our story

Our names are Carmen and Jack Shields, and we are the owners of Hotel Tranquilo.

From Minnesota, we have five adult children, one daughter-in-law, two son-in-laws, and three beautiful grand daughters. We enjoy traveling internationally, experiencing different cultures, and making new friends. After entering into a new season of life as empty nesters–without parental care responsibilities–we started dreaming of retiring early and doing "something different".

That's when we found a quaint four-room hotel named El Cardhu Del Mar in Las Penitas, Nicaragua listed for sale online. We had never been to Nicaragua, but the pictures looked amazing and the price seemed reasonable, so we hopped on a flight to check it out. After just one week here in November of 2021, we fell in love with the area and the people of this country. By September of 2022, after several more visits to the area, we had sold our house and said goodbye to our previous careers in preparation for our move to Nicaragua. On January 17,  2023, we officially took ownership of the property and changed the name of the business to Hotel Tranquilo–which came from hearing the word "tranquilo" used often by the local people in this community. It fits perfectly with what we are looking for in this phase of life, and what we hope to share with our guests when they stay with us... an opportunity to slow down and relax.

Moving here and buying this hotel has been–and continues to be–a grand adventure and a dream come true. We are humbled by the kindness of the people of Nicaragua, loving meeting travelers from all over the world, and making new friends from the thriving Expat community here while learning more about the culture (please be patient with us as we continue to try to learn Spanish). We especially love the sunsets on the beach, and try not to miss them. It's a safe bet that you'll find us gazing across the Pacific ocean just outside our private beach gate around 6pm every night. We invite you to join us.

It is our hope that others will visit Las Peñitas and fall in love this place–with its old-world charm–like we did. We highly recommend spending more than just one or two nights in this part of the world. There is so much to see ... and so much relaxing to do! TRANQUILO.