Los Viajes Continua

Hola Familia y Amigos,

So we are back at Casa de Oro today. We went out to Playa Madera two days ago in search of surf, but were disappointed to be greeted by onshore/blown out waves. We walked two bays north from Maderas Beach to our hostel for the night (Matildas Hostel) expecting to find loads of kids our age hanging out and waiting for the surf to improve. Instead, the place looked deserted other than two older American guys and a very nice local gentleman by the name of Alberto. The building was very quaint with a unique style to it. It was a pretty cool site to behold, just this small and simple little community on the edge of the Pacific Ocean on a nearly empty beach in Nicaragua. The type of place people talk about discovering 20 years before it blows up into a bustling resort destination. Alberto set us up with beds in the doghouses (little mini huts about 4 ft tall consisting of just a mattress, a reading light, and a fan that later electrocuted the hell out of me. Not a fan of this fan. Anyway, the accommodations were all we needed. We spoke with the American guy (bubba) for awhile about travel plans, the surf, etc. He comes down to this same hostel every summer for about a month and a half and has been doing so for the past 5 years. He told us that this place also generally has about 360 days of offshore wind a year, so we just happen to be there the two days where it was onshore and terrible. Just our luck. The other two American guys were very nice (one of which has bought several properties down here), which Rob and I were very interested to hear about. The land is still very cheap and in addition to the idea of owning land near an amazing beach in Nicaragua, I feel that it is really only a matter of time before this place hits rapid expansion. A great investment if you ask me. After we got settled Señor Perlstein rolled up out of nowhere and the three of us, along with an older kiwi guy staying at Matildas, each bought a liter of the local Toña beer for $2.25 (almost twice as much as in SJDS) and shared stories and laughs. Getting Matt back to his place at Parque Maderas (about a 25 minute walk away) before dark became an issue as we let the daylight slip. Bubba had mentioned that someone had been robbed at gun point in broad daylight in between the beach at Matildas, and the surf break at Maderas. We frantically grabbed flashlights and sprinted to the other side of the beach as these crazy orange land crabs snapped at our heals. Unfortunately the tide had risen too high to cross over the rocks so we ran up into this person property where there were about 6 local people grilling out. ¨Lo Siento¨spilled from our mouths as we ran past, left Matt at a point where it would be easy to find his way home, and then got back to the hostel to start cooking our gourmet $1 mac and cheese/bread dinner. This became quite and ordeal seeing as how it was a wood burning stove, all the wood was wet, and we had to boil the water for 5 mins before using it. It ultimately took us just under 2 hours, along with about 8 trips to the beach for more drift wood to create this feast, but what a feast it was! Feeling utterly full for the first time in days, and working a good buzz we brushed our teeth, said our prayers to the surf gods, and hit the doghouse. Along with my electrocution, Rob had an incident worthy of laughter during the night. At some point very early in the morning he awoke to a parched throat. He reached for his water and took a massive gulp only to discover that it was the bottle of local vodka that we had brought. He frantically searched for the juice in the dark, which he eventually found after an extremely uncomfortable few seconds. Needless to say sleep was no longer appealing, so he decided to stay up for awhile reading...

The next day we awoke to disappointing onshore winds, heavy rains, and no option of surfing the perfect waves that wed planned on. We decided to trek back to SDJS for a night or two, as yesterday was some sort of celebration for the local people, and Monday is the celebration of the Nicaraguan Independence. We did a pretty cool hike to the top of this cliff overlooking the town of SJDS with a massive statue of Jesus perched on top. The coastline is beautiful and we enjoyed the adventure. From the top we could see this large cave along the coastline across the bay, so we decided that if the surf was lackluster again today that we would try to make it there. Last night was pretty fun as a bunch of new people checked into our hostel. There were two big stages set up on the beach (one a techno party in support of the local turtle population, and one a reggae ton party). One of the bars on the beach we went to last night was the most stereotypical Hispanic bar scene with everyone packed onto the upstairs of this bar, no room to move, reggae ton bumping, and everyone sweating all over each other. It was wild, definitely a cool experience.

Today we tried to do the cave hike, but there was a barbed wire gate and the guy wanted $5 to let us pass. We decided against it, Matt returned to Parque, and rob and i walked over to the other side of the bay near the trail to the Massive Jesus statue to cruise/relax on the rocks. After being out there for two hours we began our trek back to town. We were intercepted by a guy and 6 police officers. The guy asked us if we´d seen a guy recently about 6 ft tall and wearing jeans. we said no and asked why. He proceeded to tell us that he and his friend were at the top next to the statue when an altercation occurred between his friend and another guy. His friend had made the mistake of throwing the first punch, and the guy pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest near his heart. It was at this point that we noticed there was blood all over the guys shirt. The cops told us to get out of there as it was a notoriously sketchy area to be hanging out. We had a very sobering walk home and both expressed the utter stupidity in allowing a confrontation in a foreign country to escalate to the point of a fist fight. Keep this guy in your prayers, I hope he survives.

Other than that everything has been going great, minus the lack of good surf. We have been meeting a ton of people and its really interesting to hear different peoples stories, where they are from, and what they are planning to do down in this neck of the world. We are here for the night and then are heading to Maderas in the morning in hopes that the surf improves. Swell charts and wind direction are looking promising!!



I´ll keep you posted, beeches. Viva La Revolucion!