Nicaragua - Cold water warm winds

We traveled by a first class bus from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, the bus was pretty nice like being in first class on a plane except on wheels ( yes I know its not that exciting for most but we though it was pretty good) the stewardess didn't speak any English and neither did any one else, this made crossing the boarder interesting but went with out a hitch ( good because we have many more of these ).

Not our transport - Yes they are still used plenty outside the city

Arriving in the capital of Managua we headed for the local bus to get to San Juan del Sur, being for the locals we had figured it would be an adventure. We have now come to referring to them as the chicken buses, though there were no chickens it would not surprise me to see one on board. The people were packed into this old American school bus, including boxes or what ever needed to be transported, vendors selling fruit and drinks in plastic bags at the windows and more people packing in.
Along the route periodically the bus slows slightly and some one jumps on selling drinks or hot food while we drive, pushing through the aisle of standing passengers and then exits out the back once it slows again.
After 2 1/2hrs crammed into this thing we missed the town we needed and traveled to the next one by accident and had to get a taxi back, after 13hrs of buses and heat we were glad to arrive at our new home for the next 9 days.

San Juan del Sur (Saint john of the South)
San juan del Sur is the biggest tourist destination in Nicaragua. Black sand beaches run the length of the town built around a large protected cove filled with fishing boats and yachts. A small town (10 min to walk from one end to the other) it has plenty of restaurants and hotels for all the traveling gringos, of which there are plenty.

The view of town from the statue of Christ overlooking the bay

We chilled for a couple of days, figured out the town and set up our Spanish classes for the next week.
Our host family for our home stay was 8 houses up from the school and across from a surf shop which suited us just great.
We settled in, met our host family and made camp in the large double room with en suite. Not at all what I had expected, spacious and very nice. In fact the room and service (cleaning , daily bed made etc) was as good as or better then most of the hotels we have stayed at on our journey so far.

Our home stay

The host family was a strange mix of relatives. Christina the matriarch of the residence was the owner of the house and a hardened older woman (estimate 60-70) who clearly ruled most of the girls with an Iron fist.
Senor Jorge Jey 50 ( hor hey) was the male figure of the house.
It gets complicated here, follow if you can. Christinas ex husbands 2nd wife's son in law is Jorge Jey
Basically Christina separated from her husband (no children) after 15 years and he remarried. Some of his children and grandchildren now lived here with Christina, like they were her own children.
Maria Feli 15 - Did all of the cooking for the week, great simple food, but we were sick of beans and rice by the end.
Little Maria 12 - Cheeky little girl, followed the orders from the senorita often with some back talk or roll of the eyes, and got in trouble for it.
Carla 16 - The only one we saw go to work all week, she got the golden spoon treatment, don't know why, maybe the job, maybe dad was around.
Most of the mothers or wives are in the united states working and sending money home, its just how it goes here.

Christina, The only guy in town with a beard, Little Maria

The all spoke Espanol to us most of the time though the older girls could translate on occasion but the idea was complete immersion in Spanish.
We attended class 5 days for 4hrs a day and by the end of each day our head hurt from all the new information, surprisingly though much of it went in and we understood conversations more and more.

During the week we had a few trips to the beach, the rental shop across the road had brand new boards which suited us perfectly. It was nice after riding crappy rental surf boards to have something new. Unfortunately I snapped a fin out of mine during the first session, luckily only cost $15 to replace. The water here was much colder then slightly south and I am told it gets warm again north, something about a current or offshore winds, it needed a wettie.

Corrine went on a walk to the statue overlooking the bay, and on Meircoles "Tuesday" we had a horse "cabello" ride into the "montana" a nice excursion.

The town was nothing special still rough but infected by tourism. The surfing beaches were a short drive out of town, we visited them 3 times in the week with mixed results. A new swell pushed in on our last days and had the surfing crowd buzzing, I surfed a 6ft day but it was mostly close outs, the next day forecast to be bigger and our local guide heading out to Popoyo for some fast barrels....I'm still not up to that standard just yet.

Don't know why all my surf photos seem to look like this?

We bid our family good bye in Espanol with some parting gifts of thanks, little maria scoured our room while we packed asking if she could have loose change or left over pringles before we set off back to the grubby capital for a 3 am bus the next day.

Some ones pet macaws playing on the fence

My summary of our glimpse of Nicaragua, cheap, unrefined as yet, and still a place where the people are happy to get what they can from the rich travelers. Which doesn't always make one feel like the bargain is worth it. Overall it was a great place to relax with very cheap food and accommodation, find some good surf and learn a whole lot more Espanol. I doubt we would visit again, but would certainly go back to El Salvador....more on that in a week or so.

By the way thanks for the messages well wishes or otherwise regarding the blog, I enjoy wrtting it (though some times my creativity is lacking) and its nice to hear some of our friends or family still read it on occasion.
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Costa Rica - Start of central America

We arrived in Costa Rica, one of the richer countries of Central America, we were there to see the city, beaches and catch up on some surfing.

Costa Rica: Our experience in a nut shell
Expensive - Its not cheap here, in fact it is comparable to North America
Pura Vida - The people are pretty happy and helpful every where we have been, we met some really great locals in Jaco and Santa Teresa
Imperial cerveza - The local beer isn't too bad, and generally pretty cheap
Constant surf - The waves were pumping every day, and usually offshore breeze, the smallest it got was 2ft with mostly 3-4ft days
Dirt Roads - Out side of the major cities, the roads are dirt, dusty and rough.
Palm Trees - no high rise and plenty of beach access everywhere.

San Jose
We arrive in the Capital, and driving into town it could be any American city, (fast food chains, car dealers) nothing really distinguished it from anywhere else, but so far this has been our experience in many capital cities. Damn globalisation!
We stayed in the capital a few days, looked around, nothing much to report before hopping a bus to the beach.We did spend way too much time at the local bus station, where we were later informed you have a 60% chance of being mugged during the day, and 100% at night. We were fine.

Jaco - Pronounced  (haako)
This is one of the two larger tourist beach towns of Costa Rica. As it is only an hour from the capital it attracts lots of locals (Tico's) as well as the standard fare of international tourists.
The beach is black sand which finds its way into everything. It is only Surfable on high tide, so much of our days involved relaxing at our hostel waiting for the tide to come good.

The guys who owned the hostel (Chris and Claudio) were two chilled out guys who had only bought the place a few months earlier. It was a great place, good food, hammocks in the shady courtyard and clean decent digs for $14 each per night in air conditioning. Beds on Bohio for any one reading, or Papas and Burgers cafe.

This is Ads during low tide

Plenty of board shops and we had a few decent surfs, nothing to go off about, the beach break was not too flash and plenty of time spent waiting for the right wave or short rides on close outs.
One thing I (Ads) was happy about was not losing my ability on the waves, having not surfed much for a few months, in fact I felt like I have been surfing better then ever, even hiring a 6"3 for the days at Jaco which is the smallest board I have ridden yet, (and the size that cos usually rides.) I had a ball on it! I can see why everyone goes to the trouble of bringing boards everywhere. It sucked trying to find the right hire board, I would kill to have my boards here right now. (Coming from the man who threw out his shoes cause he didn't want to carry them!)

This was also where we spend Australia day! We celebrated with our Aus flag themed clothes, beer, beach, sun, surf tomato sauce and nachos... It was about as Australian as you can get in Jaco..

Montezuma
After nearly a week we changed scenery across the gulf of Nicola to a town called Montezuma. We were told it would be chilled out hippie town, which it lived up to. Plenty of long dreaded haired people selling hand woven items off of car bonnets and camping on the beach commune style. It was a very easy going atmosphere. We found a hotel on the beach for $10 each a night, literally under the palms on the sand.

The protected white sand beach was great to just relax and hang around, definitely a place you could lose a month of your life and not care.
We took a short walk to some waterfalls and even managed to catch a movie offered during dinner at one of the local restaurants.

Santa Teresa
Moving on we headed to our next surfing spot. Not having booked we figured on walking around to find some where to stay. Upon arrival we found it a little different, the town is spread along the coast with only a very small central part, there are hotels and hostels for km's just spread out along the beach.
Walking in the sun alongside the dust dirt road we found a place run by an Israeli guy called Gingi. Happy and welcoming we called it home for the next 4 days. Turns out the Israelis had bought up lots of land and businesses a while back when cheap, this is now a major destination for them.
The waves here were nice, 3-4ft easy fun surfing waves, a small crowd but working all day. We both had some fun good surfing here and just enjoyed the warm water and excessive sun. (I, Cos, would just like to claim the top two waves of Santa Teresa, which were awesome! Even Ads was impressed and said my surfing has kicked up a notch. I was stoked! )

This would be a town I would recommend as a holiday destination, though we are hoping to find some better cheaper places further north in the next weeks. Transportation here consisted of plenty of quad bikes, so we took one for a spin for a few days while we had some errands to run. You get over it being fun after a while as all the roads are dirt so its constantly dust and you get it in your eyes mouth clothes everything.

Bandit quad bikers...

We headed back to the capital to line up with an early bus to Nicaragua.....our next stop

What else can I say, not a day spent without a sun drenched palm tree beach, good food, good people good beer. What more do you want?

Peru - Machu Pichu

After 3 1/2 days of walking, up and down the Andes from 8000ft to 14000ft we arrived at the Ancient Inca city of Machu Pichu.
We had followed the original route that the Incas once took as their pilgrimage to this religious site. The conquistadors had not reached this city when they conquered Peru and destroyed much of their temples and holy places. It had been left standing, if not abandoned a few years later.
Many of the sites and Machu Pichu remained un-discovered until 1911 when an American explorer accidental happened upon them and started following the trail.
The city is invisible from below when looking up the mountain and so it had been forgotten about when the Incas were decimated by the conquering Spanish.

Enough of the history lesson, I have attached some photos, but will say they can not even come close to the grandeur of this city. Set on top of a very steep mountain which drops away to a fast flowing river, the other peaks around it standing as tall or taller make it all the more impressive, clouds drift through the peaks and it is very easy to see how this place disappeared from all knowledge for so many years.

The entire city is set on terraces built into the mountain and made from granite mined and brought here.

The construction of the temple of the sun was astounding, the walls had been constructed with no mortar and fitted so closely together you could not fit a playing card in the gap, the stones polished smooth on the surface, that would make any modern stone mason envious.

The view of the surrounding peaks was not a sight I had expected, and one which made the place all the more amazing

The clouds just drifted in and out all day

The weather for the morning walk in was less then ideal



The sun came out for us not long after

 It had been a tiring few days, our legs and knees were keen for a rest, we walked around the entire site for several hours taking in all our tired bodies could manage. We felt some what more deserving then those that had simply caught the train, arriving in their air conditioned coaches after a nice night in a hotel bed.
Seeing the beauty and hearing the stories of the Incas made it very worthwhile and something we will hold proud in our memories as an accomplishment.

Next stop - Costa Rica and some sun and surf