My husband and I live on the other side of the river from the town of San Juan del Sur, in the Barrio La Talanguera which is below the Christ statue. We don’t own a car, so almost daily and sometimes more than once a day we walk into town via the beach.
If the tide is low enough we can easily wade across the river at the spot where it spills into the ocean in small rivulets. We’re always wearing shorts and sandals for just such an occasion. Sometimes the tide is a bit high and the brackish water comes up to our knees. Then we try to cross as the waves recede. But other times the tide is just too high to walk across the river at all, and that’s when riding the ferry across comes in.
There used to be a pedestrian bridge across the river but that was before my time. The story goes that too many people got on it at one point, maybe during crazy-crowded Semana Santa, and the bridge collapsed. The town has been waiting for a replacement ever since.
In the meantime, we have the ferry, which is a small panga pulled by hand along a line that’s strung across the river. The ferry boat driver sometimes has young assistants, like today they were two young girls.
And we have a phone app which shows us the tides.
What a colorful way to commute!
Cost: 5 cordobas (15 cents) per person each way. Note: Sometimes your feet still get wet.
