Blogs from San Carlos, Rio San Juan Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean

Cocibolca is the local name for Lake Nicaragua, a.k.a., Lago de Nicaragua, and means "sweet sea," nevermind that it's a lake. After 16 torrid days in Costa Rica I've toned down the pace quite a bit during my first couple of weeks in Nicaragua. Not difficult to do as the languid places I've been coupled with the ever increasing heat have made it impossible to move around at anything close to how quickly I blew through Costa Rica. Just spent a few days in Masaya and Granada, the former almost tourist free compared to the latter. Arrived in León today and the plan is to head north to Estelí, Somoto, and Ocotal (staging area for Nicaragua's highest peak) before crossing into Honduras. $US ≈ 26 Nicaraguan córdobas (C$) San Carlos Port of entry if crossing from ... read more

We left La Fortuna on the 6am bus to Ciudad Quesada (1.20h) for our connecting bus to the border town of Los Chiles (2.5h) where we brought our boat ticket and got our exit stamp for the border crossing. The boat journey down the Rio Frio was beautiful seeing many of the same animals that we had seen in Tortuguero along the way. The boat dropped us off at the immigration post in San Carlos Nicaragua, after which we were picked up for our boat transport to the Jungle Lodge La Esquina del Lago, named because it sits on the corner where the Rio Frio and Rio San Juan meet the lake. The lodge was built 10 years ago by a French fishing enthusiast and that is the primary reason for people to come and stay ... read more

As northern Nicaragua is dominated by the highlands so the south of the country centres around Lago de Nicaragua, the second largest body of fresh water in Latin America after Lake Titicaca. Separated by a narrow strip of land from the pacific and connected to the Caribbean by the mighty 199km Rio San Juan, historically the lake was of great strategic importance to the colonial powers; Nelson commented on his 1780 expedition that "once we took possession of , we would cut in two pieces the Spanish America". Before the Panama Canal, this waterway was the principal crossing point across the Americas, in fact it was the obvious location to build a larger crossing & the Nicaraguans may yet build a transithmian canal. Founded in 1524, Granada typifies the rich history of the region. Perched on ... read more