The southernmost town of Nicaragua, some 20 km from the Costarican border, is called San Juan del Sur. It can basically be defined as touristic party town. Once the sun gets down, the streets and mainly the bars on the beach get filled with young tourists and the party goes on till the sun starts to appear again. If you are not into this, don´t spend much time in the town. One interesting fact worth mentioning though – there is a brewery. Yes, you can get a real TAP beer here. Probably the only place in the whole Nicaragua with tap beer, founded by some American guys who missed tap beer so much they decided to make it for themselves.
San Juan del Sur is surrounded by probably the best surfing beaches in the country. The choice is simple – you either go north or south and stop at whichever beach you like. Since we don´t do surfing, we preferred beaches hidden in bigger bays with smaller waves. Playa Coco is the one we liked best. It is just the very definition of paradise beach, with smooth white sand and warm ocean. The only restaurant here is awfully expensive, so bring your own food and drink.
Further south, almost on the borders with Costa Rica, is a small natural reservation called La Flor. Its purpose is to protect sea turtles. During winter month, they come here to lay their eggs. They just lay them and leave. The egg takes around 60 days to hatch, during which it is exposed to a lot of different dangers, especially by birds. That is why the rangers go out every night, find the eggs, take them out and put them in the sand at their station.
Once eggs hatch, they collect the little clumsy baby turtles and wait till dawn. The birds are waiting for the little baby turtles every day, but at dawn they fly away. That is when the rangers, or the visitors, if they want, take the baby turtles and let them out into the ocean. It is the first of many tests of their life. If they survive the first days, they can live up to 150 years. It is very emotional to see them struggle to the ocean with such an enthusiasm 🙂
