Warning! John pulled ten ticks off of himself and I had two. Kathleen Brugger claims she didn’t get any. If you don’t want to be a tick magnet, wait until dry season.
Have you hiked to William Walker’s fort (La Fortaleza) or to the Lighthouse (El Faro) on San Juan del Sur’s southern headland? Do you know who William Walker is?
There are some crazy stories out in there in the world and the story of William Walker in Nicaragua is one of them. I still shake my head at the thought of him.
He was from the United States and lived in the mid 1800s. And, among other things, he was a mercenary: “a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.”
In Nicaragua, during a civil war between the Liberals of Leon and the Conservatives of Granada, the liberals of Leon hired him to fight on their side. And then he recruited an entire army of men from the United States to fight with him. Their payment was going to be in land.
Before his brief time as a soldier in Nicaragua was up, though, he managed to weasel his way into becoming President of Nicaragua!
Yep, a United States Citizen was President of Nicaragua! It didn’t last for long, but still…this guy had balls!
He wrote an amazing memoir in 1860, called The War in Nicaragua, which I strongly recommend. (It’s available on Kindle.) He’s actually a really good writer and it’s wild to read how he defends his unscrupulous actions.
You’ll also learn a lot about the transportation route from the Caribbean, up the Rio San Juan, across Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca) and then across the isthmus from La Virgin to the bay of San Juan del Sur and on up the Pacific to the California Gold Rush. William Walker even managed to steal the route from Cornelius Vanderbilt for a bit of time there too.
Somewhere during Walker’s time here has had a teeny tiny fort, or lookout really, built on top of the bay’s southern headland. It has a commanding view of both the sea south to Costa Rica, and the San Juan Bay and coastline running north.
I don’t remember him mentioning it in his memoir, and running a book search for “fort” didn’t bring it up.
But still, hiking out to see it was on our to-do list. And yesterday, Katie volunteered to show us the way. Another friend had shown us the way to the lighthouse a couple of years ago but then we couldn’t find the fort.
It’s not on the main trail to the lighthouse. Basically, as soon as you crest the headland and get these amazing views of San Juan Bay you need to keep your eyes peeled for a trail heading up to the left. Quickly you’ll be looking south across to Costa Rica. At this point, turn left again and back track, paralleling the route you just took out there. And then voila you’ll come to a practically overgrown, small stone structure. And that’s the fort. I told you it was small.
We walked around to the back and found a way to climb up on top, but if you do that be super careful since the vegetation has completely grown over the hole that drops down into the center of the building.
Then to continue on to the lighthouse, head back to the main trail and then turn left and continue out to the end of the headland. Then you hike back out the way you came.
The whole trip took us less than two hours from town. And technically wasn’t a hard hike at all. We passed a young Nicaraguan couple hiking up as we hiked down.
John hiked in front of Katie and I, and there’s a section of the trail right past the houses and before you reach the top, that is very overgrown right during now rainy season. I’m guessing that’s why it was the tick magnet.
P.S. The photos of me at the fort and me and John at the lighthouse are courtesy of Katie Brugger. Thank you Katie for the photos and for showing us the way.