Jump to the Nic

My time was up in Panama. I had spent a little over a month there and I was ready to move on to Nicaragua. Of course, there's a little bit of a geographical barrier between the two countries: Costa Rica. At the Panama/Costa Rica border I caught a bus to San Jose, arriving at about midnight. Passing through this city again I was disenchanted by the enormous shopping malls, Wall Marts and massive, illuminated parking lots. At 4am I caught a bus to Nicaragua and arrived at the border around 9am. When it was all said and done, my marathon voyage took me a total of twenty hours spread out over six sweaty (or freezing!) bus rides. Needless to say, when I arrived in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, with my hostel just a block away from the beach, I wanted nothing more than to throw down my pack, put on some trunks and jump straight in the cool, refrehsing ocean. And that's exactly what I did.

San Juan del Sur is another Central American spot that many foreigners have come to call home. Despite the amount of foreign influence and gringos flocking through the streets, the town seems to have a nice local vibe as well. Plenty of people seem to live there for reasons outside of tourism, although it's still the number one employer in this beach town. With a handful of great surf beaches nearby, including Playa Hermosa where "Survivor: Nicaragua" was filmed, one can spend numerous days catching waves suitable for any ability level. At Maderas beach the waves outside were hollowing out into tubes and breaking at close to 10ft, a little big for me to say the least, but the waves inside were just right. Regardless it was fun to watch the advanced surfers dropping in and catching some nice rides (even they get crushed sometimes).

In town the party is constantly hopping, with bottles of dirt-cheap but deliciously smooth Nicaraguan rum, Flor de Caña, available in stores on every corner and bars and restaurants lining the road that parallels the beach through town. And to top it off, this past weekend the town celebrated its días de fiesta for its patron saint, San Juan, that resulted in the standard all-day/all-night parties (this seems to be a theme in Latin America). Luckily these were only a block or so away from my hostel, so sleeping was pretty much out of the question. As the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.