Weather and Microclimates?

Submitted by kevins on 14 July, 2008 - 22:21.

Hi all,

My wife and I are planning our first Nica visit in September, and we're trying to figure out where to spend most of our time. I have read four books (including the awesome Living Like a Nica), so I have a pretty good sense of a lot of aspects of the different areas. What is missing is a concrete understanding of the weather.

None of the books really give specific average/max daytime high temps of the towns we are most interested in. And of course the humidity levels and breezes are important too. So I'm hoping I can list the towns we are most interested in, and you kind folks can share any insights you might have about them. Even comparisons from one of these towns to another will be very helpful.

To set the context, we have lived in Seattle, Boston, San Jose California, New Orleans, Tampa, and near Miami. We also spent a month on the coast of Ecuador, and I spent three weeks in Heredia CR and a week on the CR coast. She has lived in Greece and Hawaii. We're not afraid of some heat and humidity, but we do have our limits, especially with little if any A/C.

We are drawn toward large bodies of water, as you will see from the list. Here are the towns, roughly in our order of interest from highest to lowest (which obviously may change completely once we actually see them in person):

  1. Cardenas
  2. Rivas/San Jorge
  3. Nandaime
  4. Jinotepe/Diriamba/La Paz/etc.
  5. Catarina/Niquinohomo/Masatepe/etc.
  6. Poneloya/Las Penitas

    7. Thanks!

    Kevin

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have you considered

Submitted by will305 on 16 July, 2008 - 14:21.

El Cruzero/Las Nubes? My favorite place, no A/C required, ever (high elevation) and only 20 minutes to Managua with spectacular coastal/ocean views, with the ocean only 40 minutes away. Check it out, lots of great homes and nice properties, short ride to the Pueblos Blancos, etc...

Las Pueblas Blancas

Submitted by Amanda on 15 July, 2008 - 09:11.

ie: Caterina, ect...tend to have a nice, cooler climate, being somewhat higher up...also give you access rather quickly to major cities should you need it.

Las Pueblas Blancas

Submitted by Amanda on 15 July, 2008 - 09:10.

ie: Caterina, ect...tend to have a nice, cooler climate, being somewhat higher up...also give you access rather quickly to major cities should you need it.

places

Submitted by pcnren on 15 July, 2008 - 09:05.

Pretty much all of those areas are quite hot. Leon and Chinandega are the hottest in the country. With Managua being a close third.

You picked very interesting areas, well off the beaten track. So thats great. But it can be difficult to find places with air conditioning in some of these places. I know Las Penitas is quite touristy so you could probably find something with A/C. Jinotepe/Diriamba and especially La Paz are quite small. Catarina is really pretty with the mirador overlooking Laguna de Apoyo--you might catch a restaurant with A/C out there since its a bit touristy.

Jinotega and Matagalpa are especially nice for weather, although a bit far from water. If you can get on the island of Ometepe there are a lot of nicer hotels that offer A/C but its kind of an effort getting there. But very well worth it. Laguna de Apoyo is pretty nice and there are some really really nice places out there where you could stay. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't rent a house out there either. But its really pretty and this time of year eveything is starting to green up a bit so it would be really nice.

Anyway, what is it that you are looking at doing there? Just spend a few relaxing weeks in the hammock and on the beach?

Purpose of the trip

Submitted by kevins on 15 July, 2008 - 10:09.

Thanks for all the responses so far.

This trip will be a combination of relaxing vacation and researching to see if Nicaragua might be a place that we would want to move in the future.

For this trip, we'll probably stay in the larger towns (like Jinotepe), as well as a couple nights in Granada and Ometepe. But we'll be looking at real estate and long-term living options in the smaller towns.

When you say "quite hot" and "especially nice for weather", can you attach any numbers to those descriptions? For my family in Seattle, 80 is "quite hot", but for me I would say a humid 85 during the day might be quite hot (without AC), or a dry 90. Nighttime temps are a whole other question.

I suppose we'll just have to feel it for ourselves. I'm still curious how San Jorge or Cardenas (lake breeze/wind) compares to Poneloya (ocean breeze?) or to Catarina (slight elevation). How much difference is there between San Jorge and Rivas? How much difference between Nandaime and Catarina, or Catarina and Jinotepe?

san jorge / rivas

Submitted by beachin on 18 July, 2008 - 00:38.

san jorge has a good breeze coming off the lake and the closer you get to rivas the hotter it gets.

san jorge has lots of resturants up the beach the best one is the diamonte 1/4 mile up the beach turn right first driveway on the left. sole arena has a big saturday night now , just to 3 doors to the north of the ferry entrance

rivas has a market you can go buy cheeses ,fresh fruits fresh fish , meat. hardwear . there are building and supple stores all thru town. the big green rancho has sea food just on your way south of rivas about 1/2 mile from the stadium to san juan they have a great dorado al plancha dish.

before heading to san juan you should drive out to gigante in the tola zone have a meal get your feet wet go for a swim the waters nice . you can buy fresh seafood here.

next beach up playa amerrio

if you like to golf iguana counrty club and development is two beaches north

climate on the coast , the wind blows off shore look for a shade tree to keep the blazing sun off you.

www.nicalandsales.com

Temperature Numbers

Submitted by Alra on 15 July, 2008 - 20:30.

Temperature, for the Leon/Poneloya area, the temp. is about 90-92F. (Hot)

For the higher elevations, it may get as low as 68F.

Temperature decreases at a rate of aprox. 1 deg.C. for every 140 meters of elevation.

Source: Geografia Dinamica de Nicaragua (Text book)

Author: Jaime Incer

Al

Esteli plateaus

Submitted by Nicabuff on 15 July, 2008 - 17:53.

Here's weather information for Esteli (best weather station in Nicaragua IMO) thanks to FYL who lives there.

Current conditions: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=esteli

History: http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IESTELI...

That's weather for the town itself, which is considered a major center for Nicaragua. There are other towns and communities around Esteli like Santa Cruz (south of Est. pop 1,000) that have water, electricity and possibly internet at an elevation of 979 to 1000 meters (therefore cooler than Esteli itself). Communities at even higher elevation include Tisey and Miraflor with altitudes above 1200 meters. Esteli isn't too far from Lake Apanas and the road is to there is being paved via interesting places like San Rafael del Norte.

my microclimate

Submitted by Che Guevara on 15 July, 2008 - 04:45.

http://www.nicaliving.com/node/11986

when government grows, liberty yields, thomas jefferson

My microclimate

Submitted by BlackEagle on 15 July, 2008 - 06:02.

is *Hiccup* Franciscan red burgundy-what a great plonk!

are you

Submitted by Che Guevara on 15 July, 2008 - 08:35.

are you sure that's not a microwinery? bc you don't sound like a microdrinker! Prost!

when government grows, liberty yields, thomas jefferson

Traveling during the rainy season

Submitted by nicaus on 14 July, 2008 - 23:31.

Kevin,

I guess to start, you are going during the rainy season so be prepared for that. With your experience in CR, Hawaii and Florida you should do well anyplace other than the Leon/Chinandega area which is the hottest areas of Nicaragua.

Matagalpa – north will be the coolest, beach areas get a nice breeze at night but then again it is the rainy season.

Nicaus