NEWS

Greetings from San Juan del Sur! With the peak travel season approaching quickly, now is the time to book your trip to Nicaragua. We have added some new vacation rental options to our website, along with some great new property listings. We frequently receive questions about the weather here and what the best times are for a visit, so here is a brief overview…

Nicaragua has two distinct seasons known to us as the rainy season and the dry season. Locally, the wet season is considered winter and runs from May to December. The dry season is considered summer and runs from January to April.

The months of May and October are typically the wettest and have the highest probability of marine weather. The months of June through September are best for fishing and surfing, and the months of November through January are typically best for general tourism travel and land based activities.

With that said, we have officially entered the wet season with daily showers passing through. The entire landscape has turned green and is teeming with tropical birds and geckos. The fishing season has begun as well, with dorado, tuna, and sailfish swimming close to shore. And of course, surfing in Nicaragua will be at it’s best for the next six months as the numerous point breaks and beach breaks receive south swells.

Major publications continue to cover Nicaragua as a tourist destination, including recent write ups by The Chicago Tribune in the United States and The Telegraph in the United Kingdom. Over the past couple years, more airlines have begun to offer service to Nicaragua (see story below) and an abundance of rental car companies have opened in response to increasing demand.

So as you can see, now is the time to visit or re-visit Nicaragua, and as always, send us your questions about visiting, living in, or investing in this beautiful country.

Hasta Pronto!

H.Henkel Smith III
President
Water’s Edge International Realty

Spirit Airlines Announces Service to Managua

If you live in south Florida, getting to Nicaragua just got less expensive. Spirit Airlines has recently announced nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale to Managua. Service will be offered three times per week starting August 2, 2007 and will then increase to daily service starting November 15, 2007.

Flights will be operated with Spirit’s Airbus A319 aircraft which features deluxe leather seats, moveable headrests and large overhead bins. Spirit serves all routes with its fleet of Airbus aircraft, the youngest in the Americas.

Managua, Nicaragua will be Spirit’s fifth Latin American destination served. Earlier this year, Spirit started service to San Jose, Costa Rica and Guatemala City, Guatemala and recently announced new service to San Pedro Sula, Honduras and Lima, Peru.

Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines is the largest Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) serving the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States with 37 destinations. Airlines already offering service to Managua are American, Continental, Copa, Delta, and Taca.

For information on fares, schedules and reservations go to Spirit Air or call 1-800-772-7117 (en Español, 1-800-756-7117). For information on accommodations, visit our rentals page where we have recently added even more options for your vacation!

Nicaragua’s Riviera connects to the Information Superhighway

For years there has been talk of cell phone service coming to Nicaragua’s “Riviera”, the area home to Marina de Guacalito, Hacienda Iguana, Rancho Santana, and many other Pacific coast real estate developments. The day has finally arrived, and with it much more than simple telephony services. Palm, Inc recently announced the availability of the Palm Treo 680 smartphone in Nicaragua, bringing mobile email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more all the way to Nicaragua’s beaches! Enitel towers have been installed and brought online in Marina de Guacalito and Hacienda Iguana, and Rancho Santana has boosted its telephony services with a Movistar tower. Now you can enjoy your vacation while staying connected to family and the office

Bridging cultures through theater in San Juan del Sur

For 14 years Mudd Butt International, a part of the nonprofit Telluride Academy in Colorado, has been teaching diplomacy and building lasting friendships between U.S. teens and children across the globe. Each spring a group of participating teens and chaperones visit a new country to work alongside local children in creating a unique theater production and public performance. Previous visits have been to Slovakia, Costa Rica, Ireland, Brazil, Guatemala, the Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Turkey. This year, thanks to support from the Pelican Eyes Hotel and A. Jean Brugger foundation, San Juan del Sur had the pleasure of being added to the list of host communities.

The program immerses U.S. teens in an entirely different culture, and typically within an economically challenged school system and population. While being hosted by local families, participants spend two weeks with local children improvising a theater production, including singing, dance, and even prop-making. The end result is a bi-lingual theater production for the entire community to enjoy, and more importantly an extremely rich cultural experience for all involved. You can view photos from the production here.