Beach Life

We arrived to Nicaragua some 4-5 days ago and been a bit "in the bush", meaning there's been no internet and occasionally no electricity.. but now we're in town again for restocking & checking the internet, so here we go.

The border crossing from CR to Nica was probably the most colorful we've done. There you hike across a 1km stretch of soaking mud (while it's raining cats and dogs, of course) while big trucks push right past you and splash the ooze all around you.. there are no signs to the stamps offices and absolutely everyone not wearing an uniform is trying to con you for some money. Definitely an experience not soon to be forgotten, and I mean this in a good sense! After a lot of frenzied sign language and pointing fingers we make it to the country (entry cost 12$/person) and on a NicaExpress bus headed for the capital Managua. We ended up paying 10$/head for the 30+ km trip from the border to the town of Rivas, what a ripoff and we knew it. Hell, Nicaragua is supposedly the cheapest country in central america and in Panama we could cover 400km for the same ticket price.. oh well.

From Rivas we took a taxi to San Juan del Sur, which is the tourist destination of Nicaragua. Naturally it still is low season and since Nicaragua isn't exactly the biggest blip on the tourism industry's radar, so it's rather deserted here. Also we aren't really looking for a town to stay in, and the beach isn't that nice here, so we frantically explore our options by googling and talking to the locals.


Hopping on a "shuttle bus" (a large pickup truck with tires big enough to deal with the craterous muddy path the locals know as a road) to a surfer beach some 10km and 50 minutes outside of San Juan, we get to take a first peek at the waves of the Pacific here in Nicaragua.. and yes the surf's up, as they say! But, onwards we go and after asking for some directions we hike 15-20 minutes over rocky peninsula to the beach two coves over, called Playa Maderas/Majagual. Now, this is really something and even the way of getting there is really exiting, so we're quite psyched.

 On the way we run into another traveler couple who point us towards the end of the beach, where Hostal Mathilda's is hidden under the trees, right on the beach. Ye gods.. this is it, the peace and quiet we've been looking for. With stupid huge grins on our faces we greet the other 5-6 people (even during the high season there wouldn't be much more than 50ish on the whole beach) hanging there and get ourselves settled. We're staying at least a week, while one Canadian hombre has set up a camp for 6 months.

To quote The Beach, this place is a beach resort for people who don't like beach resorts. In a small shack on the sand, the resident cook Martha sells ice cold (occasionally frozen) cervezas for a hefty price of one dollar each as well as delicious meals for 2-3$. Several hammocks swing in the breeze all around, nearest no more than 2m from our door.. and we're getting the beach all to ourselves. There are no motor vehicles around, electricity goes out every now and then and all of that is just perfect.


Falling asleep every night to the sound of the huge waves crashing 20m away is really something.