Day #43…Saturday, March14, 2015
San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America with a
population of 6 million people. The
capital city is Managua and the primary language is Spanish. The national currency is the Cordoba Oro
(NIO) with an exchange of 26.8 = 1 USD.
The USD is widely accepted throughout the country.
Nicaragua enjoys two seasons of climate, dry and rainy. Temperatures range from 72° F
to over 100° F with May being the hottest month. Nicaragua is known as the land of lakes and
volcanoes.
San Juan Del Sur was founded in 1522. Spanish explorer Andres Niño
was searching for a sea link between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. It still serves as a gateway between the two
oceans and has a population of 18,000 people.
We got up early to meet fellow passengers who booked the
same Princess Cruise excursion. Warned
about the poor condition of vehicle transportation today, we just hoped that
our mode had air conditioning. Our destination
lecturer had warned us about the poor conditions of the taxis and buses in this
city, so we kept our fingers crossed.
This is a tender port so we will be board a tender boat to take us
ashore.
To our delight, our tour bus was new, air-conditioned and
held over 40 passengers. We boarded the
bus and headed through the city of San Juan Del Sur toward the
countryside. Our first encounter was
stopping for a photo opportunity with a group of holler monkeys. We were able to capture some good pictures as
they swung from limb to limb.
Our next destination was the Barrios Ranch. The Barrios family, in earlier years, was the
largest landowner in Nicaragua. The
wealthy family owned 160,000 acres of land and was very influential in
government affairs. Through much of the
corruption and civil uprisings that occurred in the country, the family was
advocates for the Nicaraguan people.
They were excellent employers of the Nicaraguan people and made monetary
contributions for the welfare of the population. In later years, they only kept 60 acres of
their estate and dedicated it to tourism.
Activities were scheduled for us at the ranch and we found
great delight in watching how the indigenous people made corn tortillas with
only corn and water. We were fed fresh
fruit and drinks from the ranch and watched artisans as they painted pottery
and made wood pieces from mahogany and teak.
Local children performed several folk dances for us and their clothing
was colorful and the music was lively.
Since the estate lies on Lake Nicaragua, we walked to the
coast of the lake and took some pictures of the black, volcanic sand. Dennis rested in a hammock, a common siesta
site for the Nicaraguan people.
Named “La Mar Dulce” by Spanish conquerors that thought it
was a sea, Lake Nicaragua is a massive freshwater lake. It features a lush volcanic chain, many
beautiful islets and home to thousands of species of exotic plants and
animals. The lake is the only home in
the world for the freshwater shark.
We then traveled about fifteen (15) miles to the city of
Rivas. The Spanish settled the town of
Rivas in 1522. This popular beach town
features beautiful colonial architecture, a museum of pre-Columbian art and a
stunning view of volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua.
We visited San Pedro Catholic Church and found a very
run-down structure that is in need of an overall renovation. Thankfully, the renovation has begun, but
will take a long time to complete. The
murals on the church ceiling were very unique and depicted a nautical scene of
many kinds of sinners circling a Spanish ship that sailed in smooth
waters. That ship represented the
Catholic religion surviving among all the evildoers.
A colorful central park area and peddling taxi bicycles
surrounded the area. We regretted that
we did not have longer to visit the city and boarded the bus for our trip back
to San Juan Del Sur.
Back in our port city, we finished our tour, exited the bus
and walked along the city’s coastline.
We stopped at a local café overlooking the water and had lunch. “Free Wi-Fi” was supposed to be available to
patrons there, but we had no luck getting connected. We then walked to another café and found free
Wi-Fi, enjoyed pina coladas and met Bill and Stella there. Street vendors constantly came to our table
to sell their wares. We bought a few
small souvenirs and rode a pedaled bicycle taxi back to the pier.
We ate dinner with our tablemates and then went to the
Princess Theater to be entertained by Steven Carte. His comedy was not to our taste. Frank and Judy invited us to join them to
watch two (2) live game shows in the Explorer’s Lounge and we ended our evening
spending social time with them.
We have three (3) sea days until we reach our last port of
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Since we have
made some souvenir purchases, we plan to begin packing our luggage to see if we
need to buy an extra suitcase for our newest wares. Hopefully, we will have enough room with what
we brought with us and the weight of the luggage is within the airline
limits. We shall see…
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