San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur on the map of Nicaragua

San Juan del Sur is a town in the southwest of Nicaragua, in the district of Rivas. In total administrative area live 17,104 people, including 7,790 in the urban area and rural settlement area 9314 ( 2005). The city of Giessen has twinned with San Juan del Sur.

The quiet fishing village situated in a horseshoe- shaped bay and attracts local and foreign tourists, from the zweiteren especially surfers who travel from San Juan del Sur from a few miles north to Majagual to take advantage of the waves of the Pacific Ocean in the local bay. Many wealthier Nicaraguan families have their second homes here.

At the beach promenade are many restaurants that specialize in seafood. There is a small market hall and plenty of accommodation, buses to Rivas and El Ostional.

History

In 1523 came here the Spaniard Andrés Niño on the search for an access of Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean in the bay of San Juan del Sur on. Its harbor was in the middle of the 19th century during the gold rush in the United States an important meaning. Until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 traveled thousands of North Americans after California, which reached the Central American Isthmus by ferry and the ferry boarded in San Juan del Sur to San Francisco. Mark Twain also crossed in 1866 this place.

Twinning

• Giessen, Germany