AN ANCIENT PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS

Col JBS and team on the beach at La Virgen, Near the mouth of Rio Lagas in Nicaragua. The active volcanoes in the background are on Ometepe Island.

Inspired by the research of author, Gavin Menzies and his best selling books, “1421” and “1434” that tell of 15th century Chinese global exploration, the explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, President of the Scientific Exploration Society and a small team have found evidence of a water channel linking the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The famous globe and wall chart made by the foremost cosmographer, Waldseemueller in 1507 shows a gap between North and South America.
The Pacific coast of America is strikingly drawn on the Waldseemueller chart and was published before the Spanish explorer, Nuñez de Balboa discovered the Pacific in 1513.

Maps and globes by astronomer and geographer Johannes Schoener published in 1515 and 1520 and maps by 18th Century British hydrographers also show a channel that would enable boats to pass between the oceans. Furthermore, Chinese DNA and artefacts have been found in Central America, local history tells of a Chinese presence and European explorers recorded Chinese wrecks.
For the past three years engineer surveyor Cedric Bell of Penrith has researched the San Juan River that runs 117 miles eastward from Lake Nicaragua to the Caribbean and possible routes for a canal from Lake Nicaragua westward to the Pacific. At its narrowest point the isthmus between the lake and the ocean is only 12 miles.

History tells how, as a young captain, Horatio Nelson supported the British Army in storming the Spanish castle on the San Juan River in 1780. However, today a series of rapids obstruct navigation into Lake Nicaragua itself. These rapids are the scenes of extraordinary behaviour by Caribbean bull sharks that leap them, like salmon and adapt to living in the fresh water of the lake. There have been reports of attacks on swimmers!

Lake Nicaragua is 44-47 metres above sea level and the lowest point in the hills between the Lake and the ocean is 56 metres above sea level. A difference of only 12-15 metres but Lake Nicaragua was originally 5 metres higher. So locks would have to be incorporated in any canal. However, as Gavin Menzies points out, the Chinese were brilliant engineers and it would not have been difficult for them to construct these nor indeed to build canals to bypass rapids on the San Juan.

Thus Gavin Menzies asked JBS to undertake an expedition to seek evidence of such a waterway.

In January John’s team, including the SES’s Latin American representative Yolima Cipagauta, with Nicaraguan archaeologist Oscar Pavon and Luis Garcia, a researcher from the Granada Mi Museum set out to examine the isthmus that separates Lake Nicaragua from the Pacific. Leading Nicaraguan historian Dr Jaime Incer Barquero, President of the Foundation Natural, the Granada Museum owner Peder Kolind and Gabriel Pasos, a Granada businessman who hopes to canalise the Rio San Juan and export local produce to the Caribbean gave valuable advice to the team. Local engineers also provided useful information.

Moving by vehicle and on foot through the hills and jungle filled riverbeds, the expedition checked the possible routes for a link. They were equipped with GPS, altimeters and magnetic anomaly surveying equipment. Several areas were found where rivers flowing East to Lake Nicaragua and West to the Pacific rose within a few hundred yards of each other. One headwater site between two rivers, when subjected to magnetic anomaly survey, indicated possible walls of an in-filled canal. In an almost dry river bed a strange artefact (60 x 90 cms) carved from volcanic rock was discovered and this has yet to be identified.

The Civil War of 1972-79 is still fresh in local memory. Well armed security guards at several haciendas turned the team away and in one area a demented old woman waving a long machete, accompanied by a group of angry people came for them striking their vehicle and forcing them to withdraw. Apparently she thought the team was American seeking to seize her land. JBS used his Union Jack to calm the lady and there were no casualties!

However, the great break through came when the team met 35-year-old Mariano Hernandez who between 2005-09, had made three journeys by water from the centre of the isthmus to Lake Nicaragua for fishing. He and his brother used a 3 metre homemade canoe in which they had at least one capsize. On reaching the lake, they were badly frightened by a 2 metre bull shark but returned home with their catch. Later Mariano canoed westward for much of the way to the Pacific. He and other villagers pointed out that this was possible during the May-August wet season when a large area of flat land floods, becoming a 1-2 metre deep lake joining up the rivers and streams. This site was examined by John Blashford-Snell and the team who found clear evidence of the flooding.

“It seems likely that even if early cartographers did not see this lake, they were told about it by the indigenous people and thus drew a channel on their maps”, said JBS. “I’m sure this is how the story of a legendary route between the oceans started”.

A number of artefacts with oriental features have been found in the region but have not yet been firmly identified as Chinese. Several were photographed by the team. A waterborne crossing of Nicaragua by small boats in the wet season along this route is being considered!