English speakers know Lago Cocibolca — or “Sweet Sea” in the language of aboriginal settlers — by a different name: Lake Nicaragua. I’ve long been fascinated by Lake Nicaragua and I would love to go there someday. Thus, recent news of yet another grand plan to construct a canal renewed my interest. If completed it would rival the one in Panama. However, this wasn’t a new scheme, rather just one more proposal to add to a tall stack of plans and dreams going back more than 150 years.
The Easiest Path
Lake Nicaragua would be the extremely obvious geographic key to any such possibility.
The middle part of any canal plan would be easy. Lake Nicaragua is huge, and certainly deep enough to accommodate ocean-going vessels. It would also provide abundant water for the required system of locks.
The eastern and western ends are considerably more problematic than the middle although some routes would be simpler than others. The World Association of International Studies at Standford University in its Forum on Nicaragua (2002) described the most efficient path:
“… enters the San Juan River at the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border and follows that river west into Lake Nicaragua [or Cocibolco]. It then crosses Lake Nicaragua northward to the Tipitapa River near Granada. It then follows the Tipitapa River into Lake Managua [or Xolotlan], then crosses Lake Managua northward, where it is linked northward to the Gulf of Fonseca [or Chorotega], entering the Gulf to the east of the Cosguina Peninsula via a long, dredged canal… Most casual observers wrongly assume the proposed canal would follow the shortest route and enter the Pacific via the Rivas isthmus, the narrowest point between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific. But a canal crossing there cannot be built without locks because the distance across the isthmus there is too short and the different [sic.] between sea and lake water levels too great.”
Roadblock
Unfortunately, on the eastern side, the latest proposal cannot use the San Juan River. A long segment of the lower river leading into the Caribbean Sea marks a border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Part of it has been in dispute for years. This led to the 2010 Google Maps dust-up and international incident that some readers may recall.
That’s too bad. The San Juan River drains Lake Nicaragua to the sea and it would be a natural shipping conduit. It made the inland City of Granada an Atlantic seaport during the colonial era in spite of its geographic placement much closer to the Pacific Ocean.
Granada also became one of the oldest places settled by people of European descent in the Americas. It dated back all the way to 1524 when founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba.
Granada thrived during those earlier times. The city explained [link no longer available]:
“…Granada was highly prized for its natural wealth (gold and fertile soils) and easy access to both coasts (the Caribbean via the Río San Juan; the Pacific via stagecoach). Repeated attacks by pirates and other would-be rulers attest to its highly sought-after status… Surprisingly, in the mid-1800s, the quickest route from New York to San Francisco was through Granada via the Caribbean, the San Juan River, Lake Nicaragua, and then by stagecoach to the Pacific Ocean.”
A Scenic Cruise
Sailing past Isla de Ometepe would provide an added scenic benefit. The name of the dominant island in Lake Nicaragua derived from a native Nahuatl term for “two mountains”. Anyone can readily see the reason.
Concepción and Maderas, the eponymous twin peaks are stereotypical stratovolcanos. Concepción, the taller of the two, remains active. It has numerous minor eruptions even within the last year and “25 times in the past 130 years.”
Volcanic activity was responsible for the formation of Lake Nicaragua. Thus, an occasional eruption shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Even so, nearly 30,000 people live on Isla de Ometepe, which I do find a bit unusual given the area’s frequent volcanic and seismic history.
Don’t Forget the Sharks!
I’ll admit that some of my fascination with Lake Nicaragua comes from its population of fresh water sharks. Actually, these are Bull sharks and not a separate species. As National Geographic explained, “Bull sharks have been found thousands of miles up the Amazon River, and in Nicaragua have been seen leaping up river rapids, salmon-like, to reach inland Lake Nicaragua.” Nonetheless, even after several decades, conventional wisdom perpetuates a common misconception here. The sharks of Lake Nicaragua are not unique. Bull sharks venture into freshwater in many places. I wouldn’t want to run into one in person though.
Locks would be necessary on any route currently contemplated. This photograph from Flickr shows a lock on the Panama Canal. Locks providing portage across Nicaragua would need to be much wider to accommodate modern ocean-going vessels. Nonetheless, the basic principal would remain the same.
I’ll keep an eye on this as it moves forward. This will be fun to watch.
Completely unrelated
I developed this Twelve Mile Circle article on a completely “Google Free Diet” for the very first time. I’ve grown increasingly disenchanted with Google, for killing Reader, for mangling Maps, for their relentless tracking in pursuit of greater monetization. I used DuckDuckGo for search (they allegedly do not track), Flickr for Creative Commons images as illustrations and OpenStreetMap for mapping.
How was the experience? I succeeded although it felt as if I’d been typing with mittens all morning. Google’s tools are so superior to everything else that the process seemed like a step backward in time. I can’t promise that I’ll ever completely wean myself although I do plan to give other sources a try in case Google abandons me completely, as it has done with Reader and (partially) with Maps.
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