San Juan del Sur is a municipality and coastal town on the Pacific Ocean, in the Rivasdepartment 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]
San Juan del Sur is the port on the Pacific that has been focus of many historic and modern day Nicaragua Canal proposals because of its location on the narrow isthmus of Rivas between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua.
On September 2, 1992, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake off the central coast of Nicaragua generated a tsunami that devastated many communities along the Pacific Coast. Run-up values along the coast ranged from 2m in the north and south to up to 10m in some central locations. Run-up values in San Juan del Sur were approximately 5m. As a result of the tsunami an estimated 60% of homes in the community were destroyed, approximately 800 residents were displaced, and businesses and homes along the Malecón suffered severe damage.
The climate for San Juan del Sur is a tropical savanna climate (Aw according to the Köppen climate classification), with constant and very warm temperatures throughout the year. The dry season lasts from December to May, with a substantial and heavy rainy season throughout the remainder of the year, with an average yearly rainfall of 1,710 millimetres or 67 inches.
Satake, K., J. Bourgeois, K. Abe, K. Abe, Y. Tsuji, F. Imamura, Y. Iio, H. Katao, E. Noguera, and F. Estrada. 1993. Tsunami Field Survey of the 1992 Nicaragua Earthquake. Eos, 74:145-160.
Nicaragua
Gießen, Germany[11]
Newton, Massachusetts, USA[12][13]
Sauda, Norway[14]
