On Thursday (yesterday) morning, bright and early, Esmir and I packed up a few things, hopped on the motorcycle, and took off on our first adventure together. It was quite a tiring trip... 150 kilometers or so, averaging 60 km/hr. Some of the roads there were in pretty bad shape, but for the most part it was smooth cruisin. The trip from Managua to San Juan del Sur gets quite uncomfortable on a motorcycle, so we stopped after two hours in Rivas to get some breakfast and take a break from driving. They didn't have many good looking options at the comedor, so we played it safe and just had gallo pinto (i had a double portion). Gallo pinto is so cheap and filling, not to mention flavorful, that when I finished I was in quite favorable spirits to continue the journey. So was Esmir, so the next, bumpy, and slow 25 kilometers went by quickly.
We checked into a hostel in San Juan del Sur and left most of our things in the room. We took a towel, the cameras, and our swimming suits and headed of to explore the Nicaraguan Pacific Coast. The beach roads were something else, we had to cross some small rivers, and go up and down some serious slopes, but the motorcycle, nicknamed "la poderosa," made it just fine (surprisingly). We left the motorcycle in a beach called Maderas, famous for surfing, but still practically barren compared to the beaches back home. There were probably about 30 people surfing and a few more in the surf bar. We decided to just walk (hike) between the three connected beaches of Maderas and Majagual. The two beaches of Majagual were absolutely gorgeous, and great for swimming/bodysurfing. Although the beach was practically empty, we enjoyed chatting with a couple different tourists which were in the bar. There was a person there from Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, New York, Israel, and maybe other countries, all there just to enjoy the waves.
We had a good time swimming and checking out the wildlife in some of the rocky ridges. We headed back to the city before dark to rest a little, and then spent a couple hours in a bar on the beach. I had a horrible night's sleep on a paper thin mattress, but it was worth it.
The next day we went to Playa Coco, which was a bit of a journey but it was probably my favorite beach. It was a much larger spread of sand than the other beaches, and had a cool collection of rocks to hike around. We collected a bunch of shells that had been washed ashore in a big nook between some rock formations. We're going to attempt to make some necklaces. The return trip wasn't quite as exhausting as we took a shortcut and as the construction crews had actually worked on some of the roads.
After everything, it was a great trip. Tomorrow is my first day of American Football practice by the way, so wish me luck! I'm excited about this recent opportunity!
1 comment:
Hi Brad, My name is jennifer, i was doing some research on La Chureca and i came across this site. I was in managua last week working in la chureca and via esperanza, (village of hope), not sure if you have heard of it. Well, while i was there we took some of the children from La chureca to the beach also, and i am curios what organization you are there with or if your by yourself? I am going back in a year? How long have you been there? sorry i know i dont know you at all, but im curious, since we worked in the same place. my email is JCLampkin@mail.com , anyways,i loved it there, and excited to hear more about your trip!
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