SAN JUAN DEL SUR

We leave Granada at about 8:30am and take off towards Riva-Riva-Rivas!! That's the way all the taxi and bus drivers say it. Rivas is a jumping off point for other things around it like Isla de Ometepe and San Juan del Sur. All the guide books have Isla de Ometepe as a must see thing to do in Nicaragua so we take a taxi from Rivas to the ferry a few minutes away in the nearby town of San Jorge. I can never get over the feeling that we´re being ripped off by the taxi drivers here since there is no meter in any of them. After a few minutes we´re dropped off at the ferry. Isla de Ometepe is an island made up of two volcanoes in the middle of huge Lake Nicaragua. It is Tuesday and we only have 6 days left until we need to hustle our asses off down to San Jose, Costa Rica and fly home. We talk to a guy who runs tours on the island and he tells us that taking taxis around the island can cost $30 a piece!!! WTF!! We´re suddenly getting second thoughts about the whole trip to the island. I guess they have some beaches there to swim at and you can climb the volcanoes, and there is some cool animals and hot spings, but the thought of being at the mercy of unscrupulous taxi drivers is not very reassuring. We have already climbed one volcano and we have done some jungle trekking already. Suddenly we call an audible and decide to skip the whole Isla de Ometepe all together and go to San Juan del Sur instead. Some people from back on Utila had said they really loved Del Sur, as they called it. It is right on the Pacific Ocean and at this point of the trip being on a beach on the Pacific sounds a lot better than being on a beach of a big lake. (Especially if we can´t get around with out going broke) We get a cool taxi driver who takes us all the way to Del Sur for $6 each which I think is a good deal. Right away we can tell we made the right choice. Del Sur is a small beach town, known for fishing and surfing. The town is small, but colorful, with a lot of beach restaurants and bars along with anything else a traveler might need, like laundry, internet, etc. There is a good mix of tourists, surfers, and locals and the vibe is relaxed and mellow. We check out some rooms and end up at Casa Romano, a nice hostel-hotel that is owned by a really nice family. We get a nice big clean room with a bathroom, 3 beds, and 2 high powered fans for $30/night. Right away we go down to the beach with the swim suits on to check it out. The sun is baking down pretty good and the temperature has got to be in the 90´s, but the water feels great. The beach is really scenic, there are two cliffs encircling the bay with lots of boats anchored in the harbor. A large statue of Jesus stands on one of the cliffs over looking the bay. Cramer and I swim around for awhile and body surf some big waves. One thing I have to mention here is the fact that I´m not in great shape and after almost 5 weeks of little exercise and a lot of drinking I´m looking more like the Pillsbury doughboy than ever. White, pasty, and soft. You might think I´d be tan by now, and actually I do have a beautiful farmers tan going. I just don´t see the point in lathering up my whole body to try to get a tan so usually I keep my shirt on when I´m swimming down here. I dread getting a sun burn in the tropics. Well anyway the whole point I´m trying to make here is that I´m not that fat... but in Central America I have to be considered Obese. People are all skinny, not just the locals but all the tourists too. Of course very few tourist I´ve met are Americans, so maybe that´s why. That´s kind of weird too, the lack of Americans I´ve met. I don´t know, but it seems like Europeans and Canadians are everywhere traveling for months at a time. Different priorities I guess. Well after cooling down in the Pacific for awhile we enjoy a few cold beverages at the Iguana Bar and grab some food. Later that night we stop in at a cool place a few streets off the beach called the Barrio Cafe, which has good food too. The next day we do a lot of the same stuff. We get some breakfast and take in the town a little bit more. Hit the beach to swim and cool off in the mid day heat. The town is great and everything is perfect except too much sitting around drinking and eating gets boring after awhile so we decide its time to do a tour of some kind. They do have fishing tours, zip lining, paint balling, surfing, etc. The best bang for the buck is surfing. We sign up to do a surfing lesson where they´ll take us to one of the surf beaches nearby from 11am to 6pm. The beach in town doesn´t have good surf, but ones a few miles away have some great surfing. Playa de Hermosa, Remanso, and Maderas all have good surfing. We wake up the next day and pack our stuff. We get loaded into the back of a pick up truck with another 12 people and they drive us about 30 minutes away to Playa de Hermosa. There is a surf camp there complete with a small restaurant, lots of hammocks, small huts, and plenty of trees for shade. The beach is amazingly beautiful and was even the sight for the show Survivor: Nicaragua. Alfredo is our instructor and gives us an in depth lesson. The first part is all theory and philosophy and the second part is technique and the third part is getting in the water and doing it. So after a couple of hours we´re on the boards surfing the whitewater. The wave breaks once, that´s where the good surfers are, then it gets closer to shore and breaks again, that´s where we´re surfing. Alfredo tells us surfing is one of the most addictive sports in the world, and he may be right. We´re riding these big old giant 9 and half foot boards, and we´re getting up most of the time and doing pretty well. There are other people there just hanging out tanning on the beach, and some really good surfers too. Another thing I find weird is the huge amount of Canadians surfers here. Come on Canadian surfers... really? There is a bunch of them around and they all seem pretty cool. At first I thought the surfers we kind of stuck up, but I guess I just wasn´t in the "know" then. Later when the sun goes down we all load up the pick up truck and head back to town. We´re both exhausted, but before passing out we go to a local pizza place and get some pizza. It´s been about 4 weeks or so since my last slice, and it´s really good. Even though sausage to them is a cut up hotdog... That´s just not right! The next day we´re sore and scrapped up a little, but we´re addicted now so we sign up to go back to the same beach for some more surfing. Two Canadians (from Quebec) are staying at the same place as we are named Matt and Sara, and they give us some good info on the surf scene around town. They tell us Remanso is really good for beginners and has good rolling waves. We try to do Remanso beach, but there weren´t enough people to go so there is no truck going there. It´s starting to get a bad reputation, because a lot of people get bandito-ed there. It turns out it was probably a good move as a taxi full of people got robbed as they were leaving. The second day is great too. We´ve graduated to smaller boards now (8´4") and we´re starting to get some nice long rides. There are a lot more people there today, so we can´t find any hammocks to pass out in. We each probably surf for about 4 or more hours. Stopping periodically for water and some lunch. Both Cramer and I are getting better and are really enjoying it. Unfortunately I don´t know when the next time I´ll be surfing again, so I keep going until the sun starts to set. After two days of surfing we´re both beat up pretty good. Our hands, knees, and ribs are all raw and sore plus we´re exhausted. I pound down an energy drink when we get back. Then we see a bunch of people we met surfing going to get some food so we join them. One girl is from Japan, Monami, another guy is from Germany, Julian, another guy is Indian, but from London, Sanjay, and two other girls from Britian as well, Amy and Claire. We end up at the Black Whale, which is a restaurant right by the beach. After some food and plenty of drinks we all go back to their hostel, called Casa Oro, which is where we do all the surfing trips out of. Cramer is tired and hits the sack. I decide to keep drinking with these younger people, which is never a good idea... After a few hours I come crashing back into the room, accidently unplug the fan, waking Cramer up. Then run to the toilet to pray to the porcelin god, only to pass out a moment later snoring loud enough to wake the dead. This is what Cramer told me atleast and I had the hangover to prove it. It looks like no more surfing today. The whole day I just kind of lounge around trying to recover. I grab some food and read. The final night in town we go out to find some food. We stop in at a Sushi place first to see the menu and it´s really pricey. We each just drink a beer and split a sushi roll, and that was like $20!! The Lonely Planet had recommended a place called El Colibri, so we then go there. The place is great. Cool atmosphere, great decor, good music, and the food is phenomenal. It´s an expensive night on food, but hey it´s our last night in town. After 5 days in San Juan del Sur we´re finally going to be moving on down to San Jose, Costa Rica in the morning. Del Sur has been awesome and a great place to wind down the whole trip. We were treated to some awesome sunsets at both the San Juan beach and Hermosa beach, helping us to appreciate the end of our trip with style. Both of us agree that we made the right move by by passing Isla de Ometepe. It will give me a reason to come back again. The next morning we take a taxi back to Rivas and board the Tica Bus (a nice coach bus) to San Jose, Costa Rica.