San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

San Juan Del Sur was a half-day stop, and our only day in Nicaragua.  For those as geographically-challenged as I am about this part of the world, Nicaragua is in Central America (you probably knew that), on the isthmus separating the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It's "on top" of Costa Rica (yesterday's excellente visit), and south of  El Salvador and Honduras. It is not very well developed as far as tourism goes; this is fine by us.

We weren't expecting much — maybe a repeat of San Blas (like San Blas, this port was accessible only by tender), where scads of "natives" would line up to sell us their wares, pictures of themselves... "ATFAB" (Anything For A Buck). There was a bit of that, but really it was a much more typical developing country environment, where people were out selling their crafts — leather, some decent woodcarvings, some fairly elegant tapestries... and the usual tourist stuff (t-shirts, polished shells). We bought nothing and enjoyed not having to carry it home. The vendors were restricted to a median along "First" street (that was about the only place they could fit, anyway) and only extended along that main drag. Like in St Thomas, the whole scene changed in just one block.

What was nice about the port was that today was a Sunday, after church-time in a very Catholic country, and... we're at a beach. So all the local folks are out with their barbeques, basically having a good time on their day off, largely ignorant of the influx of cruise ship passengers.

Scott says "¡Hola!, Buenos Dias!" to most everyone we encounter. Almost all return the greeting, and their expressions spontaneously change from "Geez, would you just leave us alone" to more like "Welcome stranger, you're kind of interesting but we thought you were all mute because you never speak to us on the street". Kathy and I have talked about my doing a "How to say hello, around the world" short course; Spanish language would be a great place to start as it is so ubiquitous. Ten words goes a long way: "Please, thank you, good morning, Excuse me; I'm sorry".

Anyway, we liked the town. This was not a "resort town" to be sure, but it wasn't squalid either. It was the kind of place we could hang out in for a while. Photos below.

 

Selected photos (click on any image for full-sized version)

Clean streets, bright colors. Good sign. "Prohibited: weapons and minors under 18".
I'll drink to that. One horse town? This street is one block off "Main" An example of 3rd world ingenuity - BBQ in a tire rim! Recycled school buses. Bottom right: "Only a crazy foreigner would photograph a bus" Haves and Have-nots: "Tall white mansions and little shacks". Our ship lurks. Beach "scene"