Post Graduation Beach Weekend

Las Peñitas is a fishing village and tourist beach community on the North Western coast of Nicaragua. It is becoming a more and more popular tourist destination and there are many hotel beach bars catering to backpackers, surfers, foreign aid project workers, religious groups, and expats. All Wikipedia information aside, I know its a 30 minute and 15 Cordoba (about .50) bus ride away. We did splurge and take a microbus which cost about 70 Cordoba. We escaped the heat of Leon and were sitting on the Pacific coast within 45 minutes after check in.
  My little slice of Nicaraguan Pacific heaven was the Sol y Mar Bed and Breakfast. Eight of us shared and we had the entire place to ourselves thanks to Heather and Jon Smith, owners and operators of TEFL Nicaragua. Without a doubt the best hosts/guides/party planners/beach fire builders and new friends I could have hoped for.

The oddest thing did happen when we arrived and took our places on chairs, hammocks and the beach. We were immediately joined by an unlimited supply of friendly and lazy ass beach dogs. They were not begging for food and it appeared they just wanted to chill as beach dogs are apt to do. They pulled up in and around us, laid down and fell asleep. I should have taken a few photos as it was really sweet to have them there.
Hold up your hand if you have been drinking and enjoying yourself and agreed to do something the next day but when you woke up you thought...F**king beer. Ken (or insert your name here), you are such a dumb ass. Well as the day turned to night and excitement settled into relaxation and talk of dinner someone mentioned that this beach had a few international surfing competitions every year. The waves were impressive and we figured 10 - 12 feet based on them being more than twice the size of the surfers. "Lets go surfing in the morning" came the call of the wild. "Oh man what a great idea" came the reply of the stupid.

 So with a renewed spirit of adventure in our hearts and beer induced courage in our belly we headed to Barca de Oro for dinner. We are on the Pacific coast so it was a myriad of seafood dishes all around. Soups, pastas, fried, shrimp, fish and all the fixings. This crew has spent so much time together in the last month that reaching over one person to get to another persons plate with a "hey let me try that" did not cause a flinch in anyone. After a while there were no use for utensils, they just go in the way of the eating.  Big thumbs up to the night.  As an aside, it was during this moment of King Arthur feasting that it came to be know to me that my beloved Toronto Blue Jays failed in their attempt to get to the World Series. It was an incredible run and the memories of watching almost every game this summer will never be forgotten.

I have attempted to surf a few times in my life. Once on the Gold Coast of Australia (Epic Fail), once in Ecuador (Epic Fail) and once in Hawaii (Epic Fail) so when I woke up knowing that I had agreed to go it did not take a prophet to know what was going to happen.
I had a great swim the day before and knew the water was incredibly warm and the surf was strong even at low tide. So after breakfast away we went. Kieran (from the Cheetos to relive stress episode) has been coming to this beach for about 6 years now and scouted out a rental shop. ** as an aside, if I ever had had a son I would have hoped he had the manners and temperament of Kieran. One of the finest and funniest young men I have ever met. (in the white shirt in the picture above)**

Well off I go with Keiran and Otto (another decent young guy). We confidently rent our boards and hit the surf with our rental shop owner (whose name I sadly forget) in tow. It was obvious we were not ready for the Nicaragua Única Original ISA World Surfing Games or any facsimile of them.
This was some strong as surf. The area we were in was aligned with the estuary going into the Isla Juan Vanado Nature Reserve. This created cross waves coming from the left as the main hammering of the tide his us head on.  Duck diving was impossible because, well I can not do it. That left riding or pushing the board forward until the breaker hit and push the board over the white water. So the dance of the surf had begun. Three feet forward, big crashing wave, five feet back  cha cha cha and repeat.

As you got the rhythm of the water (and you actually do) you could see opportunities to get on the board and paddle. In the 2 hours of being tossed around like old socks in a washing machine I managed to "catch" 4 waves. Catch of course meaning I got a hold of the top of a wave laying on my board, held on for dear life and road it to the beach. I could not have been any more surf un-cool.
When I had had enough I was exhausted, battered, bleeding (yes bleeding) and had drank my fill of Poseidon's salty potion. There was an afternoon pool party to attend and surfer boy is better at hanging around a bar telling tall tales then he is at "riding the rad curl"

About that pool party. It was down the road at El Cardu Del Mar. Owned by a couple of Canadian guys it was a hilarious afternoon. The food was fantastic and the cold beer was readily available. There were a few locals that showed up and a couple expat Canadians who added to the mix. I did find a hammock after a while and had a nice afternoon, post surf apocalyptic adventure snooze to the sounds of modern music that I had no clue about.

Sunday morning brought us to the Nature Reserve of Isla Juan Vanado popular with visitors for the wildlife and turtle migrations.That was exciting but I was all about the mangrove kayaking. The reserve was just past Barca del Oro along the estuary side. Tour and fishing boats lines the beach. It was a fantastic site to see kids splashing, swimming and playing in the water at 930 am.
This is a poor village in every way possible and with that comes a great respect for visitors. Not only for the needed hard currency but a real desire to show the world that Nicaragua is an amazing place. I personally do not like the phrase "the people were so friendly". There are friendly people all over the world. Here in Las Peñitas there was a genuine gentle kindness towards us.

We hopped on a launch and went up the estuary into the mangroves. Our guide had the eyes of an eagle. He spotted hidden iguanas, large spiders, and even the smallest of birds. He had a booklet of the animals and birds we were seeing and made a point to tell us as much as he could. This is a Nature reserve but of course funding is tough. Poaching is a menace but in this case its usually for food. We cruised up the estuary and did stop to allow the adventurous types to get out of the boat and climb along the mangrove roots. I am always up for something like this but for whatever reason took a pass and enjoyed watching the 5 or 6 of my travel mated monkey along.

At the turn around point we "released the hounds". There were two kayaks. Kathy a really interesting and lovely lady who loves all things Africa, and Heather jumped in one and my pal Paige and I took the other. Paige and I had partnered and worked on a few projects including a large "learner assessment" project. We interviewed a student and through a series of reading, writing, listening and talking tests we had to design a teaching lesson plan for her. We then taught the lesson and created 2 follow up lesson plans. To wrap it up we presented our findings to the class. Not only is Paige as smart as a whip, she is funny and has a great sarcastic side which made me laugh all the more. She is quiet(ish) but not in the "I am scared of my shadow kind of way" where as I am so incredibly not. We worked oddly well together without any issues and great results. I could not have had a better partner and am happy to call her my friend and salsa partner for life.

We finished our weekend with a nice long lunch at Playa Roca. Here we watched real surfers and stared at the ocean as you do. I think the next time I come to the beach I will stay here. It is everything you could want in a beach hostel.

It was a great Pacific Coast weekend and well deserved. Now its time to get to get teaching. Let's see how that adventures goes.