An ideal place to retire or start a business, the municipality of San Juan del Sur, located on the Pacific coast 140 km south of Managua and near the border with Costa Rica, is the country’s main tourist center, with impressive bays and beautiful beaches.

“I like the Nicaraguan lifestyle in general,” American Christina Alty told AFP, who 10 years ago came on a month-long vacation interested in surfing and is now involved in the real estate business.

Amid international criticism of President Daniel Ortega for his authoritarianism and questioning of re-election since 2007, foreigners live contentedly in this sleepy area that offers beaches, restaurants, bars, whale watching, walks and landscapes.

Many foreigners are “moving” their lives, including teleworking, to colorful places and small beach houses. (AFP)

“There are lots of options here for people who like the outdoor lifestyle,” added Alty, 37, a mother of two who attends a bilingual school in a city of nearly 17,000 people.

“My clients may be from all over the world. Many of them are American or Canadian, and they also enjoy different lifestyles (…). The pace of life is much slower here than where they come from”, he added.

As Alty strolls along the beach, some tourists rest on chairs, others lie on the sand, exercising or enjoying swimming in the sea.

“They play in the street”

Foreigners educate their children in two bilingual schools that combine formal classroom teaching with natural open spaces.

“We are in a very natural environment, we are four kilometers from the center of San Juan del Sur, we are in the vicinity of mango, almond and jocote trees,” Adelante School director, American Jaime Lynn Hunter, told AFP.

“And I think parents like to put their kids here because they don’t feel cooped up, they have enough space to lay down and run and be a kid,” added the 38-year-old teacher who has lived in this place for 13 year. .

This school with 170 preschool and primary school students was born in 2016 to teach English to children in the area with support from American NGOs and Japanese cooperation.

The students, 30% of them foreigners, attended eight hours of classes and received instruction according to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education programme, one week in Spanish and one week in English.

A teacher gives classes to both national and foreign children at the Adelante bilingual school. Photo taken on April 25, 2023. (AFP)

“We feel happy that our children are safe here and they can learn in an environment like the outside, not with closed gates and doors, and they don’t have to fear more serious things like shootings, which are being seen a lot today” in American schools, says Hunter.

She worked as an English teacher in 2010, fell in love with a Nicaraguan, married him, and has two children who have grown up in contact with nature.

“What I like here is they are still playing in the street, they are still going to the park; the kids here I think are kids and it made me think when I was a kid, that I would go out to play until it got dark” , write.

Another bilingual school, San Juan del Sur Day School, has 175 students, 43% of whom come from 17 countries: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia and Russia. Costa Rica, among others.

Jamie Lynn Hunter, executive director of the bilingual school Adelante, came to teach English in 2010, falling in love with a Nicaraguan and so with the city. Currently the family is supported by the couple’s two children, who were born in Nicaragua. (AFP)

“Perfect weather”

About 30 cruise ships from the United States, Canada and Europe dock annually at the port of San Juan del Sur, according to the Institute of Tourism.

In the mid-19th century, the town was part of a route of Americans attracted by the gold rush, traveling from their country’s east coast to California. Others do it via Panama.

Thousands of Americans travel by boat to Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast and after cruising the San Juan River and Lake Cocibolca, they arrive in San Juan del Sur to depart for San Francisco.

One of them is the writer Mark Twain, who shares the monument in the town square with the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío.

“I love coastal towns, I really like the ocean too, here everything is nice and cheap and the people are lovely,” British tourist Mark Guitler told AFP.

“I love surfing and there are several beaches nearby […]. It’s such a beautiful country, the weather is perfect, I love the people, I love the ocean, I mean, what more could I ask for?”