Navigating the Rio San Juan

Sometimes it is hard to break away from the coast and take that long road, well in this case a road/river trip. Myself and five other fathers from my daughter’s school arrived in Los Chiles, Costa Rica where we ‘crossed’ the border. We stamped our passports in Los Chiles to exit Costa Rica and then the six of us hopped on the sixty seat charter boat and went a half hour to San Carlos, Nicaragua where we stamped our passports again to enter Nicaragua.



From there we went about two hours down to El Castillo which has a large castle and a very tranquil town that we all enjoyed.



We spent the night there and then headed to Greytown the next morning. That was about a five hour trip that involved some boat pushing as the river was quite low...thankfully April has the least rain and that means less mosquitoes! We saw all kinds of exotic birds, crocodiles, monkeys, etc...



After El Castillo we saw no other tourists. Near Greytown (place with the most rain in this hemisphere!!!) we stayed at the Rio Indio Lodge, http://www.therioindiolodge.com,



which was extraordinary and we were treated like Kings.

Mike was out host and the chef and the rest of the staff were outstanding. Many of the staff are Rama Indians that speak 3 languages (English, Spanish and Rama) or more and were excellent hosts.



Some of the best fishing in the world is around the lodge and that is how it was discovered that I was the worst fisherman on the face of the planet. While others were pulling in four Guapote (Bass) after another, jacks, etc....I was left with nothing!!!!!



We fished in a river where Manatee swim!!! It was so lush I can only describe it as being in Avatar. It was an excellent trip that I would do again. Great for families as well.



Overall, the trip was about 200 kilometers each way on the boat from San Carlos to Greytown.

Posted on behalf of Barry Oliver