The opening of Hotel La Perla has raised the bar again. A beautiful 16 room boutique hotel with exceptional finishing, it has spared no expense. It is across the street from a new French restaurant, making the tourist experience ever more pleasant in this colonial diamond in the rough. The distance from Hotel La Perla to Tamarindo Beach is 22 minutes.

Just one year ago, there was no real estate agency in Nicaragua's second largest city of Leon. Today, a third agency is opening its doors, Coldwell Bankers, to service the growing number of investors & tourists combing the area for real estate bargains and to be the first in this certain rising market.

The fishing at Los Suenos Beach is fantastic. The river and beach offer a wide variety of fish with an amazing quantity fostered by the mangroves lining the river.

A local sport fishing outfitter has done his research and is setting up sport fishing tours from the clubhouse at Los Suenos and his new lot purchase at an adjoining development on the island. 

See his early reports and pictures at  http://www.nicaprojects.com/content/blogcategory/72/258/

This new restaurant in Leon has certainly raised the dining experience to a new level in this colonial town.

Situated across the street from the newly renovated boutique Hotel La Perla, the Casa Golosa is run by a Parisian woman, whom is well versed in French cuisine. In a quaint renovated colonial home, diners sit around a small open air courtyard and dine on well prepared French prepared seafood from local waters.

The wine list is unexpectedly fine and the array of fine wall art is a most pleasant experience rivaling an excellent experience in America.

The Hotel La Perla across the street is a 16 room hotel that has been renovated for 9 months to raise it to its original splendor of earlier days.  

Together, these establishments are raising the standards for tourists in this 400 year old colonial city.

The Condo/Hotel was released today at the SE Florida Real Estate Expo tradeshow. 

This 16 unit hotel is certain to sell quickly with prices starting at $79,000. A pleasant modern design with full amenities such as large ocean front swimming pool, infinity pools in the 2 bedroom suites, restaurant, bar, lounge, fitness center, medical center, massage center, business center, tour office, convenience store and children's play area.  Images continue to come available and we will post them in our gallery.

This hotel is on the Los Suenos beach and provides a destination on the many miles of Leon area beach that does not exist today. There is no comparable accommodation for up to 90 miles along the coast.

At reasonable rental return figures, an owner will be able to use the unit for 2 months and still earn a 9% return. Act today to reserve your unit.

The Alcaldia (Mayors Office) of Leon State released to the national Nicaraguan news service an announcement that the crushed rock road to Salinas Grandes will be paved with interlocking paving bricks from the asphalt Managua/Leon highway to the Pacific coast town of Salinas Grandes by the end of 2008. This distance is 11 kilometers (6.6 miles) and the state portion will cost $460,000. The federal government will pay the remaining amount. This is the first public announcement of this highway project and is a large step forward in the economic transformation of the area around Isla Real Las Penas, home of Los Suenos, Tamarindo Beach and 4 other beach front developments.

This new paved road will cover 7 kilometers of the approximately 16 kilometers to the gate of Los Suenos. This work is scheduled to begin early 2008. Los Suenos will use this road as a secondary route. The primary access route is to be a ferry service from Puerto Sandino. This route is fully paved at this time and quicker by 20 minutes.

Bike racing has come to Nicaragua. Last week the streets of Leon were closed for an hour to accommodate the annual bike race. Hundreds of cyclist sped past the colonial buildings of Leon heading up to Chinandega.  Here we see them riding past the Hotel la Perla formerly the Hotel Colonial, which is the two storey building on the left side of the street with the red roof.  Casa Golosa french restaurant is across the street. It was wonderful to see the community behind this exciting event!

Last weekend, we had an excellent fish trip with Captain Joe and his crew. One of the best areas was four kilometers off shore directly in front of the beach at Los Suenos. We also went out 24 km's off shore looking for Sailfish and Dorado (mahi mahi). The weather was perfect as usual and the fish were biting. 

We experienced areas of "boiling" water around our boat and we filled the cooler. The catches of the day were Mackeral, Yellow Fin Tuna, and Snapper. We saw the sailfish but the big ones got away.  In all, the trip was fantastic and alot of fun.  Thanks again Captain Joe, we had a great time!   

Upon leaving Managua to Los Suenos, you travel on one of the best highways in Nicaragua for 55 minutes. This section of the Pan American highway is a two lane, smooth asphalt highway. The primary access route to Los Suenos is a small ferry across the 1/4 mile opening of the Tamarindo river. Los Suenos is on the other side.

The secondary route is by a high quality, compacted gravel road -- until now! The Leon Municipality is beginning the paving process on this road in 2007. The paving crew will apply the top after the rainy season in 2008. At completion, this will leave this road to Isla Real Las Penas in complete inter locking paver condition with the exception of the last 3 miles consisting of an excellent four season crushed rock road. At present we have the second paved road to a coastal resort area in the country. By mid 2008, we expect to be able to claim a second paved route and thus one of the best access routes to the Pacific beaches in Nicaragua.

In addition, the island development association will be working diligently on the remainder of the island road construction.

This is the view of the shrimp farms along the road to Los Suenos.  The shrimp are cultivated for consumption or make great bait for fishing in the estuary.

On one side of the road to Los Suenos is the large shrimp farming pools, while the other side supports sea salt harvesting.

As the dry season comes to a close, so too does the shrimp farming and salt harvesting seasons. During the months November to March, the shrimp and salt farming flats are drained and become an excellent place to view the flamingos, herons and other estuary birds. The shrimp also make excellent bait for the red snapper fishing in the estuary system.