Nicaragua

Rio San Juan

Few places are as isolated and evocative as the jungle settlements along the San Juan river, which flows from Lake Nicaragua into the Caribbean

Things might have been so different. The Spanish considered this a major trading route connecting Granada with the Caribbean and defended it with a castle (below which now lies the small town of El Castillo) and several forts. The English tussled them for it more than once; the young Horatio Nelson had a prominent role in taking the castle in 1780 as part of a short-lived British venture to capture all Spain's colonies in Central America. Very little has troubled the river and its villages since those distant times, and daily life potters along quietly and harmoniously. It's a great area to visit for a flavour of how river communities live, and to see three excellent wildlife reserves: the easily-accessed Bartola Reserve close to El Castillo, the large and remote Indio-Maíz reserve further down river, and
the excellent Los Guatuzos wetland reserve on the southern edge of Lake Nicaragua, accessed from San Carlos where the river leaves the lake.