Eating and Drinking in San Juan del Sur

I am getting 3 square meals a day in my home stay, but sometimes a girl needs a change from Nica cuisine. There’s only so much rice and beans and chicken one can take, and I like that food! So I have been exploring the local restaurants and have some recommendations for eating and drinking in San Juan del Sur.

Fortunately, San Juan del Sur has tons of options for eating and drinking. For a small Nicaraguan beach town, SJDS holds a huge variety of bars, cafes and restaurants. Most cuisines are represented: Italian, vegetarian, sushi, Chinese, Indian etc.

Below are my favorite dining spots I have visited since coming to this Nicaraguan surfing town.

San Juan del Sur Cerveceria

Cerveceria eating and drinking in San Juan del Sur
SJDS Cerveceria
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Scuba Diving in San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur is a surf town, but being on the ocean, you can scuba dive here too. It is definitely not common: after a few days searching, I was able to find one dive operator in town. Scuba diving in San Juan del Sur is possible! I got two dives in with Dive Nicaragua this past weekend and even used the go-pro underwater for the first time. It worked!

The dives weren’t the greatest dives I’ve ever done. The water is quite cold – less than 20. This isn’t the Caribbean, that’s for sure! The visibility also wasn’t fantastic. It really varied around, depending on the amount of sun shining and the waves kept bringing in lots of sand. All in all, it was still worth it. The dive master was very nice and the other client, a youngster from Germany, was very friendly and interesting. The weather was great and the scenery was pretty good too. One of the good aspects of diving is you can do it as a solo traveler.

The dive sites were close to the beach I visited last week, Playa Hermosa. At the first site, we dove around a statue of the Virgin Mary which was recently submerged in the water and is beginning to attract plant life. On both dives, we saw schools of fish and lots of rays and starfish. My photos aren’t the best, but they are OK.

Hermosa scuba diving in San Juan del Sur
Dive boat view
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Things to Do in San Juan del Sur: Cristo de La Misercordia

There are a few things to do in San Juan del Sur besides visit the beach – although the beaches are lovely! After one week, I’ve visited places that are tops on tourist lists, and some that aren’t. One of the first sites I visited was the statue of Cristo de la Misercordia, who sits 134 meters up on a hill overlooking the Pacific ocean.

Estatue de Cristo de la Misercordia

A pretty easy walk up a mostly paved road, or you can drive most of the way if you choose, the view is worth the hike. You can walk right from the beach of Playa del Sur through a residential neighborhood to the top. The site of the Christ statue offers a 360 view of the main town beach and more. Admission cost is $2. There is even a little chapel in the bottom of the statue!

It was interesting checking out the spot. According to the display in the church, the statue is quite new and was only completed in 2009.  They did a good job because this is definitely a tourist attraction! Lots of tourists go, and apparently Jimmy Carter and his wife went a few years ago (there’s a photo of them in the chapel).

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Where I am Living in San Juan del Sur

I opted to stay with a family on this trip, for a few reasons: it’s cheap, authentic, and I get to practice my Spanish with the locals. That was a good choice because the town of San Juan del Sur is full of tourists and ex-pats so everyone speaks English here so it would be hard for me to practice otherwise. And the main point of my being here is to improve my Spanish!. It’s also worked out well because my home is seconds away from the school. Here’s more details about where I am living in San Juan del Sur.

The family

The family whose house I am living in is a large multi-generational and friendly bunch. There is a mother and father and they have grown children – I believe there are 3 living in the house: a son and his wife and their son, Alex, who is 8 (yes, he is the only one whose name I remember. He is very chatty and cute and likes baseball and soccer); and two daughters, one of whom does most of the cooking. One or both of them may also have husbands and children, because I have seen other grown men and I have also seen a teen girl. The father had a stroke recently so he doesn’t move around much. He spends a lot of his time on the front porch and is very nice. There is also an abuela, or grandmother, (actually, she’s Alex’s great-grandmother). I don’t know how old she is but she’s pretty spry and friendly too.

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Spanish Lessons in Nicaragua

My experience at the Spanish school, Spanish Ya, has been great so far.  The teachers are friendly and very capable, the space is really nice, and it is very well organized and run. Here I am taking Spanish lessons in Nicaragua.

Where is the School

As I mentioned, the school is very close to my home stay, just outside the busy tourist beach town of San Juan del Sur. The classes are held outside on a veranda in the shade of some trees across the street from a small river. The weather has been great for outdoor schooling: blue skies and cool breezes!

Spanish Ya school Spanish lessons in Nicaragua
Spanish school

spanish lessons in nicaragua

Classes are 1:1, so I sit at a table across from my teacher and we work. My teacher, Loammi, only knows a few words of English but she is very good at explaining Spanish. It’s probably for the best that she doesn’t speak English as this way I am forced to communicate in Spanish all the time in class.

Another great thing about the 1:1 is the class is tailored to my needs. I took a few tests at the beginning and Loammi was able to pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses. I am also able to ask questions about the things that trouble me with the language.

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