Winter Daydreaming - Need a Beach Fix?

Wow! What a difference a month can make! Ouray County is coated - no, covered up in snow. Long-timers say they haven't seen this much snow since the early 80s. A drive through Ouray tells the story: Snow is piled up 10-12 feet in places, and the normally wide sidestreets are one-lane wide. Parking spaces at the Courthouse are scarce, and look like they were tunneled-out of huge piles of the white stuff. And it continues. Snowpack levels on Red Mountain are said to be 190% of normal, and the pass that never closes has already seen a couple of two and three day stretches where traffic had to divert around to Lizard Head due to avalanche control.

As I stare out my window here west of Colona, my thoughs turn to beach fixes. I notice that my sun-sand-surf loving wife is getting a little edgy. Might be time to plan another trip south.

We've done the Mexico thing, and even gave Panama a whirl a couple of years ago. But our hearts and minds have fallen in love with Nicaragua, where we spent the best 9 days with kids last year.

For those of you who might raise their eyebrows and perceive this as a dangerous third world nation, let me assure you otherwise. The only thing "third" about it is the prices - about one-third of any other sunspot we've tried. Lobster dinners $9. Beer $0.65 each. and the Flor de Cana rum (to die for) is a whopping $4 a litre. We rented a villa at the swanky Piedras y Olas (Pelican Eyes) resort that slept six comfortably, had a full kitchen with all the amenities, a fabulous restaurant and two pools over looking the picturesque bay at San Juan del Sur for a price of $108 per night. And THAT was the most expensive place in town! We chartered a fully crewed sailboat all day for a cruise down the coast toward Costa Rica, that included drinks, snacks and an awesome lunch on a remote beachhead - total bill? $400 for our whole group.

We spent two nights in the beautiful and ancient city of Granada, on the shores of Nicaragua's largest lake. Founded in the 1500s by the Spanish Conquistadors, it is like a trip to old Spain. And the zip-line tour we took down the side of a volcano through the rain forest canopy was memorable, even for my 10 yr old.

Anyone who wants to learn more can simply dial-up http://www.toursnicaragua.com/ and contact my good friend Mike Newton (formerly of New Orleans) or Richard (an ex-Boulderite) to plan a very cost-effective trip to Nicaragua. Even the airfares (under $600 ex Montrose) are reasonable.