travel back in time when ancient civilizations inhabited the earth or learn new sports like surfing, scuba diving or sandboarding? You can experience all this while visiting the beautiful country of Nicaragua!
Learn Spanish: There are many ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language. Nicaragua offers different ways to do so. You can either join a language school and live in a dormitory or with a Nicaraguan family. If you already have some knowledge of the language there are special courses for people who want to improve their language skills or business people who need Spanish to be able to understand their partners in Spanish speaking countries.
Cook Nica Style: Most language schools are offering apart from Spanish classes also classes on Nicaraguan culture including the cuisine. Or your guest family might invite you to help prepare some local dishes like Gallo Pinto (rice with beans), Nacatamal (ground corn filled with small pieces of chicken or pork and other ingredients wrapped and cooked in leaves of the plantain tree), Indio Viejo, Sopa de Mondongo, Chicha de Maíz, Tres Leches among many other delicious dishes. There are also classes with local chefs available, just check the internet for the different cooking schools and their schedules.
Learn about Nicaragua’s History: There are many historical sites in Nicaragua you might want to visit to learn about the past that still lives in their streets.
Visit Granada, the first European city in mainland America or Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua and the city that contains the world’s oldest human footprints. In Ometepe Island you will find petroglyphs that bring you nearer to the ancient civilizations, that once inhabited this island situated in Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America.
San Juan del Sur was a departure point for the gold miners in 1849 during the California Gold Rush who had traveled from the Caribbean coast, up the Rio San Juan and across Lake Nicaragua, and boarded Clipper ships bound for San Francisco.
Columbus traveled along the Rio San Juan, pirates like Henry Morgan used it to reach cities to ransack and Mark Twain wrote about its beauty. And while traveling the Rio San Juan you can stop and visit El Castillo, an old Spanish fortress that was build to protect the country from invaders and pirates.
Sports: After all the studying and learning it is time to get out to Nicaragua’s beautiful beaches and practise some sports like surfing, scuba diving or sandboarding, a special treat where you will learn to sandboard down the volcanic-ash slopes of Cerro Negro, one of the active volcanoes of Nicaragua.
Or you can ride a zipline over forests and coffee farms, join a yoga retreat, go hiking to the top of one of Nicaragua’s many volcanoes or enjoy some of the world’s best fishing in Nicaragua’s two oceans or on the largest lake of Central America.
