Scuba Diving in San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur is a surf town, but being on the ocean, you can scuba dive here too. It is definitely not common: after a few days searching, I was able to find one dive operator in town. Scuba diving in San Juan del Sur is possible! I got two dives in with Dive Nicaragua this past weekend and even used the go-pro underwater for the first time. It worked!

The dives weren’t the greatest dives I’ve ever done. The water is quite cold – less than 20. This isn’t the Caribbean, that’s for sure! The visibility also wasn’t fantastic. It really varied around, depending on the amount of sun shining and the waves kept bringing in lots of sand. All in all, it was still worth it. The dive master was very nice and the other client, a youngster from Germany, was very friendly and interesting. The weather was great and the scenery was pretty good too. One of the good aspects of diving is you can do it as a solo traveler.

The dive sites were close to the beach I visited last week, Playa Hermosa. At the first site, we dove around a statue of the Virgin Mary which was recently submerged in the water and is beginning to attract plant life. On both dives, we saw schools of fish and lots of rays and starfish. My photos aren’t the best, but they are OK.

Hermosa scuba diving in San Juan del Sur
Dive boat view
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One Saturday in Managua: Tiscapa and Zip lining

Today is my only day in Managua. I did a lot of research and everything told me that traveling around the city on my own was not safe. I didn’t want to come to Managua without seeing any of it though, so tried a number of tour operators but no luck as a singleton. So, I came up with another plan and spent my one Saturday in Managua zip lining at Tiscapa Lagoon.

tiscapa lagoon

This morning, after check-in, breakfast and a short nap, I hired a taxi to take me to Tiscapa Lagoon. A volcanic lake on a mountain, this preserve offers views of the sprawling capitol city, and a canopy tour of the lake itself. So a visit to the lagoon offers views and adventure, which sounded good to me. The taxi driver waited for me while I enjoyed the activities at Tiscapa.

Managua view
View of Managua and Lake Managua from Tiscapa
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Photos from the Ischgl Alps

I took a lot of photos from the Ischgl Alps and the views are stunning. We had such a great 5 days skiing – the weather was beautiful, with blue skies and sunshine every day. The wifi in our hotel was not as good, so I didn’t get to post very much after our first day skiing.

The Ischgl Experience

Ischgl is a party town, but we thought the skiing was great too! I mean, there’s no shortage of bars, nightlife and restaurants, and we enjoyed all of them, on the slopes and in town.

Skiing the Ischgl Alps

Skiing the slopes, riding the chair lifts so high it takes hours to get back to the bottom, was an awesome experience.

Spending the day skiing between countries is another of the cool things about Ischgl. The resort is shared by Austria and Switzerland. We didn’t do it everyday, but we did have lunch in Switzerland. We just skied there and back like it was no big deal.

Visiting ischgl

We flew to Munich and rented a car to drive to Ischgl, Austria. It’s about a 3 hour drive, through some lovely Bavarian villages and then into the mountains. Ischgl is serviced by buses also, and it is possible to go for the day if you don’t have lots of time.

It was hard to leave the Alps, but we had big plans for New Years in Munich.

Are you considering spending a week in the mountains? As you can tell, we loved the Austrian Alps. Take some inspiration from my photos from the Ischgl Alps.

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