Rio San Juan Video

The following video was provided showing some of the river navigation from the previous post. It is pretty fun to be able to enjoy the scenery. The overall navigation was 200 kilometers each way via boat from San Carlos to Greytown.

Surfing Contest for the local kid surfers around San Juan del Sur

Surf Comp! - Century 21 Manager Johnny Goldenberg and myself, with SanJuanSurf.com worked together with Baloy's Surf shop to put on a surf competition for the Under 14 yrs kids around Southern Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has a great up and coming late teenage surf generation which we have tried to help all along the way with boards and travel etc - some of the guys include Rex Calderon (Junior Central American Champion with Sponsors including Quiksilver and Monster), Pedro Flores, Larry Davila and a large handful of other guys.....But we have noticed as well as the "kids" as we call them (Although they're getting too old to be called kids now - 18yrs old!! - That there weren't enough of the younger teenagers coming throiugh and getting attention....

So they came to us and suggested putting on a contest for them - with the older kids as the judges! - We thought this was a great idea, and went straight to work, trying to get access to the untouched Playa Hermosa and Playa Tamarindo (Not the same ones as you might hve heard of in Costa Rica), just south of San Juan del Sur, and one of the many beaches which make you feel like you've walked straight onto the Jurassic Park Movie set!

We arranged the prizes for the winners from both SanJuanSurf.com and Baloys and set about getting transport to take 50 kids out to a secluded beach - not an easy task!

Myself and The Century 21 Manager down here, Johnny G, sat up half the night making cheese and ham sandwiches for all the kids and wrapping them in celephane - We were useless at the wrapping so it took way longer than it should have!

Anyways, the day was a success, and it suceeded in putting a few of the up and coming new groms into the limelight for a while! - You'll recognize them in the water if you ever come down to surf here, as the little kids who spend most of the time in the air above the lip on waves you wouldn't even be able to make!

Big Congratulations to Gerson Barboza (1st) Jose Jackson (2nd) and Felipe Avendano (3rd)

Hope you enjoy a few of the photos!

Sean Dennis and Johnny Goldenberg

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

San Juan Howler Report: Barry Oliver Wins Intermediate, Santos Correa Wins Elite

Barry Oliver (pictured below), broker/owner of Century 21 Gold Coast Realty, won the intermediate division at the 2nd Annual San Juan Howler, http://www.sanjuanhowler.com, for the 2nd straight year.



This was a very well organized mountain bike race put on by Larry Thraen and everyone had a great time. Barry took home the intermediate prize money and a free night at Villas de Palermo, www.villasdepalermo.com located in San Juan del Sur. Oliver commented after the 3 day race on Sunday, “It got really hot out there and on the second lap I started to cramp, but I hydrated well and was able to pull off the win again this year. Larry always puts together an incredible event. I look forward to keeping the title this year”.

The winner of the Elite Division was Santos Correa (Pictured Below) from Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.



He took home $500 and a free weekend at Pelican Eyes, www.piedrasyolas.com. A special thanks goes to Fred Goldfarb of El Encanto del Sur, http://elencantodelsur.com, and Juan Holmann of Lomas de Palermo, www.c21sanjuan.com/pages/developments.html, for letting us pass through their properties.

Everybody is now looking forward to the triathlon in San Juan del Sur in June.

The following are some additional videos from the Howler:

The Howler Nicaragua - Mountain Bike Race, 2010 from david kalani larkins on Vimeo.

The 2010 Howler Nicaragua - Some words from the riders. from david kalani larkins on Vimeo.