Yesterday we moved from Ometepe Island to Laguna Apoyo on the mainland, and we are very happy with the change. Just the natural beauty of Laguna Apoyo makes you feel peaceful and relaxed, plus we are staying at a yoga resort which is lovely.
Leaving Ometepe
We left Ometepe yesterday via taxi, lancha and another taxi, and 3-4 hours later we were at Laguna Apoyo. It may only be the resort we selected, but what a difference those few hours made.
bad hotel in ometepe
Let me tell you why we were so happy to leave Ometepe – the only reason was our hotel. I struggled trying to get us a room on the Island to begin with – we did have a few parameters, but it shouldn’t have been that difficult. Wanting 2 separate beds in a room in Nicaragua seems to be a challenge for the hotels here. Be forewarned. Anyway, I found this place on booking.com and it was a great location and had decent reviews and was cheap.
When we arrived, they tried to hold our air conditioner hostage. Seriously. They took the air conditioner remote with them and left us in this windowless basement room and walked away. I followed. Good thing I took Spanish lessons because now I knew how to call them liars. I still don’t know Spanish for scumbag. Need to ask around. I showed them our booking. Apparently, they tried to claim that it was $20 more to get air conditioning and that I hadn’t booked it with air conditioning. They had clearly not given an option on the online listing, and the listing said it included air conditioning. I showed them.
Lyna and I sat down to lunch and debated leaving right then, but before we could decide, the receptionist seemed to realize her mistake, apologized to me and gave us the cherished air conditioning remote. It was unbelievable. First time I’ve had a hotel ransom the air conditioner remote. How about you? So that left a terrible taste in our mouths about that hotel and we were happy to leave.
Nothing bad to say about Ometepe just go ANYWHERE but Hotel Finca Santo Domingo. By the way, I took a video of that expensive air conditioner. It was halfway broken and made a lot of noise anyway. Listen for yourself.
Stowaways from ometepe
Before we left, while Lyna was packing, she found a toad hidden in her backpack. He wanted to escape that hotel too. Then, last night we found something else had escaped in her backpack! She thinks it was a beetle but it was huge!
Arriving Laguna de Apoyo
Anyway, we are now in a much more beautiful zen space at Apoyo Lodge on Laguna de Apoyo. We’ve been here about 24 hours, have hiked, gone swimming and done yoga already, and really enjoyed their delicious vegan healthy cooking. This really couldn’t be a better antidote to the last place! As Costanza says, “Serenity Now!”
about laguna de apoyo, Nicaragua
Laguna de Apoyo is just west of Granada, and it is a volcanic lake. It is close enough to the city of Granada that a lot of tourists come for just the day. There are even some laguna resorts with shuttle services back and forth, as long as you spend money at their bar/restaurant. Those are definitely party places, which isn’t what we were looking for now.
The beach near our hotel has black sand (probably volcanic ash), and the water is a perfect temperature and gets quite deep quite close to shore. Plus, the water is fresh and clear and beautiful.It’s a stunning place, and our resort is so relaxing and calm. Serenity now, indeed.
Last night we saw tons of stars in the sky, we were able to because we are far enough away from the city lights. This morning we hiked up the hill to the viewpoint for the entire laguna and saw some more beautiful scenery. Happy to be here!
If you go to Nicaragua and like the outdoors, I highly recommend a visit to the natural beauty of Laguna Apoyo.
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Looks amazing (the second place…). What exciting adventures you are having. Thanks for sharing. Mentiroso/a – I assume you used that word for “liar”. A suggestion for scumbag would be “sinverguenza” – close translation is “person without honor”. But, they REALLY don’t like that!
Haha yes I said mentira and mentirosa a lot! I had just re-learned it in Spanish school so it was good timing! Thanks for the tip on sinverguenza. Here’s hoping I do not need to use that anytime soon.