Although I couldn’t get all the way down the Río San Juan, I wanted to go as far as possible. So from El Castillo I headed down to the Refugio Bartola (about 8 km further on) where there is a rustic hotel, plenty of hiking trails and the Río Bartola to explore. It is right on the boundary…
My original plan in coming to the Río San Juan was to travel the whole length of the river from San Carlos to San Juan del Norte (alternatively known as San Juan de Nicaragua or Greytown). What I didn’t count on was that after 3 years of drought, and at the end of summer, both…
Did you know that you can see the Southern Cross and Pointers from Nicaragua? I was really very, very surprised to discover this the other night! Very, very low on the horizon – but there they were, peeking out from between the tree branches at the Albergue Celentiname where we spent the night on…
Apart from kayaking around the Solentiname islands, the other thing I was keen to do was visit the artisans who are renowned for their balsa carvings and primitivist paintings. The main population of artisans is found on the largest island – Isla Marrancón – so we visited the first afternoon we spent in the Archipelago….
The Solentiname Archipelago (36 volcanic islands in the south-eastern part of Lake Nicaragua) is a little off the beaten track. As the Lonely Planet puts it – you need either time (there are only a couple of public boats/week) or money (private boats are expensive) to explore them. Instead, we arranged with Philippe…
Another of our adventures at La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge was to head up the Río Frio to the border with Costa Rica spotting birds and other animals. We left very early in the morning (Jackson was again our guide) with a beautiful mist over the river. The following are just a selection of the…
The Flor de Sacuanjoche (a frangipani) is the national flower of Nicaragua. The trees flower around May each year and I finally saw my first tree in full bloom on Isla San Fernando in the Solentiname Archipeligo. Love the smell!
One of the things Caite and I did at La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge was the Caiman (reptile similar to an alligator) night tour. We headed out in a boat with no running lights (nobody has running lights down here yet they all move around at night) with Jackson on the front with the…
First port of call on the Río San Juan was the La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge for a few days. It’s located in the Los Guatuzos Nature Reserve and although it is one of the key fishing lodges in the area, it also offers some other interesting options as well. The Lodge is just across the river…
Still got a few blog posts coming from my time at La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel 🙂 I mentioned previously that one of the wonderful things about the school is the sense of community it fosters amongst its students. For example, there were two families studying at the school over Easter, so the kids…