Last weekend I went to the Northern part of Nicaragua with my family and a couple of friends. Two days out where the only light is brought to you by solar cells on the roof, where water is scarce and where the loo is a brick construction with a hole in the ground and a door that cannot close. But at least you get rid of the bad odours pretty fast.
Tourism is only in its early childhood here. Comfort is not yet a big issue, the beds are hard, the shower non-existent, the menu card has yet to be invented. But who cares when human warmth is so dense that you can practically reach out and touch it? Doña Corina, our host, is a living example of what I am talking about. A loveable, kind person who gladly shares her humble home with a couple of expatriate families, thus making a living for herself and contributing to intercultural understanding. And she is not ashamed of the evident poverty. ‘This is my home; this is what I have to offer. Take it as it is or feel free to leave’, seems to be the general idea here at Posada la Soñada.
Obviously, few turn away from that kind of human honesty. We didn’t either.
Published by Christian Korsgaard
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This is our family blog, with impressions from and opinions on our experiences and life in Nicaragua.
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- Korsgaard Sedó
- A Danish-Costa Rican couple. Located in Managua, Nicaragua
Dear C. Korsgaard
ReplyDeleteI have also been to Miraflor and had quite another experience than you. I first visited the UCA office in Estelí where they found a family hostel for me to stay for 2 nights. It was in a village called El Cebollal, near to the hostel of Doña Corina. During my stay I was only attended on by to girls (10 and 14 years old), the mother who made the food did not show up, and the father was busy
taking care of their farm. The 2 girls did not like to talk with me in spite of my intentions to start a conversation (I am Spanish-teacher in Denmark). So I did not feel the dense human warmth you say is so widespread in Nicaragua.
Peter Sørensen, Denmark
Dear Peter
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I understand your frustration. Even taking into consideration that things work differently here in Nicaragua, children should obviously not be in charge of hostels. They should be in school. I think your comment contains an important message; the mere fact that you live in a beautiful place and want to make some money on tourism is not enough to make a hostel. It isn't all that easy to turn a farmers' family into good, serviceminded hosts, and simply putting up a sign and keeping small change under the bed doesn't do the show. Training, counselling and quality control are fundamental if 'new' tourism areas like Miraflor has to survive. Too many experiences like yours are bad or mortal for business.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in Nicaragua anyway, and that you might consider coming back!