El Castillo Village On The Río San Juan
Whichever way you come to Guacimo Lodge you’ll pass El Castillo Village. And it is not to be missed.
Nothing beats the thrill of visiting a place so steeped in history. Until you visit the region you can read a little about it here.
Where is El Castillo?
6km from the border with Costa Rica the village of El Castillo has its origins in the Fortress of The Immaculate Conception.
The Río San Juan starts in Lake Nicaragua near the town of San Carlos and ends in the Atlantic Ocean 70km downriver from El Castillo. Spanish explorers named the river after Saint John the Baptist, but before that they called it ‘El Desaguadero’… the drain!
The Village On The Edge Of Time
Spanish settlers navigated the waterways to reach Granada, the oldest Spanish colonial city in the Americas. This channel made the rich city open to raiding. The fortress of El Castillo was built between 1673 and 1675 to protect Granada from pirate attacks Still it couldn’t stop them all. William Dampier sacked Granada in 1685. Dampier was an English pirate, and one of the first Europeans to explore parts of Australia.
Dampier wan’t the only historical figure to pass El Castillo village on the Río San Juan. Captain Horatio Nelson captured the fort during the San Juan Expedition in 1780. In 1848 when the California Gold Rush brought prospectors from all over the Americas to the West Coast many of them traveled past El Castillo. Before the Panama Canal this was one of the fastest routes to crass the Americas. Cornelius Vanderbilt wanted to turn the Río San Juan and Lake Nicaragua into a canal linking Pacific to Atlantic. He settled with starting a steamship line and carriage road to carry passengers. A young and unpublished Mark Twain is another more recent traveler to El Castillo.
The Castle Today
These days the fortress contains the only library in El Castillo village, a historical museum near the entrance, awesome views of the natural environment, and the beautiful architecture from the colonial era. El Castillo is a quiet backwater town without any cars. The roadless village is only accessible by boat, so at night you only hear the sound of water. The village has several hotels, lodges, and restaurants among its colorful buildings.
Don’t wait for the Fortress of The Immaculate Conception to achieve UNESCO World Heritage Status (it’s on the waiting list) to visit El Castillo village. At Guacimo Lodge you can book tours of El Castillo that combine more than 300 years of exciting history.
Contact us at contact@guacimolodge.com with your requests.
Find out more about El Castillo and the fortress here .
To book with Guacimo Lodge today click here.
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