Sailing Adventure On Nicaragua’s Rio San Juan | Plan South America

Local Life On The Rio San Juan

The Rio San Juan flows 120 miles from Lake Nicaragua to the Caribbean Sea, passing by clusters of small fishing villages, trading ports and communities renowned for their artisanal skills such as carving, weaving or painting – usually of religious or nature images, painted brightly in true Nicaraguan style. You’ll stop for lunch at a soda for fresh lobster, watching local men fishing from rocking chairs on the verandas of their wooden stilt houses, or trading goods out of a colourful skiff.

Follow In Nelson’s Footsteps

Follow in the footprints of Horatio Nelson in the invasion of 1780, visiting the fortress and small museum of Castillo, only accessible by river. The history of this remote village is extraordinary and little known. Historically, the Spanish used the river to transport treasure down to the Caribbean, which lured in the English pirates. The Castillo fortress was built by the Spanish, high on a hill with a good vantage point overlooking the river. The posting was a near death warrant, with most soldiers succumbing to illness or pirate attacks. In the famous attack of 1780, an English naval captain and his team of sailors rowed in from the Caribbean, trekked through the jungle and successfully invaded Castillo from the land-side. Only 10 of the 200 sailors survived, among them their leader, Horatio Nelson, who famously informed the admiralty that, “I was the main cause of victory.”