Exploding fireworks. Tolling bells. High volume music. Tooting car horns. Sound is omnipresent in Latin America; the vibrant soundtrack of every day life. But from the cozy sling of a hammock on the veranda of a private casita at Hacienda Puerta del Cielo Ecolodge & Spa, it felt as if Nicaragua had gone silent.
It was early December, mid-way through a three-month stay in the nearby Colonial city of Granada where the town had been rocking for days in boisterous preparation of the upcoming Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebration. At the Hacienda, however, perched atop a remote hillside with unimpeded views of tangled jungle, smoldering volcano and glistening lake, there wasn’t even a whiff of noise on the balmy breeze. As if to make the point, soundless butterflies the size of dessert plates fluttered about the resort gardens.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
