From Granada I made my way to the beach and surf town of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. The last beach and surf town I was at was El Tunco in El Salvador. It was OK but not my favorite place as it was grubby. I love beaches but it wasn’t my kind of place. So it was with some trepidation that I rode to San Juan del Sur.
HC Liri
Most of the hotels in San Juan del Sur were over my budget. I guess because it is a tourist area. The HC Liri hotel was still over my budget but within reason. It appeared that the main reason it was cheaper than other hotels in the town was that to get to the town you have to walk through a river!
Depending on the tide, the river depth would either be below my knees or to my crotch.
It really wasn’t a big deal though. The other option was to walk a long way around it to a bridge.
The hotel itself was nice and served a huge breakfast.
At the entrance of the hotel was a fridge with beer and other drinks. You just grab one and let the receptionist know. When you check out you pay for what you took.
The Beach
Of course the main attraction of San Juan del Sur is the beach.
Of course there was the Nicaraguan flare to the beach.
When I was there, no one was surfing. The waves were kind of small. Just past the waves were lots of boats moored.
The Town of San Juan del Sur
The town of San Juan del Sur itself was nothing special … at least to me. It mostly consisted of restaurants and hostels.
One of the best restaurants in town is Dan Pues.
The meals are relatively inexpensive and very good. It is small but a good place to meet people. A woman next to me asked if I was going on the bar crawl. What? She explained to me that everyone wearing wrist bands were walking from bar to bar that evening. Later that evening I saw throngs of young people walking from bar to bar. Not my scene.
One older guy came up to me on the street and said, “only young people and fat naked chicks here.” huuummm well … he wasn’t too far wrong. Only I would be a little more polite and say that the town was full of young people having fun. That’s ok. But I’m no longer young 🙁
I looked around town for the main plaza and church. These are usually the center of activity in Central American towns. Not here. I guess the beach supersedes it. Nothing to see here. Just a cute little church.
Sunset
Besides the beach, the other main attraction is the sunset. I found a nice patio to sit out on with a drink and watch the show with everyone else.
Wasn’t the greatest sunset, but still relaxing and beautiful.
San Juan del Sur is a beautiful beach town, but after 2 nights I was ready to move on and tackle the border into Costa Rica.
My Route to San Juan del Sur on August 6, 2017
My Location on August 7, 2017
