The other Costa Rica

Lower prices and amazing beaches have made Nicaragua’s southwest coast a sought-after destination

By Kevin Livingston

On almost any given evening around 5 p.m. expats, tourists and locals gather at the beach in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua to sip cold beer and rum and watch the sun set over the bay, a crescent-shaped body of water filled with fishing boats and the increasingly common cruise ship.

Kids play soccer on the beach while a yoga group 50-feet from shore practice their exercises on paddleboards, all under the staring gaze and pointed finger of a giant 24-meter-high Jesus statue named Christ the Mercy. Perched 134 meters on a hill above the harbor it is second in height only to Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer.

Like much of the southwest coast of Nicaragua, just 20 miles north of Costa Rica on the Pacific Ocean, it is a place that draws thousands from the colder northern regions of Canada and the United States and many from its pricier neighbor, Costa Rica.

Call it the Nicaraguan Riviera, the Canadian Costa Rica, the Emerald Coast or just a cheap and beautiful place, San Juan and the dozen or so beaches both north and south of the town provide picturesque landscapes, warm water, an average temperature of 78 degrees and a monthly cost of living of around $1,000 to $2,000 depending on your lifestyle.

“I lived in Costa Rica for eight years,” says a native New Yorker who now brokers real estate deals in Nicaragua “This is much better.”

Sixty-five years before the Panama Canal was finished more than 100,000 people seeking their fortune in the California gold rush took ferries down the Rio San Juan and caught their ships on the Pacific side that would take them to San Francisco. Mark Twain made that same trip and hundreds of years before that Christopher Columbus paid a visit.

Nicaragua was the first choice for a Central American canal before the United States opted to complete the Panama Canal that France had started and failed to finish.

Nicaragua tourism numbers continue to grow as the country relies on travelers for a large chunk of the country’s economy. In 2010 the country surpassed the 1 million tourists mark and in 2013 more than 1.2 million tourists arrived. While most are from Central America, roughly 300,000 are from North America and thousands more are from Europe.

In comparison, Costa Rica, consistently named “the happiest place on the planet”, brought in a record 2.66 million in 2015, a record that accounted for 12.5 percent of the economy.

Although a bit more new on the tourist radar Nicaragua is rapidly growing in popularity given its affordability, world-class beaches and the relative ease by which travelers can get there. Approximately 50,000 arrive by cruise ship and San Juan recently built a new cruise ship port

San Juan is cheap by North American standards. It is for that reason that perhaps nine out of 10 travelers are Canadian. Word of mouth, cold winters and a dwindling Canadian dollar has made Nicaragua a sought-after destination for Canadians.

And from San Juan it is also easy to get pretty much anywhere, including Granada, the original Spanish capital in Central America, Ometepe and the islands in Lake Managua, Leon, Managua, the Corn Islands and the 19 volcanoes that dot the country.

It is a photographer’s paradise.