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A love affair with Latin America
As winter approached in 2008, I was working from home and decided to change my base for somewhere warmer for a couple of months. Where else but South America, with its summer on November’s horizon? After all, I spoke Spanish, having learnt it at school and in Madrid. After Madrid, I had spent three thrilling months travelling in Argentina, Chile and Peru with a friend. I loved the warmth of the people I met, the staggering landscapes and the creativity I had seen there. Although I returned to London, I kept wondering about this extraordinary place and wanting to revisit.
Two months soon melted into two years. I lived in Argentina and Brazil, and visited Bolivia and later Colombia, exploring the region’s culture, art and communities, and meeting everyone from plastic surgeons to shamans, while working in film, art and music.
This was largely thanks to a friend of my parents, Dudu von Thielmann, a Buenos Aires-based publisher of Latin American art, culture and photography books. These, along with her art collection, showed me the mesh of cultures and the creativity of Latin America, which has fascinated me ever since.
In Brazil, for instance, on New Year’s Eve, thousands of people of all faiths wade out into the sea at midnight, dressed in white with lit candles and flowers to offer toYemanjá, the Yoruban goddess of the sea, introduced to the country by its African population. Since the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion sees her as the patron deity of fishermen, she is worshipped in tandem with the Catholic ‘Our Lady of Seafaring’. Everyone wins.
My first trip to Latin America, fresh out of school when I was 18, took in a hike to the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru and a ride over the Andes from Argentina into Chile. That crossing, from the beautiful lake district of Bariloche, took five days and nights on a sturdy pony, up and down a rocky path, with views out across the sierras. Our guide was a formidable gaucho called Manchaca, who would often gallop on ahead of us to slay something for supper that he would then grill near our tents. We would sit listening to his stories in the light of the last embers of the fire.
We took a boat through the Chilean islands right down to the national park Torres del Paine in the south. And crossing back over theAndes, we visited the dazzling Perito Moreno in southern Argentina – the largest ice field in the world. I will never forget sitting in a boat in the water of the lake surrounding one end of it, mesmerised by the glittering surface as the sun caressed the glacier wall and the ice sheet beyond it. I sat in that silence for some time, before listening to a very gradual cracking as a chunk as big as a crate broke off from the rest 50 metres away, revealing the raw ice beneath in its vivid bright blue before falling crashing into the water with an almighty roar.
I marvelled no less at the nature on a later visit. This took in the vast salt flats of Bolivia, dusty white and stretching out as far as the eye can see; the multicoloured rock formations of Argentina’s Jujuy, wreathed in Missoni-like stripes; and Brazil’s Amazon region, where I spent three weeks in Xingu Indigenous Park. This was created in the 1960s to relocate communities forced off their land during the rubber boom. While the people are now settled into villages, recently they have struggled with problems brought on by lifestyle changes, so doctors visit from outside. On one occasion, I was invited to attend a meeting to help some of the young men, at which village elders, a psychiatrist and a shaman all came together to consult.
I met spiteful llamas in the Andes, smiley sloths in the Colombian mangroves, vibrant birds and fish in the jungle, and a jaguar cub called Jackson, which had been found alone by villagers in Xingu. They let me hold him and I was surprised at how heavy he was for his size (about as big as a boxer dog), with a coarse coat of short fur, enormous paws and a purr like a scooter engine.
Last October, I travelled to Central America for the first time, to visit Nicaragua. Sandwiched between Honduras and Costa Rica,it is the safest country in the region, according to the World Economic Forum. It is also home to seven per cent of the world’s biodiversity, despite being so small: although the largest in Central America, it is no bigger than the UK. Its landscapes range from active volcanoes – with an even more resounding roar than that of Argentina’s ice fields – to stunning coastlines, jungles and forest, all with a vast array of wildlife, including rare birds, capuchin monkeys and giantiguanas.
The country has much to offer culturally, too. January sees the feast of St Sebastian celebrated in Diriamba, with major folkloric plays performed, and St Silvester, marked by a parade of hundreds of masked revellers dressed as animals in Catarina. In February, there’s an International Poetry Festival in Granada. And when I was in the capital, Managua, I explored Nicaragua Diseña, Central America’s leading design fair, held every October. This showcases products including jewellery, clothes and furniture, often using recycled materials, and most brands represented provided employment for communities in tough circumstances. Trapillos, for instance, through the creation of its brightly coloured crocheted jewellery, helps people struggling with addiction. Alongside this are swimsuits by Francesca Lacayo’s label Amaru – printed with art by some of the country’s top artists such as Ernesto Cuadra – and guitars handmade by the artisan Sergio Zepeda and painted by the musician Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy.
I now work with Branding Latin America – a London-based platform linking companies on that continent with the rest of the world. This is a declaration of interest – I realise I’m not impartial. For me, it is also a happy unification of my own two worlds. As arts director, I collaborate with some brilliant artists and entrepreneurs both at home and abroad, from the Royal Ballet’s Colombian soloist Fernando Montaño to Panamanian fashion designer Teresita Orillac. We also work with galleries, and art and design fairs such as Nicaragua Diseña.
There is still so much to discover in this part of the world and, in time, I hope to visit other regions.I always think of friends like Dudu who first inspired me in my travels and my work. For me, each new project is another piece of the puzzle that is Latin America.
This trip was supported by INTUR,the Nicaraguan Tourism Board. For more on holidays to Nicaragua see visitnicaragua.us and see our guide below.
Nicaragua in a nutshell
When to go
The best time to go is November to April, but as there are no extreme seasons, travel is good year-round.
The hotels and villas
El Convento is a beautiful former San Francisco convent (now also partly a museum) decorated in the colonial style in the old capital of Léon. From £105 per night.
In colourful Granada, the other former capital,there is the hip, boutique-style Tribal Hotel filled with quirky features like the wavy design in the swimming-pool tiles. From £100 per night.
Calle Consulado includes the stunningly stylish, fully staffed, luxury private villa La Casona in the heart of Granada, with a large swimming pool, vast bedrooms and guest suites. From £95 per night.
The resorts
Jicaro Island Ecolodge is a lovely wildlife destination on a tiny islet just 10 minutes from Granada. From £310 per night.
Morgan’s Rock is great for children, thanks to its bridges through the forest and horse riding on the beach.
The Emerald Coast hosts the exceptional 1,670-acre five-star luxury resort Mukul Beach, Golf & Spa in Guacalito de la Isla, with four miles of white sand coastline and an ultra-pampering spa. From £415 per night.
Its forest-set sister establishment, Nekupe Sporting Resort & Retreat, also five-star, which opened in 2016, has views over several of the country’s volcanoes, and bespoke daily activities from hiking to mountain-biking, clay-pigeon shooting and wildlife tours. Accommodation ranges from a villa to the whole 1,300-acre property. From £720 per night.
The Caribbean private island of Calala offers an ultra-luxury option: a no-fly zone, stunning scuba diving in its reefs, personal firework displays and treasure hunts for real gold.
The places to eat
Granada’s Expressionista Cafe (Calle Real Xalteva) serves exquisite, ambitious cuisine that draws on local ingedients.
In Managua, there is Cuban-run Don Candido, offering fantastically tender steaks.
The places to see
A visit to Nicaragua’s volcanoes is highly recommended. Masaya by night is superb; otherwise, see Mombacho and its nature reserve by day. Try ‘ash boarding’ – snow-boarding down the side of a volcano.
Visit the beautiful gallery in Granada, Casa Tres Mundos, and the Fundación Ortiz-Gurdián in Léon.
Don Valentin is an outstanding ceramics atelier and shop in San Juan de Oriente.
Getting there
At present, there are no direct flights to Nicaragua. However, you can fly there either via San José in Costa Rica on British Airways, from £862, or via Miami or Atlanta with British Airways or American Airlines.
Tour operators Casenove+Loyd and Plan South America offer excellent trips.