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.