Travel Guide El Castillo

A village with an infinite charm, hidden against its mythical fortress facing dangerous rapids (called El Hemingway by the English). We recommend you spend at least one night to really enjoy the charm. People are very welcoming and like to see travellers, a legacy of a rich past. And why not try to embark on a fisherman to try your luck and report a real sábalo, a big bug that can measure up to 2,5 m long and weigh 150 kg!The fortress was built from 1673 under the command of General Don Francisco de Escobedo to protect the river and especially Granada from the attacks of English or French pirates. The work was completed in 1675. The fort was flanked by 28 cannons and the defensive role was measured in view of the vast panorama of its headland. The walls are in brick rock and basaltic rock. this material to be provided in the vicinity of Masaya). We are still told in all the thatched (we exaggerate) the epic of Rafael Herrera who came to command Iberian defence against the English in 1769. When his father (captain of the Spanish forces) fell on the square, she assumed command with incomparable passion and boldness. She dismissed the invaders (by using, apparently, an ingenious ruse: she imbiba alcohol sheets and set fire to illuminate the river - incandescent debris importunèrent the enemy fleet that was forced to withdraw!) and it even tells us that she killed the English commander from the third gun blow!The fort fell, however, in the hands of the perfidious Albion eleven years later. Jamaica's Governor, Sir John Dalling, sent the young Captain Nelson (the famous admiral of our textbooks, who was mal Napoleon to Trafalgar!) on board the Hinchinbroock, and, with 200 men, attacked and submitted the fortress in 1780. But, some time later, the English finally finally abandoned the place (Nelson would have lost one eye, do not testify by historians) with only 10 survivors: the tropics are not tender with pale faces! Yellow fever had indeed decimated the troops.It is noted that the village undertook the banana trade in the years 1948-1951 and 1968-1970. However, profits were enjoyed by the North American firm, which did not enjoy everyone, and the «sigatoka» disease destroyed crops; the weak economic infrastructure disappeared and now we seem to be looking to tourism to hope for better days.