Part II – The Pacific Coast
San Juan del Sur
San Juan del Sur (SJDS) sits in a protected bay on the Pacific Ocean 25 miles from the Costa Rican border. Looking down on this idyllic scene from a bluff at the south end of town is a 26 meter tall statue of Christ of Mercy (Cristo de la Misericordia).
The view overlooking San Juan del Sur from the Cristo de la Misericordia statue.
When we researched the trip there was a definite anti-San Juan del Sur element that complained that SJDS was overly touristy, expensive, and overrun with drunken backpackers.
The Cristo de la Misericordia statue at 26 meters is 4 meters shorter than the famous Christ statue in Rio de Jeneiro.
But we have learned that if you travel away from peak times then a lot of the complaints you read in reviews about destinations go away. And so arriving during the shoulder season in late November we found that the flood of drunken backpackers was more like a weak trickle and with off-season pricing and with the dollar so strong we definitely would not characterize SJDS as being expensive.
The walk up to the Christ statue is steep but only takes around 30 minutes – our friendly hotel owner gave us a lift up and we only had to walk down.
And we have found that in less developed countries that a little tourism infrastructure can be a good thing. Yes SJDS is no longer a quaint fishing village like it used to be but now there is a selection of restaurants, bars, hotels and excursions to choose from. And there are transportation options and banks and pharmacies and markets.
Vaya con Dios
We did find that we were a good deal older than the typical tourist and we didn’t participate in the weekly “Sunday Funday” pub crawl that SJDS has become famous for, but we enjoyed having all the dining and drinking options and even found a place to get our daily gelato fix.
The excursions that were offered by our hotel primarily involved going north or south to nearby beaches. It wasn’t turtle mating season or we would have gone to a nearby reserve in the evening where you can see the turtles come on shore and create a nest and lay their eggs.
Playa Hermosa where the 21st season of Survivor was filmed.
We did spend a half day at Playa Hermosa where the Survivor Reality TV show was filmed. There was an eco-lodge and a restaurant at the beach that allowed day visitors to use the facilities for a $3 fee. The beach stretched for miles and other than the lodge it was absolutely deserted. Playa Hermosa is one of many beaches that makes Nicaragua a favorite destination for surfers.
The Eco-Lodge at Playa Hermosa
San Juan del Sur was still recovering from Tropical Storm Nate that hit the area two months earlier and there were still a few boats stranded on the sand and a few of the beachfront decks of the restaurants and bars were under repair.
La Iglesia Catolica de San Juan Bautista.
The town park and the pretty little Iglesia Catolica de San Juan Bautista was all decorated for the Christmas season and was the center of a couple of local celebrations while we were there. In one case we walked out of our restaurant and were swept into a parade of people in a religious procession. We joined the march and ended up at the church and caught a fireworks display.
We quickly settled into an evening routine of walking the beach to one of the local bars and ordering happy hour drinks and appetizers and watching the local kids play soccer and splash around in the waves. And then the show would start – the Pelicans would start dive bombing for fish close to shore to the back drop of some stunning sunsets. Every night was different depending on the cloud cover of the evening but every one of the sunsets was spectacular.
The Sunsets of SJDS - click on image to enlarge
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Part of the evening show was the pelicans diving for fish.
A view from the south end of the bay looking back at the city.
Julia cozying up to the statue of Mark Twain who came through Nicaragua in 1866 as a shortcut from the east coast to California. On the left is a statue of Ruben Dario a poet and Nicaraguan national hero.
We had some memorable meals in San Juan del Sur far away from the beachfront establishments. Not a ton of ambiance – one of the restaurants featured wrestling on TV as the main entertainment – but the food was tasty, plentiful, and authentic. If you go to SJDS we recommend you give La Lancha and Asados Juanita a try – they are both located at the end of the market area away from the beach. We can also recommend the HC Liri hotel and Herman the gracious owner.
León
León sits about 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the shadow of multiple volcanoes. León is the 2nd largest city in Nicaragua and is proud of its history as a revolutionary stronghold. The city has some fine examples of colonial period churches including the Cathedral of León – the largest church in Central America.
For a small fee you can climb the narrow, winding stairs to the top of the cathedral. There you get a close up view of the many bells of the cathedral and some fine sculptures.
Then you are instructed to remove your shoes and informed of some other restrictions as to where you can and can’t walk and given 20 minutes to explore the roof of the massive cathedral.
The whitewashed roof of the cathedral was radiating the late morning sun and the reflecting brightness and clouds along with the heat made photos a challenge. I was sweating so profusely I couldn’t focus through my viewfinder.
From the top of the Cathedral of León you can see the ring of volcanoes that rise up in the distance, Iglesia El Calvario is in the foreground.
In addition to being bigger than Granada, León is louder, dirtier, and more gritty than its rival city. The city turned off the entire power grid from 1:00 am to 9:00 am one of the nights we were there – it was a little harder to sleep without AC.
One of the celebrations we witnessed was a folkloric dance called “La Gigantona”. The dance centers around a giant doll made out of a wood frame wearing a long colorful dress with lots of decorations that represents the typical tall, light-skinned, rich Spanish woman. Our hotel owner told us the Spanish woman doll pictured here is in the Guinness Book of Records as being the largest in the world.
León has fewer tourists, and many more students than Granada. León gives me the impression of being a working town, a family town. Loads of families were out promenading the square in celebration of the Purísimas (Immaculate Conception Celebrations) during our stay.
Murals on building walls depict León’s revolutionary past.
León is nicknamed the “City of Poets” and is the home of the aforementioned Ruben Diario, the poet and national hero who is buried under a statue of a lion (the lion is one of the symbols of the city) next to other Nicaraguan luminaries in the Cathedral de León.
The Lions of León - click on an image to enlarge
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Some popular options for a little Nicaraguan culture are tours to León Veijo – a World Heritage ruins site of the original city of León that was abandoned after an earthquake in 1610 – we didn’t make it to this site. We did visit the Centro de Arte Fundación Ortiz-Gurdián an art museum housed in 2 colonial-era houses and their courtyards. It had a nice setting for displaying the art – some of it in the open air of the courtyards – the collection mostly consisted of Latin American and European modern art, including a few Picasso’s.
The Iglesia La Recoleccion
Also worth a visit are some beautiful churches in addition to the main Cathedral.
The Iglesia El Calvario
And though a little more ambitious than my current conditioning allows you can climb up the nearby Cerro Negro volcano in the heat and put on some protective clothing and board down the volcanic dust.
Not a classic Chicken Bus but you get the idea.
We did take a Chicken Bus to the nearby beach of Las Penitas. A Chicken bus is typically an old U.S.A. school bus now used as an inexpensive, and sometimes very slow, mode of public transportation. No chickens on our bus but people jumped on and off anywhere they wanted along the route and low key food and drink vendors would jump on the bus and sell their goods and ride the bus a few stops and get off. It cost about $.50 cents to get to the beach.
The 15 mile drive to Las Penitas took about 45 minutes counting the time for passengers to come and fill the bus and for the bus to make all its stops and get to the beach at Las Penitas.
The beach at Las Penitas.
We spent a wonderful day at Las Penitas eating, drinking, playing in the surf and watching the surfers ride the waves. After a couple of walks on the beach I was thinking that if I had it over to do again we would stay at the coast and visit León as a couple of day trips.