Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Southwestern Nicaragua Highlights
Explore
Isla de Ometepe
(
Click here
) - climb a volcano, kayak the wetlands or swim in a la-
goon...or do all three
Welcome the thousands of nesting turtles that arrive at
Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor
(
Click here
) - a not-to-be-missed experience
Ride giants at the world-class surfing (and sunbaking) spots north and south of
San Juan del
Sur
(
Click here
)
Watch a sunset. There are few places better on earth to say goodbye to the day than one of San
Juan del Sur's
beachside bars
(
Click here
)
Get to know the real pace of village life with community-based tourism in tiny
El Ostional
(
Click here
)
Charge the waves and sip the surfer's never-ending summer at
Playa Gigante
(
Click here
)
History
Although first inhabited by the little-known Kiribisis peoples, it's the Chorotega who really
left their mark on this region, most famously with the stone monoliths that are today on dis-
play beside the church in Altagracia. The Chorotega were soon overrun by the Nicarao,
however, and it was Cacique Nicarao who met Spanish conquistador Gil González on the
shores of Lago de Nicaragua in 1523. The Cruz de España marks the spot where the chief
famously traded over 18,000 gold pesos for a few items of the Spaniard's clothing, a trade
which some say set the tone for Nica-Euro commerce for centuries to come.
With time, this narrow strip of earth became the only land crossing for the gold rushers
traveling from New York to California, and talk continues today of a 'dry canal' railroad
that would carry goods between the Pacific and Lago de Nicaragua to continue on by boat.
Rivas was the site of some stunning defeats for filibuster William Walker, whose later
plans to attack San Juan del Sur were thwarted by the British in 1858. Once the railway
connected the USA's East and West Coasts, gold prospectors gave up on this route and the
region slipped back into its former torpor. This was briefly disturbed in the 1979 revolu-
tion, as spirited resistance to Somoza troops turned the hills behind San Juan del Sur into
bloody battlegrounds. The Isla de Ometepe was spared from such scenes and the horrors of
the Contra War, possibly one reason that the island's nickname, 'the oasis of peace,' has
stuck.
