Cruising into the crisis
SUZY AND NEIL CARMODY SAIL SOUTH TO NICARAGUA – A COUNTRY RACKED BY PROTEST AND UNREST, YET ALSO WELCOMING AND FULL OF BEAUTIFUL SURPRISES
Nicaragua is a country racked by protest and unrest, yet is also welcoming and full of beautiful surprises
We were anchored in Bahia del Sol in El Salvador and planning our passage south. This was last April, and we wanted to reach Costa Rica before the start of the hurricane season in June. Our next port of call would
be Nicaragua.
We were monitoring the situation there closely. For the previous few weeks there had been anti-government protests and riots, and tension between the protestors and the armed forces was on the rise. But we were keen to visit. We knew that the unrest was limited to the northern cities of Leon and Managua and we felt that San Juan del Sur in the south of the country should be safe enough. Tourists were still visiting and cruise ships were still calling there. We felt confident.
The previous autumn we’d left our home port of
San Diego to spend six months cruising through
Mexico and Central America on Distant Drummer, our Liberty 458 cutter-rigged sloop. Nicaragua is not on many sailor’s cruising plans, but it has much to offer, and it was to prove a fascinating place to visit with warm, hospitable people and a wealth of history.
El Salvador to Nicaragua
But first we had to get out of El Salvador. The long sandspit that protects the lagoon at Bahia del Sol also creates a zone of dangerous shoals and breakers at the entrance, and it is strongly advised not to try and cross the bar without a local guide.
Bill Yeargan lives on the bay and helps to co-ordinate between cruisers and the local pilot and we’d arranged with him for assistance with our departure through the passage and out to sea. From the vantage point of their panga (a local fishing boat) Bill and the pilot were able to call the waves building on the sandbar.
Crossing the bar coming in had been a sleigh ride down the backs of the rollers but, on leaving, we were pushing in to the steep face of the waves. Bill’s voice on the radio said: “Slow down and hold your position.” We had to wait for a set to pass before we could move ahead.
Surf was crashing in front of us, we were surrounded by white froth and the boat was dipping like a rocking horse as rollers passed beneath us. The VHF crackled and Bill’s calmly confident voice said: “OK Neil, now gun it out of there.” Neil engaged full throttle and we were gaining speed, but it felt painstakingly slow. We counted the waves and were mighty glad when we made it through before the next set reached us.
It is 220 miles from Bahia del Sol to San Juan del Sur in southern Nicaragua but we broke the journey at Golfo de Fonseca, a huge inlet where a slither of Honduras is sandwiched between El Salvador and Nicaragua. We spent a few days sailing around the tranquil bay, dropping the hook in small coves at the foot of volcanic islands.
We were tempted to go ashore to explore the pretty village of Amapala, an old colonial port on the Honduran island of Isla Tigre, but we had not checked in to Honduras. It is possible to clear in at Ampala but it was the weekend and we decided not to hang around for the offices to reopen.
We were reluctant to sail during the night because of the longline fishing nets that are common along this coast. The 300-400m nets are buoyed with plastic bottles and each end is marked with a float spiked with a bamboo pole and a bin liner. They are difficult to spot during the day and impossible at night. We didn’t want to run into one so we elected to anchor each night at a roadstead location along the coast. The marina in Puesta del Sol and the commercial port of Corinto are both options to stop at in northern Nicaragua but they are close to Leon, where the unrest was focused, so we passed them by.
A leisurely four-day passage down the Nicaraguan coast was mostly on a starboard tack with light south-westerly winds and an annoying north-setting current. Each evening as the sun went down we closed the coast and looked for a sandy beach to anchor in 15-20m. On the third day the wind veered to the west and we hoisted the spinnaker and enjoyed a blissful run under blue skies. Later that day, we anchored off a small fishing village and settled in for the night.
Woken with a start
At 0400 we were awoken by shouts and a heavy thunk as a large panga bumped against our hull. Neil got up to find out what was going on. Their fishing net had drifted down
onto Distant Drummer and become tangled around our anchor chain. There was nothing we could do in the dark so we waited until first light to sort it out. After a lot of tugging and hauling, wild gesticulations and words we didn’t understand (expletives?), the net eventually came free. There were smiles all round.
San Juan del Sur (alias SJDS) is a crescent-shaped bay 15 miles from the Costa Rican border. Because it is open to the west it has little protection from the Pacific swell and can be rolly. We found a spot just outside of the mooring field that fills the southern half of the bay and dropped anchor. As we entered the bay we noted a cruise liner anchored outside the entrance that was busily ferrying passengers in to the town. This reassured us
‘SURF WAS CRASHING, THE BOAT WAS DIPPING LIKE A ROCKING HORSE’
that it was still ‘business as usual’ in San Juan del Sur.
Landing a dinghy on the beach here is hazardous due to the pounding surf from the swell coming into the bay. However, you can call ‘Taxi Che’ on VHF Ch16 for a water taxi that will ferry you ashore and back for US$5.
Customs and immigration were our first port of call and we were met by Ralph Hewitt, an old-time sailor and long-time resident of SJDS. He guided us through the formalities. Ralph and his wife, Renda, have an Erikson 38, Eagle Dancer, which is anchored in the bay. They use her for their Sea Scout Exploradora Marino program, through which they teach young people of the area to sail. San Juan del Sur has been their home for 15 years and they are always happy to welcome yachtsmen and show them around town.
Fishing and shipping used to support the economy of SJDS but over the last 20 years tourism has become the main source of income for the town. Happily, large-scale development has been kept at bay. The community still has a very laid back atmosphere. There are no big resorts or fast food chains; just small hostels and shops, and a few seafood restaurants on stilts on the beach.
A giant statue of Jesus has been constructed on the cliff at the northern end of the bay overlooking the town and the adjacent beaches. The ‘Christ of the Mercy’ is 24m high and one of the tallest statues of Christ in the world. It is made from steel covered with optic fibre and took two-and-a-half years to build before being unveiled in 2009. There is a short, steep walk up the hill to get there, but standing at his giant feet we enjoyed a beautiful view of the bay below.
San Juan del Sur has not always been so leisurely. Back in the 1840s it was an important port during the California gold rush. For most prospectors, a gruelling route through Panama, involving transportation across the isthmus by canoes and mule trains, was the alternative to a long and dangerous trek across the US. In 1849, Cornelius Vanderbilt established a faster and less arduous route through Nicaragua, by steamboat from the Caribbean up the San Juan River and across Lake Nicaragua to Rivas, then by stagecoach to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast.
‘LANDING A DINGHY ON THE BEACH CAN BE HAZARDOUS’
After a stint as the track of the Ferroviaria del Pacifico railway, the old carriage route is now known the Calle Chocolata and provides a back road from Rivas to San Juan del Sur. To learn and see more of the country and its history, we needed to go inland.
An important history
Travelling into the country was not easy. Demonstrations had begun in mid-april 2018 when President Ortega announced a plan to reform Nicaragua’s pension system. After nationwide protests the plan was abandoned but the demonstrations continued, demanding the removal of the president and his wife, the vice-president. Many roads were blocked, but it was hard to be sure which roads would be open or closed.
However, we hired a car with our friends Tara and Mike on the yacht Xenia and set off to see how far we could get. Ralph Hewitt recommended avoiding the main roads and taking the Calle Chocolata as far as Rivas, a small
town close to the western shore of Lake Nicaragua. The road is named for its surface consistency during the wet season when the mud turns to the consistency of melted chocolate.
The countryside in Nicaragua is classified as tropical savanna, with long grass, thorny acacia and small spindly trees. In May everything was dry and dusty brown, but we were assured that when the rains start in June the scrubland flourishes. But sparse undergrowth did have one advantage for us: it made spotting sloths much easier. We hired a local guide, Berman, for a hike through the bush and were lucky to see five, mostly hanging in the trees high above our heads – their soulful eyes and passivity made them seem vulnerable yet endearing.
Tourists come to Rivas to connect with the ferry to Isla Ometepe, a volcanic island in the middle of the lake. We drove down to the lake shore and admired the view of the double peaks of the two volcanoes that form the island, but we did not risk going there in case the unrest caused the ferry to stop running and leave us stranded. Instead we hit the Pan American Highway and headed north to the old colonial city of Granada.
Lying on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, Granada became a city of wealth and importance during the 17th Century as a result of its access to the Caribbean via the San Juan River. Unfortunately this was a two-way street and the riches of the city attracted Caribbean pirates. Granada has been sacked several times in its history but each time the city was rebuilt more beautifully than the last. The churches and other important buildings are impressive and photogenic, all painted in colours from orange to ochre.
The city is also home to some ancient statues carved by the tribes that once migrated through Central America around 10,000 years ago. The statues have been moved from their original site on Isla Zapatera in Lake Nicaragua in an attempt to arrest their deterioration from weathering, and are now housed in a museum in Granada. The figures are carved from basalt and have both human and animal forms, similar to the Moai statues on Easter Island.
Hope for the future
Unfortunately, since our visit the situation in Nicaragua has deteriorated; violent protests and deaths have been reported in some parts of the country. But San Juan del Sur seems to have avoided much of the trouble.
At the time of writing, Ralph Hewitt confirms that: “Everything is really calm there. There are no barricades. They’re still having some protests but they are all very peaceful.” He feels the political upheaval seems to be quietening and hopes that “for the sake of this beautiful country and the wonderful gentle people of Nicaragua, that peace will last”.
Nicaragua is an interesting cruising destination and, as it lies outside the hurricane belt, it provides a safe anchorage all year around.
We were charmed by the country and its warm-hearted people. Like Ralph, we hope that cruising yachts will soon feel safe to visit the country and help the local people prosper once again.
For cruising sailors thinking of including Nicaragua in their voyage plan, we’d suggest monitoring the situation in the specific destination for a few weeks close to your planned date of departure before making a final decision. Ralph invites cruisers interested in visiting San Juan del Sur to contact him at nicaralph@gmail.com