Santa María de Ostuma

Santa María de Ostuma was a Mountain Hotel built by Leo Salazar in 1936. It was located in the province of Matagalpa, Nicaragua and attended personally by its owners. The resort's fame spread, and many local and international tourists visited it for vacationing and ecotourism. It was confiscated by the Sandinista government and closed in 1983.

Leopoldo Salazar Amador acquired the Santa María de Ostuma property in the 1920s, growing coffee there even as Augusto César Sandino's guerrilla bands raided through the area. In 1933, the Potter family opened the Mountain Hotel of Aranjuez nearby. (It was converted into a sanitarium in 1950.) Leo Salazar built his own Mountain Hotel (Hotel de Montaña) in 1936. "Jolly, round-faced" Leo and his wife, Esmeralda "Meyaya" Argüello, personally attended to guests.

The "cloud-capped" resort was regarded as "one of the most picturesque areas of the country." Different attractions drew a diversity of guests. "This may be the only place on our continent where, in one day, you can shoot a wild boar, land a 20-pound lake trout, unearth a priceless pre-Christian ceramic and watch the brilliantly plumed quetzals mate," one observer wrote.

Some visitors were naturalists, interested in the flora and fauna of the region. Ornithologists came to study birds in the region's habitat, others came to observe rodents or catalog orchids.

Hunting and fishing was a draw for some guests. The resort also became known as a honeymoon destination for newlyweds.

Bianca Jagger would reminisce that vacations with her mother in the Santa María de Ostuma region were among her "happiest memories."

In 1975–76, the Selva Negra Mountain Resort opened a few miles away to the east, also servicing tourists attracted to the beauty of the nearby mountains.

In 1978, while the Sandinista rebellion waxed stronger, the Salazars' son Jorge Salazar Argüello moved back to Santa María de Ostuma and set about to revitalize the farm. An altercation with guerrillas camped on the property stoked Leo's fears that the rebels would take revenge for his National Guard service in the 1930s, and he went into exile in February 1979. However, Jorge and his family sympathized with the rebel cause, and fed the guerrillas.

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Wikipedia