Rio San Juan is a 192km river that flows east out of Lake Nicaragua into the Caribbean Sea. The river itself, part of which creates a natural border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, has an amazing history and intense biodiversity. The CRROBS Tri-Country Semester course experiences both the historical and natural wonders first-hand as students complete an inflatable kayak expedition down the river to where it finally empties into the Caribbean.

Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba founded Granada, the oldest city founded by Europeans in Central America, on December 8, 1524 after navigating up Rio San Juan and into Lake Nicaragua. Although located in the middle of the country, Granada maintained a flourishing level of commerce during colonial times as a port on the Atlantic. The city’s success in turn made it a victim of pirate attacks, the first of which was in 1670 by the pirate Gallardito, who sailed his crew up Rio San Juan. In response to the pirate attack and in order to fend off future attacks, the colonial authorities built El Castillo in 1675. An armed fort, "The Castle" alongside the river helped to defend the country from pirates and Britain, which tried to take possession of this main route. Although the fortification was constructed, in April of 1685 the pirate Frances William Dampier navigated up Rio San Juan, plundered Granada, and then set it afire.

Two centuries passed, and with no Panama Canal in existence, Rio San Juan was frequently used to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, as many people, including African slaves, were transported via steamboat. The Accessory Transit Company, directed by Cornelius Vanderbilt, transported tens of thousands of passengers up the river during the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century. Because of this very important commercial route many countries had invested interest in Nicaragua and especially Rio San Juan.

When civil war broke out in Nicaragua, the rebel faction hired Nashville-born William Walker as a mercenary. Walker defeated the Nicaraguan national army and initially controlled the country as commander of the army. US President Franklin Pierce recognized Walker’s regime as the legitimate government of Nicaragua on May 20, 1856. Walker recruited American and European men to sail to the region and fight for the conquest of the other four Central American nations: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. He was able to recruit over 1000 mercenaries, many of whom were transported free by the Accessory Transit Company, under the control of businessmen Cornelius Garrison and Charles Morgan.

Vanderbilt did not support Walker’s filibustering and regained controlling interest of the Transit Company. As self-proclaimed ruler of Nicaragua, Walker then revoked the Transit Company’s charter, claiming that it had violated the agreement, and granted use of the Rio San Juan back to Morgan and Garrison. Vanderbilt financed American mercenaries and with Costa Rican troops penetrated into Nicaragua and defeated Walker’s men at the Battle of Rivas, in which Juan Santamaria, later to be recognized as the country’s national hero, played a key role. William Walker was later executed by firing squad in Honduras at age 36.

During this same era Louis Napoleon wrote an article about the feasibility of the Nicaragua Canal and the US started the groundwork. This plan was abandoned, however, in the early 20th century, after the US purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal. Dredging machines, which were used to deepen the river bottom, can still be seen rusting in the still waters of Rio San Juan near the Caribbean coast. Though once a major transportation and commercial trade route, Rio San Juan is now a Wildlife Refuge, classified as a Nature Reserve that is officially protected under the government of Nicaragua.

Until the 1970s, researchers thought the sharks in Lake Nicaragua were a separate species because there was no way for sharks to move in or out when the Rio San Juan is too low. It was discovered that they were jumping along the rapids just like salmon and bull sharks tagged inside the lake were later caught in the open ocean, after a 7 to 11 day journey. The number of bull sharks in Lake Nicaragua that travel through Rio San Juan has been drastically reduced because of shark finning, an industry led by high Asian demand for the delicacy shark fin soup.

Today there is a clash between environmentalists and Nicaraguan business over developing a Nicaragua Canal. The proposed canal would cut a day off of travel time between New York and LA, decrease shipping costs from Europe to Asia, and have capacity for ships of up to 250,000 tons, much larger than the Panama Canal’s current capacity of 65,000 tons. Furthermore it would create 40,000 direct jobs and another 200,000 indirectly, which would increase the economy of this second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. If you were President of Nicaragua, would you support the proposed project?

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