Jud "Fabio" Birza was named the winner in the final episode on December 19, 2010, defeating Chase Rice and Matthew "Sash" Lenahan in a 5–4–0 vote.

The merged tribe Libertad means "liberty" or "freedom" in Spanish, which was first suggested by contestant Marty Piombo.

Meanwhile, while the tribe was at a challenge, their unattended fire ignited their cache of food and supplies, burning them and part of their tarp.

With Brenda gone and the sudden voluntary exits of Kelly S. and NaOnka as a result of the camp fire, Sash was left alone without any allies, but eventually regained power by winning the next Immunity Challenge, becoming the swing vote between Holly, Chase and Jane's alliance and the alliance of Dan, Fabio and Benry.

While Dan was the only non-immune of the minority alliance, Chase, Holly and Sash decided to turn on jury threat Jane, and voted her out instead.

Chase was blasted for his inability to make strategic and social decisions, and Fabio was accused of being clueless about what was going on, not voting in the majority many times.

At the La Flor campsite, Kelly B. showed her tribe her amputated leg, which made several of her tribemates cautious about a sympathy vote for her should she make it to the final Tribal Council.

Holly overheard Dan calling her "crazy" and decided to take revenge on him by dumping his $1,600 pair of alligator-skin shoes into the ocean.

In the end, Tyrone and the rest of the tribe chose to vote out the NFL Coach, sending Jimmy Johnson home.

When they returned to camp, Chase found a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol in the tackle box, which he shared with Brenda.

Marty and NaOnka thought they were in total control of their tribes, but Jeff spoiled their plans by telling the castaways to drop their buffs as there would be a tribal switch before the start of the Reward Challenge.

On day 13, an intense rain storm drove NaOnka to break down emotionally and she considered quitting, but Alina and Chase convinced her to stick it out.

Over at La Flor, Brenda planned to flush out the Hidden Immunity Idol by splitting a 3–3 vote between Marty and Jill.

The remaining La Flor members then moved to the side to enjoy their feast and observe Espada's Tribal Council.

After Espada returned to their camp site, Chase, Holly, and NaOnka talked about voting out Alina ahead of the merge.

Over at La Flor, Marty was seething over Jane's flip to the younger group at Tribal Council and confronted her about it, but she neither confirmed or denied her vote.

With the La Flor loss, the younger group had another opportunity to flush the Hidden Immunity Idol and they planned to split the vote 3–2 between Marty and Jill.

Marty was ecstatic that the tree mail on day 19 announced the tribal merge and a move to the Espada camp site.

When other members of the tribe noticed that items were missing, Holly said that she saw NaOnka take the flour jar and put in her bag.

When the losing team returned to camp, they discovered that the three chests had caught fire and burned down, taking with it their machetes and almost all of the tribe's food.

When the tribe returned from camp after Tribal Council, Kelly S. felt left out of her alliance as she did not know that the vote was going against Brenda.

Jeff told the two women that they should think about if they really wanted to quit and that the tribe would meet at Tribal Council that night to sort out the matter.

Jeff then offered a tarp and a can of rice to replace the ones lost in the camp fire if one of the winning team members would forgo their reward, to which Holly stepped up and volunteered.

Sash told Benry, Chase, and Fabio that he would play his Hidden Immunity Idol at the next Tribal Council so that he would no longer be seen as a threat and to get the two alliances to see him as a swing vote.

At Tribal Council, the alliance of Chase, Holly, Jane, and Sash put their plan into motion and voted against Benry, who was sent to the jury.

When the three hesitated in answering her and then finally admitting that they were discussing voting for her, Jane knew that her alliance had turned on her, and proceeded to unleash a tirade against everyone.

At the Immunity Challenge, while Fabio fell behind due to a missed answer on the second question, he quickly caught up to Chase, Holly, and Sash during the puzzle assembly stage and picked up the win.

Survivor columnist Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked Nicaragua as the second-worst season of the entire series, only better than Island of the Idols, for four reasons: "1) Splitting the tribes up by age and the Medallion of Power were both enormous flops.

Even Thailand had the fake merge and Fiji had the big Yau-Man/Dreamz free car deal gone bad, but what was Nicaragua's signature moment?

"[39] This season was similarly ranked as the second-worst by Inside Survivor in 2020 due to underwhelming gameplay, pointless twists, and an unlikeable cast.