BootsnAll Travel Community

My husband and I are travelling to Nicaragua next spring and we are interested in doing some birding. We are also interested in visiting the India Maiz Biological Reserve. We would appreciate any suggestions for good birding locations, guides or environmentally friendly tours. Also, what is the best way to get to San Juan del Norte to travel into the Reserve on the Indio River? Thanks.

We didn't make it there butdid investigat- The easiest seems to be to fly from Managua to San Carlos and take a boat from there to El Castillo andinto the Reserve. You do have to have a guide-chck the Moon book or LP.

There is a more scenic route you can take if you have the time. I took a boat (1hr) from San Jorge to Ometepe (which is a must see I think) than took a 10hr overnight ferry to San Carlos. From there you take another 3hr boat to El Castillo which is a great little town and then from there it is a leisurly 7-9 hour ride down the Rio San Juan. I broke the journey up by spending a few days on Ometepe, 1 night in San Carlos, 2 nights in El Castillo, and 3 nights at a river lodge called Monte Christo. You can shorten it if you like but thus far that has been the highlight of my trip and I only have a week left to go!
From San Juan Del Norte it is possible to take a boat to Bluefields if you are lucky/crazy enough. We did it and it was absolutely the most frightening thing I have ever done. I quickly learned why more people choose to travel back down the river. But if you are looking for an adventure that´s the one.

Alana,
Can you share more of the details of your trip from San Juan del Norte to Bluefields- we have considered this but have been hesitant.

Don't mind at all. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond.
The guide books say that those who succeed in making the trip report either near death experiences or spend a lot of money. You can also do what we did and do both.
It was actually pretty easy to find someone willing to take us although they were not too flexible on the date until we had to go a day early because there was a hurricane in the Caribbean and they didn't know if it was heading our way.
There were five of us and they charged us $50 each. They wanted $80 but we managed to get them down. Whether that had anything to do with the size of our group or not, I'm not sure.
We left at 11:30 am and were told that the trip would take 2.5 - 3 hours. We were the only tourists on the boat, hell we were the only tourists in the town. There were two drivers and a woman who was a sister or wife or something. Before we left SJDN we stopped for gas and to tether 2 other boats of almost the same size to our boat. The drivers didn't bring any oil and the engine over-heated (can't imagine why what with the three boats one motor thing).
The waves were far too large but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the hurricane (turns out it headed north, to Bermuda I think) or if that is simply how that stretch of ocean normally is. Fairly certain we were catching air and every now and then we would almost get knocked off our benches. The two guys in the front actually did get knocked off and one of them kept landing on his nuts (tee hee). I convinced myself that the reason the drivers had a machete was to cut the rope towing the other boats if disaster struck and that maybe we had the other boats in case ours sunk. I was the only girl traveling with the four guys and was very happy with their understanding my FREAKING THE FUCK OUT! The two sitting beside me were left with a few bruises from me latching onto them. Thanks guys!
The nine hours were spent in an extreme sense of fear (at least for me). Yup, the 2.5-3 hour boat ride turned into nine. The boat had no life jackets, no lights, and worst of all for a woman, no bathroom (I really had to pee)!
Fortunately the sun wasn't out all day or we would have fried, but the rain wasn't all that pleasant either. After eight hours and Bluefields still not in sight Nica time stopped being so quaint.
When we finally got in the bay we were almost out of gas and kept stopping so that one of the drivers could talk on his cell phone (probably trying to convince someone to come out with more gas). I was really annoyed by that because it had been 10 hours since I had visited a washroom and I needed one two hours into the trip.
Once we got stuck in a fishing net and the drivers had to borrow a flashlight to get the blades untangled.
We finally got there, dropped off the other boats and reached dry land (and peed!)
Later that night a couple of the guys and I went out for a few MUCH needed drinks and they told me that they were not too sure that we were going to make it either but they didn't want to send me into a bigger panic (very smart).
That, in a nutshell is the trip from SJDN to Bluefields. I didn't die (shocker) so I'm glad I did but I wouldn't do it again. I wish we had that extra day in SJDN as it seemed to be a really cool town and Greytown sounds interesting but threat of a hurricane truly does light a fire under one's ass.
If you do it good luck and please let me know your experience.

I forgot to mention that three of us had gotten completely tuned the night before on warm rum and cokes and that boat ride was the absolute BEST hangover cure EVER! Hard to think about your hangover when you're certain you are about to meet your end. BEST HANGOVER CURE EVER!