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movement and fervent university city, it proudly displays its libertarian soul and the wounds of battles that have scarred its face forever.
Granada, the country ' s oldest city, is the most scenic and the best point to get close to Lake Nicaragua. Precisely because of its position, the Spanish made it an important commercial centre thanks to the Rio San Juan which allowed navigation from the lake to the Pacific.
We rode along the road that leads to the Masaya Volcano with the last light of the day; when darkness fell we found ourselves on the edge of the crater and the incredible that happens there. Just one hundred metres from us the lava boiled as we were bathed in its incandescent red. After the fire the water from the Apoyo lagoon refreshed and regenerated us. The volcanic lake over 200 metres deep is an integral nature reserve and it is fortunate because its beaches are free of structures and frequented by locals given that there are no organised tours to reach them but only scheduled buses. An enormous crater surrounded by intact forest and some of the purest water you can find; paradise can wait.
On Lake Nicaragua, a visit to the island of Ometepe was unmissable; the ferry journey alone was worth the trip with the view of the Fuego and Agua volcanoes towering in the distance.
It would be enough to say that life in Costa Rica has such high standards that they could be compared to Europe. It is one of the few places in the world where there is no army, it is never cold and it only rains a few months a year. It is impossible not to think that we had really found a place to move to. And the idea seemed not to be so original given that Marco was hosting us in the fantastic Bahia de Salinas, having emigrated from Veneto twenty years ago. Here he’ d founded a kite-surf school and a structure that he has expanded year after year; but we were out of season and had the peninsula ' s beaches all to ourselves.
We found the unmissable Parque Manuel Antonio where in just a three-hour walk we saw
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