It was good to see the Pacífica Aventuras post on face book this week about scuba diving in Nicaragua, in particular about the statue at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in front of Playa Hermosa in the Municipality of San Juan del Sur.
The following is an article we ran in Del Sur News, October 2016 at the time of its dedication.
La Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa
Last Saturday the 8th of October 2016, the statue of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (La Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa), which had been displayed in the park for the previous week, was taken to her final resting place about 50 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean off Playa Hermosa. She arrived from Granada on Sunday October 2nd and was officially presented to the population of San Juan del Sur at a special mass conducted by Bismarck Cruz, the Parish Priest of San Juan del Sur.
She now rests close to the small rocky island known La Paloma that can be seen from the beach at Playa Hermosa. The Image was attached to a heavy mooring block and lays at an angle of 30 degrees looking upwards with hands extended and palms facing the surface
The gift to the Municipality of San Juan del Sur is in memory of Ernesto Chamorro Benard (1928-2015) from Granada and donated by his son; Ernesto Chamorro Martínez who said “With this act I want to leave a legacy of devotion and hope in the waters of San Juan del Sur. The main objective is that this image of La Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa protects underwater divers, rescues our castaways and is the protector of the vast sea. I also wanted to complete this project as a tribute to, and in memory of my father; Ernesto Chamorro Benard.”
The statue is made of half inch thick fiberglass and together with the mooring weighs about 3,500 pounds. The idea is that recreational divers and snorkelers diving in Nicaragua will enjoy the work a part of the artificial reef system being built in the area.
Work on the image started over a year ago in Granada at the Fine Arts School of Granada. It has been especially designed to allow for the currents and has been constructed to last for about 200 years using high-strength materials to withstand the salt water environment.
Chamorro noted that the special mold that was made for this image can be re-used to produce other identical images for placement underwater at other dive locations around the country.
Julio César Hernández, President of the Cooperativa Océanos de Nicaragua (OCEANIC); is working with Cristian Lemouch promoting the construction and placement of artificial reefs throughout the Nicaraguan Pacific. Lemouch explained that the artificial reef creates a marine ecosystem by first attracting algae, then non-carnivorous fish and finally carnivorous fish.
Lemouch would like to see Nicaragua follow Europe, Asia and other parts of the world who already see the results of artificial reef projects.
