The Recent History of Gigante

The first time I came to Nicaragua the Contra war was raging. I was sailing a catamaran down the coast looking for truth, beauty, and freedom. The clew of the headsail blew out just past Corinto so I sailed back into the harbor in the night using the False Channel, not the normal one. The harbor was filled with Russian Trawlers and a cruise ship sporting the biggest Hammer and Sickle I'd ever seen. No officials came out to inspect us, which was strange. I finished the work and headed back out to sea. The reason nobody bothered us was the "CIA/Freedom Fighters" had mined the harbor, and the local officials were too scared to venture out to check us out. Using the False Channel probably saved my boat.

Later on that day I was too tired to sail on so I pulled into a calm moonlit bay. In the morning when I got a good look at the bay, I marked it on the chart and vowed to return.

I met a really good Nicaraguan, Dennis Prado, and together we started our business of finding land and buying it. One of the first properties we bought was in a beautiful bay called Gigante. My friends from Maui were the first to take the plunge. I didn’t know it then, but Gigante was right in the middle of the best surf in Central America - all of it accessible by boat in just a few minutes.

We are now offering Lots for Sale in Gigante. Some lots will have ocean views, all will have power and water. They have very nice roads for access, and there are already eight or nine owners. Almost all of them came from my surfing tour business. Everyone passed a cool guy test. We are trying to create a community to live with our Nicaraguan neighbors not apart from them.

There will be enough of us around so that security will not be an issue, and we can all split up the costs of running power and water to our homes. With enough people we can hire a driver to do our town runs so we can lose most of the drudgery of rural third world living. I build boats so there will be boats available to rent, lease, or buy so you can enjoy the ocean off your back deck.

We will build fences to keep the animals out of the gardens not our neighbors out of our neighborhood. We will hire gardeners instead of guards. A man tending plantings is a much more effective a watchman than a man with a very boring job. There are plenty of young men willing to learn new trades to help us build our homes. The roads are being built as I write this. The homes are just waiting for you to come on down and get something started. We are well on our way. I hope you seize this opportunity to join us

I'm writing this passage on a laptop at my weekend house here in that very same bay. It’s called Pie de Gigante.

I returned to Nicaragua aboard a 36-foot catamaran 12 years ago. I made a living taking surfers to “out of the way” surf spots. It worked for a few years, and then I got shipwrecked. It's a long beautiful story how I came from abject poverty to become a land and business owner. Maybe, one day you'll get to hear it. It takes a lot of rum.

I had to take a job selling real estate in San Juan del Sur, because it was the only job offered me. I was the first agent in town. I starved. My lack of money is a local legend in the small town of San Juan del Sur. There were manzanas on the beach for sale for under $30K, and still I starved. Nobody was here yet.