Booming with Beauty and Richness: Nicaragua
Beautiful wildlife, extraordinary adventure, outstanding beaches, wondrous wellness, colonial cities, and the utmost nightlife—come join Nicaragua in experiencing a growing number of travelers from around the world! Nicaragua offers an abundance of protected nature reserves, cloud forests and lush estuaries where bird, monkey and other exotic natural wildlife can be seen.
Looking for the perfect getaway? Nested on a private white sand beach along Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, almost hidden amongst the treetops, lives a resort like no other—The Aqua Wellness Resort– Just a short walk from a Gigante a local Nicaraguan surfing town!
Private, secluded villas, constructed of sustainable hardwoods and furnished by local artisans are your home while you enjoy Nicaragua at it’s purest. Laze your days away admiring Playa la Redonda, our private white sand beach or perhaps spoil yourself with professional spa and wellness offerings. For the active types regain your spirit with yoga in one of the most beautiful settings you can imagine or cast your line into some of the most productive fishing waters anywhere.
Sleep soundly and greet each new day with the natural sounds of the ocean waves and Pacific breezes. Dine on locally sourced seafood temptations and truly experience what life is supposed to be like. No, you’re not dreaming – a place like this does exist – Welcome to Aqua Wellness Resort.
Aqua Wellness Resort located in Rivas, Nicaragua. Stay amongst the monkeys in a tree top stay at Aqua! Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the treetops? If you think that’s monkey business, you are not entirely mistaken. Welcome to the luxurious tree top villas of Aqua. Elevated off the ground the villas were sited to minimize impact on the primary forest and maximize your views and experience of the rainforest. Wraparound railings make your experience of the outdoors safe, plunge pools allow you to lounge in comfort, and Serta Sleepers help your sleep be rejuvenating. Fall asleep to the meditative and tranquil waves of the ocean and wake up well rested and energized to the sounds of tropical nature. Perhaps a howler monkey will provide you with your wake-up call!
Enjoy listening to the howler monkeys while peacefully practicing yoga outside on the deck. You might find puppy love also with the house doga dog Candela! Aqua’s ocean view yoga deck is a perfect spot to practice, whether you are a beginner or advanced. We have on site yoga instruction with group classes included as part of your experience at Aqua Wellness Resort. We also offer individual training for guests and there is a year long calendar of retreats. Enjoy the pizza oven but don’t forget your bug spray– you are going to need it!
In the quiet and serene atmosphere, doing nothing can be unwinding. Meandering in the wild or reading a book may be how you want to experience treetop living. Your villa is connected to the beach and resort with lava stone pathways and wooden bridges that meander organically amongst ginger plants, banana groves, and hillside streams. Make your trip in November or December and observe turtle hatching on these beautiful white beaches!Sadly, Human actions have placed some of Nicaragua’s beautiful wildlife species under threat, one in specific: the beloved sea turtle. Only about one hatchling of every 1,000 turtle eggs actually reaches maturity. Still, these lucky few survive with degraded habitats and countless risks. Natural predators, fishing nets, and people seeking turtle meat and shells all contribute to endangering these beautiful, splendid sea creatures.
Dr. Cathi Campbell, Associate Conservation Scientist, exclaims “When we have our hands on these animals, we never know if we’ll see them again or learn anything else from them beyond what we get in the hour or so we spend measuring and tagging them. When something like this happens, we get really excited because we learn so much from it and are able to share a story that we hope inspires people to care about and conserve sea turtles.”
The Wildlife Conservation Society in Nicaragua is surveying the Pearl Cays sea turtle populations and promoting conservation education at both the local and national levels to inform Nicaraguans about sea turtle needs and the impacts human activities have on their populations. WCS programs in the Pearl Cays have effectively halted the poaching of hawksbill turtle eggs. WCS is also helping develop a management plan for the long-term conservation of sea turtles and the creation of alternative income sources for local turtle fishers.
WCS also partners with the indigenous associations and government agencies active in Bosawás to preserve its tropical forests and the wildlife that these forests house. “Our work in Bosawás continues that of the USAID-supported initiatives of The Nature Conservancy and the Saint Louis Zoo. We have taken inventories of birds, plants, reptiles, and amphibians, evaluated jaguar populations, monitored wintering migratory birds, and studied the impacts of subsistence hunting on wild game populations”, states WCS. Additionally, WCS is working to reduce jaguar attacks on livestock. To further protect the big cats, they have evaluated their populations in southern Nicaragua and provided logistical support to the Panthera Foundation in order to clarify jaguar priority areas along the Caribbean coastal plain. With ongoing projects in adjoining protected areas of Honduras, WCS is active in both side of the Honduras-Nicaragua Reserva Biosfera Tranfrontereza, the bi-national Biosphere Reserve known as the Heart of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Nicaragua’s list of “Must Sees” is endless! Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, an impressive building that survived the colossal 1972 earthquake, and is a sure site to see while in transit to Nicaragua. The Palacio Nacional de la Cultura is neighboring the Old Cathedral in Managua and houses the Museo Nacional. The museum features paintings, statues and an excellent display of ceramics.
Another must see in the Nicaraguan capital city, Managua, is the ancient Huellas de Acahualinca. Estimated to be between 6,000 and 7,000 years old, these human footprints were discovered in 1874 by workmen. Buried more than 12 feet deep under compacted volcanic material, the footprints- made by 10 men, women and children- all lead in one direction, toward the lake. Scientists think that the footprints may represent a migration rather than a routine fishing or hunting trip as there are no returning footprints. Of course, the people who made the tracks may have just found a way back that avoided the mud. Tracks of deer and mapache (a type of raccoon, are also present. There is a small but interesting museum on site.
For the wildlife lovers, the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve in the northern part of Nicaragua is a hilly tropical forest designated in 1997 as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The reserve makes up about 15% of the nation’s total land area making it the second largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere and is extremely rich in biodiversity.
The Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve, a nature reserve located between the departments of Masaya and Granada in Nicaragua, is definitely a MUST. Lake Apoyo was declared a nature reserve in 1991 and is managed by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, also known as MARENA, and comprises one of 78 protected areas of Nicaragua.
The reserve houses a tropical dry forest ecosystem, within the reserve the flora consists of over 500 species of plants and tropical dry trees as well as a large variety and amount of orchids. The fauna consists of mammals such as Variegated Squirrels, opossums, anteaters, pacas, jaguars, and White-faced Capuchin monkeys, as well as a variety of reptiles such as green iguanas and common boas. In addition, Lake Apoyo attracts tourists with various tourist attractions such as dark sand beaches for swimming, kayaking, hiking, diving, bird watching, paragliding, boating, and nature.
So, whether the amazing tranquility of the Aqua Wellness Resort beautiful wildlife, the “Must Sees”, or the extraordinary accommodations provoke your visit—Nicaragua has so much beauty, richness AND wellness to offer to all travelers!
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