Global InformationSan Juan del Sur information
San Juan Del Sur | |
|---|---|
Municipality | |
 The beach at San Juan del Sur taken from the Christ of the Mercy. | |
  San Juan Del Sur Location in Nicaragua | |
| Coordinates: 11°15′N 85°52′W / 11.250°N 85.867°W | |
| Country |  Nicaragua |
| Department | Rivas Department |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Area | |
| • Municipality | 411 km2 (159 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 92 m (302 ft) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Municipality | 15,553 |
| • Urban | 7,220 |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Nicaragua Standard Time) |
 | |
 | |
| Location | San Juan del Sur Rivas Department |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 11°14′35.0″N 85°52′51.2″W / 11.243056°N 85.880889°W |
| Tower | |
| Constructed | 1900 (first) |
| Construction | masonry tower |
| Height | 4.5 metres (15 ft) |
| Shape | tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and light on a mast |
| Markings | white tower |
| Power source | solar power  |
| Operator | Aquatic Transport Directorate[1][2] |
| Light | |
| Focal height | 30 metres (98 ft) |
| Range | 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi) |
| Characteristic | Fl W 6s. |
San Juan del Sur is a municipality and coastal town on the Pacific Ocean, in the Rivas department in southwest Nicaragua. It is located 140 kilometres (87 mi) south of Managua. San Juan del Sur is popular among surfers and is a vacation spot for many Nicaraguan families and foreign tourists.
Its population is approximately 15,553, consisting largely of families engaged in fishing, tourism or food and beverage industry and foreigners from the United States, Canada and Europe. While the local economy was, for many years, based on fishing and shipping, it has shifted towards tourism in the last 20 years. In October 2002, to mark the city's 150th anniversary, it was formally designated the "Port of San Juan del Sur" and a "Tourism City of Nicaragua."[3]
San Juan del Sur, set beside a crescent-shaped bay, was a popular resting place for gold prospectors headed to California in the 1850s. Correspondingly, San Juan del Sur served as a hub for Cornelius Vanderbilt Lines.
A statue of the Christ of the Mercy sits above town on the northern end of the bay. The Mirador del Cristo de la Misericordia sits on one of the highest points on the bay and is one of the tallest Jesus statues in the world.[4]
The town is near the site where Survivor: Nicaragua and Survivor: Redemption Island were filmed.[5] Those seasons aired in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The 29th U.S. Survivor season, Survivor: San Juan del Sur (2014), was also filmed there,[6] as was Season 30, Survivor: Worlds Apart, which aired in 2015. San Juan del Sur has become a hot spot for international surfing competition.[4]
- ^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Nicaragua". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
- ^ List of Lights, Pub. 110: Greenland, The East Coasts of North and South America (Excluding Continental U.S.A. Except the East Coast of Florida) and the West Indies (PDF). List of Lights. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2016.
- ^ Romero, Bayardo (January 2012). "San Juan del Sur Celebrates 490 Yrs. of its Discovery, 160 Years as a City and 10 Years as an Official Tourism City". Del Sur News.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b EsperanzaMarket. "Top Three Things To Do In San Juan Del Sur Nicaragua". Archived from the original on 2016-09-14. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
- ^ "'Nicaragua to host two seasons of hit TV series Survivor". PR Log. May 16, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ^ "'Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water': Jeff Probst gives intel on NEXT season". Entertainment Weekly. 21 May 2014.