Sometimes things are just meant to be. In Spanish they say, que será, será or in English, what will be, will be. Our journey to Nicaragua was one of those "meant to be" visits and Casa Salud, our new part-time home in Nicaragua, was also meant to be. Here's the story...
We landed in Nicaragua planning to explore the country and discover whether any place had "the right feel" for a Plan B home. Several years ago when we first visited Oriental, North Carolina, we had an immediate sense of being in the right place and that led us to relocate there. Now Oriental is our permanent home. When we came to Nicaragua, we were looking for that same divine intuition. If it didn't happen, so be it. Or in Spanish, Si no pasó, no pasó. Que será, será. We love our home in the US.
So as I shared in my earlier post, we hired a local guide to help us explore the country. But the way we found our guide was providential. The first day we were in Nicaragua, we drove to Leon and stopped for lunch. We'd planned to spend a couple of days checking out Leon but we hadn't yet booked a hotel. The restaurant where we had lunch had a sister hotel so we asked about booking a room. As it turned out, they had nothing available so I asked the bartender if he could recommend another hotel.
He recommended the Hellenika Hotel which was only about three blocks away. We walked in and were greeted by the owner, Georgios Mitropulos. We immediately hit it off with Georgios and he gave us some valuable suggestions for exploring Leon. We spent the next two days checking out the city and also getting to know Georgios. Eventually we asked him if he would consider being a guide for us and he agreed. What a godsend!
Samara Baltodano, our Realtor and new friend.
Later, after we realized that San Juan Del Sur was the perfect town for us, it just so happened that Georgios knew a reputable Realtor there. Samara Baltodano (pictured above), turned out to be the perfect choice for us and our home search. Again, providential. We spent two days looking at a many properties in SJDS and then we found exactly what we were looking for. It was called Casa Salud, or in Spanish, the house of health!
Most of the residential properties in SJDS are nestled in the hills outside the village and away from the beach. We wanted to be down in the heart of the village yet not on the strip where it is a party every night. We wanted to be near the waterfront but we didn't want a condo or multi-family property. Casa Salud is a small single family home two and a half blocks from the beach and inside the village proper. Perfect.
Our new casita (that's Spanish for little house) has off-street parking, two bedrooms, and two baths (one indoor bathroom and one outdoors). It also offers ample outdoor living space – a rarity in the village of SJDS. Best of all it is located close to all the amenities so we will be able to walk or bicycle, eliminating the need to buy another car to use only when we are in Nicaragua.
Check out the photos and see what a cool part-time home it will be. Now to furnish it...