Sunsets in San Juan del Sur

After a great few days on Ometepe, we moved on to our final destination in Nicaragua, the beach town of San Juan Del Sur. Admittedly, neither of us really wanted to come here(!) we wanted to visit the amazing beaches of Nicaragua’s Pacific coast line, but we’d heard San Juan town was not the nicest, a little over touristy and a mega party town. But we couldn’t find anywhere on the other beaches in our budget, and to add to it the additional bus cost and time too. We knew there was a direct bus from Rivas to San Juan, so reluctantly we booked our accommodation here…

We also managed to catch the bus to Moyogalpa this time, saving A LOT of money on taxis, the bus was about £1 in total, just requiring one change in El Quino. After the boat ride, which was way less busy this time (on board El Che Guevara boat) we got a taxi with 2 other British girls to the bus station, then hopped on the San Juan bus.

Annoyingly we got overcharged for this bus, locals told us it should be c$40 each, but the conductor charged us c$100 and argued with us over it. They said because of our bags, but none of the locals around us thought we should pay more than 40. We vowed to make sure we didn’t pay more next time, and to always confirm prices with locals!

We arrived in San Juan and checked into our guesthouse which was really nice with super friendly staff, then walked down to the beach through the town.

It was a much busier touristy town, but after a few nights in less touristy places, it was nice to have some interesting shops (there were LOADS of unique independent clothes stores, mostly surf related selling cool t-shirts and caps and surfer stuff). Dave managed to get a pair of reef sandals for £20 (super cheap) and we got some more sunbum suncream (our fave one!). It was nice to just browse the shops.

The beach was nicer than expected too, not one bit of rubbish in site, and a beautiful sunset at the end of the day too.

The next day I was a bit ill, so we basically did nothing but just chill and rest, we had a lazy day mooching about the town, browsing the shops, visiting the beach and eating burgers next door (the vegan falafel burger here was delicious!). Then we headed back to the beach to watch sunset, but rather than head to a bar this time, we got ice creams from the local shop and sat on the steps to the beach watching people play beach volleyball.

On the second day I was back to normal so we arranged a taxi to take us to Playa Hermosa and back, one of the nicest beaches in the region. We went there pretty early (since San Juan is a party town, things seem to start later here) and it was so peaceful and quiet in the morning. We took it in turns to go and play in the waves and were both the only ones in the water!!

But as the day moved on, it got busier and busier with people, when we left at 4pm it was packed with surfers and people there for the sunset. We were glad we got to enjoy it earlier on at it’s best!

We headed back at 4pm and got some much needed food from the burger place next door again, before strolling around the town one last time.

We enjoyed San Juan, and actually appreciated the tourist shops for once! Especially because they were mostly independent outlets etc, it was pretty cool, but the restaurants and food was so pricey here, and it was definitely the most touristy place we visited in Nicaragua. If we came back, we would stay on one of the more secluded and private beaches instead, and probably look to come in turtle nesting or hatching season, as we heard these beaches here on the Pacific coast are incredible and FULL of turtles during those times, but it was out of season for that at the moment.

And that brings us to the end of our time in Nicaragua!! We had some wonderful experiences here and enjoyed our time a lot, but the last few days felt like my head was already in Costa Rica… Still I’m glad we got to experience another new country. The people here are definitely hardened compared to other countries of central America, not that they were mean or anything, but apart from the odd few people (usually in our accommodations, or at bus stops), a smile and hello was harder to come by, and we got asked for money a hell of a lot more here. Frowns adorned most faces, and we got called a “Puta” a few times when we didn’t buy stuff or give money… It’s definitely more rough around the edges and tougher to live here. But despite all that, as I said, we still met some wonderful people and had some nice interactions, saw TONNES of Motmots and saw some beautiful volcanoes and landscapes.

Thanks for having us Nicaragua!