The good life in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua...

My girlfriend and I came here from England well over a year ago now, and have moved into a great new home with a beautiful view looking straight over the Bay of San Juan del Sur. We're also pretty close to the newly built statue of Jesus up on the bluff in Pacific Marlin. I've heard it's 3 foot shorter than the one in Rio which is pretty special, it's going to be a huge land mark! (This is the view from our balcony...)

For all you guys thinking about moving out here or buying somewhere here, now is a great time. Prices have been reduced hugely in line with the rest of the world property markets, but as a result, we are getting a lot of people coming down looking for deal...and finding one! People who may have otherwise gone to Costa Rica or Hawaii are now looking at Nicaragua which is great!

Tourism took a hit at the start of the recession, but has really bounced back because of the low cost of holidays out here so town is bustling and I am almost too busy at the office! Don't worry, I'm still finding the time to do a lot out of work, and take advantage of the main reasons we first moved to Nicaragua!
The waves have been really good recently so we've been trying to make it out to the beaches for a surf as often as possible, even if it's for a short time at one of the close beaches to town, Playa Madera, Remanso or Yankee. Here's a pic of local legend Rex Calderon (Junior Central American champion) now that he's back from the Junior World Championships in Ecuador, flying across a wave.

With town being so busy, the social side of life here has been growing as well, with more and more people starting to fill the old and new bars & restaurants around town.
All this growth in Tourism out here and there is still so little information available to people looking to find out where to stay, or where to go and what to do, so my girlfriend has started to build a tourism directory website called SanJuanSurf.com which will give all this information to visitors and locals. It's designed to help the businesses here and also the tourists so a win win situation for everyone. We're hoping to get it launched in the next week, but it's been a huge project, just building the site, now we have to get all the businesses on board! Check out the really good photography on the site and we'll have a constantly updated gallery of the latest surf pics on there. Have a look and see as it develops and help support us try to help San Juan del Sur. Hopefully you can use it when you planning your next trip out here! I'm also going to put a few of my favorite properties and any hugely discounted places on there as well for you to have a look at.

I've also just finished filming for House Hunters Int. doing a special program on a couple looking to buy a property in Nicaragua which was great fun. Really hard work standing in front of the camera trying to think on your feet all the time about what your going to say next, but I think it went really well, and its going to be more really good publicity for Nicaragua. I wont tell you what house they went for, you're going to have to watch it yourself...i think it will be on HGTV in 3 months or so. My parents also just came over to visit all the way from England, so we had a great time playing tour guide and showing them round Nicaragua, We visited the historic colonial City of Granada, and did a quick day trip over the see the volcanoes of Isla Ometepe! The rest of the time they just relaxed in San Juan and enjoyed a nice beach holiday! They liked it so much that they've actually just put an offer on a place just down the road from our new house, which is exciting...I hope they get it! Sean and Charlie.

The Volcanos of Northern Nicaragua - Cerro Negro, the majestic San Cristobal and Coseguina

Hike the Volcanoes – Cerro Negro and the majestic San Cristobal and Coseguina all sit short day trips from the marina area. San Cristobal is Nicaragua’s largest volcano, located in the quaint town of El Viejo. Cerro Negro, often described as Nicaragua’s most unique volcano for its short, steep climb and lack of vegetation, offers outstanding 360-degree views from its 400 meter peak. Coseguina is the best ‘lush jungle’ hike of the three. It is also the easiest....just a 30 minute hike to the rim from where you can park.

These are pictures taken on our recent hike up and around the Coseguina volcano.











From the Marina office it is just over an hour drive on the newly paved road and then the dirt road (the newly paved road will get closer and and closer as they finish the highway to Potosi) Once we could no longer drive due to road conditions we got out and hike about a half an hour to the rim of the volcano under lush jungle canopy which kept it cool. The crater is quite a stunning sight with its green lagoon and steep lagoons all around. Looking back and then around you can see the Padre Ramos Estuary and nature reserve, Honduras, El Salvador and volcanoes in all three countries. From the rim we headed about an hour to the east and then north to the point where we could see the ‘finger’ pushing into Bahia Fonseca. Between 4 of us we went through 6 bottles of Gatorade and 6 liters of water and we wish we had more so bring plenty of water and food. Two of us road our bikes from the Marina to the volcano and one of us road part way back. We all surfed in the morning so, needless to say, we were all worn out and slept quite well that night!!!

Below are some pictures of some Century 21 clients at Cerro Negro. This volcano is famous for setting the world mountain biking speed record and for "volcano boarding"

Gaspar Guadamuz and his cousins won the local basketball championship

Gaspar Guadamuz and his cousins won the local basketball championship in for San Juan del Sur in December of 2008. The team of cousins played against the "Los Gringos Team", The championship series which was a best of 5 series was won in three straight games by Gaspar and his cousins. Gaspar commented on the championship finale, "What a game, we beat them and they are still hurt since then."

The new season begins at the end of March 2009, According to Gaspar, "we will get this new trophy also!!"



The photo below is the championship team (all cousins)

Photos from the San Juan Howler

Here are a few photos from the San Juan Howler. It looks like a pretty nice view from the course. You can click on the individual photos to enlarge them...

San Juan Howler Update

The Century 21 Gold Coast Realty team put on a strong performance in the this weekend's San Juan Howler. We just received the following update for Century 21 Gold Coast owner and broker Barry Oliver:

- Billy Molina took 1st Place in the Expert Division! Congratulation Billy!!!

- CriCri took 3rd Place in the Expert Division. This is amazing as he recently was hit by a bus and punctured his lung, bruised his heart and almost had his arm amputated. The doctors said he may not walk again. With the help of Century 21 he was able to be treated and fulling recovered and yesterday he took 3rd in the expert division!!!!

Barry Oliver won the Intermediate Division. Congratulations Barry!!!

For updated Nicaragua Mountain Biking News visit here: http://www.c21sanjuan.com/pages/mountain-bike-news.html

San Juan Howler - Nicaragua Mountain Bike Race

Below are a few pictures from the San Juan Howler that went on today. A number of riders from the Century 21 Gold Coast mountain bike team participated. I am still awaiting the results and will post those when I receive them.

Century 21 Sponsored "Hermanos Unidos" win Baseball Championship

The 2008-2009 Baseball season ended with the team of “Hermanos Unidos” from the community of Manzanillo, Chinandega representing Century 21 Gold Coast Realty, winning 4 of the 7 game series to win the championship.

The players, and the local baseball community are grateful to Century 21 Gold Coast Realty for supporting the team and the sport. Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!!!!!




Termino el Campeonato de baseball de la temporada 2008-2009 donde el Equipo de los “Hermanos Unidos” de la comunidad de Manzanillo patrocinada por Century 21 obtuvo el Campeonato Ganando 4 de 7 juegos, correspondiente a la Serie final.

Los jugadores de este TEAM, la Comunidad deportista del Baseball en esta zona agradecen a Century 21 por impulsar este deporte. Hip hip Urra, hip hip Urra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More from House Hunters International

Below are some comments and photos from Ross Talner



from the recent House Hunters International episode shot in Popoyo.

We spent 4 incredible days with the film crew on 2 separate trips to Nicaragua to film the show. One day was spent filming at each Rancho Santana (http://www.ranchosantana.com), Hacienda Iguana (http://www.haciendaiguana.com) and two days at Popoyo at the office (http://www.c21popoyo.com), El Toro (http://www.torosurfnicaragua.com) as well as one of the homes.









We ate huge shrimp (4 count, see pic) at a the Century 21 office in Popoyo cooked by Doña Delma who was the personal chef for Somoza for 11 years in the US. Diego, from El Toro and I got fun waves together at the beach break several times with no crowds and always offshore winds. We had cocktails at Rancho Santana right on the break next to their pool as we watched the beautiful sunset over the ocean. We had a great time showing the film crew around and the life we live in Popoyo. We ate, laughed a lot and did many retakes together.

The film crew finally went with Gaspar,



our star Nicaraguan agent to Granada (the oldest colonial city in the Americas) and spent a day relaxing after the shoot. We had a great time and I hope you enjoy the show.

House Hunters International Popoyo Episode Airing Sunday Jan 18th @ 9:30PM

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year from Century 21 Gold Coast Realty, Nicaragua!!!

We are kicking it off with the network premier of House Hunters International in Popoyo with our very own Ross Talner this Sunday night on HGTV!!! This episode is detailed in the blog immediately below this one.

Ross is the GM of the Popoyo office and will be showing homes to our friends Diego and Paloma. The show will air on Home & Garden TV (HGTV) and House Hunters International is one of their top rated shows!!!

It is airing Sunday Jan 18th @ 9:30PM EST/PST. However, make sure to
check your local listings to find the exact time the show (episode #804)
will air in your specific time zone.

**Please note that this day/time is subject to change and the best way to
avoid any confusion that may come from network changes is to check
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/program_guide often where you can search by episode
number.

Feel free to send this out to anyone that may be interested in watching.

We hope to see you in Nicaragua soon. We are keeping extremely busy as the we have found that the world economy is inversely related to Nicaragua RE. This is due to the reasonable prices and a down market means many people have cash that they want to invest in a reasonable place!!!

Be Well.

House Hunters International, Popoyo, Nicaragua

The house hunter crew was back in Nicaragua on August 25th, Gaspar our listing manager picked them up at the airport and drive them the Hilton Hotel. The next day in the morning the whole crew got ready to head down south to Popoyo.



We arrived safely in Rancho Santana were we spent the whole week. On the 27th Ross Talner,



our Popoyo office General Manager and main participant on the Show arrived for the interview, then we all headed out of Rancho Santana to a client’s business, a small hotel named Toro.



Diego and Paloma always smiley received us, perfect timing for their interview and to film the singing part of the show where they signed the contract to close the deal. On the 28th we left Rancho Santana and headed to the purchase house, everything went smoothly, no black out, everyone was on time, we shot the house with Diego and Paloma living in the house,



and then we shot Diego and Ross surfing at Guasacate beach.



Around 6 pm we all celebrated the wrap with a cold beer; the same night all the crew had a great dinner with lobster and Margaritas.



August 29th the river was high and we were a bit worried to get back on time for their flights. Everything went perfectly as we arrived on time to the airport. The last word from them was that they had an incredible experience in Nicaragua, especially in Popoyo. We also had an unforgettable experience and are looking forward to seeing the House Hunters crew again.

Saludos,