The beach hut at Playa Madera

Having arrived in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, on the 2nd March 2006 exhausted after the madness of leaving London, we have spent two months relaxing into the pace of life here. San Juan Del Sur is 50 miles north of the border with Costa Rica, was once a quiet fishing village but now is the primary Pacific coast destination in Nicaragua (during Semana Santa the town was overrun with tourists from Nicaragua and neighbouring countries which was bearable during the day but at night it always got a bit aggressive due to the excessive amounts of alcohol everyone consumed so we stayed indoors like the locals do!)

Having arrived in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, on the 2nd March 2006 exhausted after the madness of leaving London, we have spent two months relaxing into the pace of life here. San Juan Del Sur is 50 miles north of the border with Costa Rica, was once a quiet fishing village but now is the primary Pacific coast destination in Nicaragua (during Semana Santa the town was overrun with tourists from Nicaragua and neighbouring countries which was bearable during the day but at night it always got a bit aggressive due to the excessive amounts of alcohol everyone consumed so we stayed indoors like the locals do!)

Known for its beaches, surf and the Paslama sea turtle nesting beaches the south west pacific side of Nicaragua has been a great starting point for our travels.

We have managed to rent a house from a local family in the Barrio Chino right near the centre of San Juan. Nicaraguan families are big (4 – 6 children) and most families live close to each other and this is true of our family – the whole neighbourhood is related to them! Because of the strong family dependence in Nicaragua we have been welcomed into the family we rent from. They have often given us traditional home cooked Nica food, fresh fish (caught that day by a family member) and we’ve enjoyed days out together on the family fishing boats. We feel very fortunate to have met such a nice family.

One fishing trip outside the bay of San Juan was useless as we caught no fish but we were rewarded with the sight of two whale tails rising out of the water (like something of National Geographic!) which made up for the lack of fish caught. A better fishing trip was in the bay of San Juan one lazy Sunday afternoon with the family we rent from. We dropped two nets into the sea twice and each time caught an amazing amount of fish. We had never seen so many different types of fish before; we caught red snapper, plaice, small silver fish, eels, puffa fish, sardines, stingrays and so many other fish that we don’t know the names of! The best part was eating our freshly caught fish right there on the boat having been simply fried in oil garlic and salt. This was best fish we have ever eaten!

Most of our days are spent surfing at Playa Madera 10 km north of San Juan. To get there we take the truck with the San Juan’s surf shop, Arena Caliente. The journey to Madera is always fun filled, bumpy and cramped depending on how many are going to surf each day - travelling Nica style means fitting as many people into the back of the truck as possible with surfboards attached to the roof of the truck – luckily ladies get to sit in the front of the truck which definitely is the safest place to be as there have been times when the truck has failed to make it up the steep hills and has rolled back down to the bottom almost colliding with the big tress! At Madera there is only one beach hut which serves food and drink and also has a few rooms for rent above. There is no running water or electricity at this beach stop; water is brought from the well everyday, electricity is provided by generators and our lunch is cooked on a wood burning stove. Die hard surfers love it here as there’s nothing else to do but surf.

Having snapped the surf shops surfboard in half, Oliver has now bought his own surfboard and is improving everyday. The aim is to master the waves here before we move on to the pacific surf beaches in El Salvador.

Our time in San Juan has been very very chilled and the hardest part of our days tend to be deciding what to eat as Nica food has become boring for us now. Apart from the scorpions stings we’ve both endured (we now have a house rule of shaking clothes before putting them on!), the ants nest that hatched out of our bedroom door, being pooed on by our house lizards whilst lying on the sofa, being bitten by bugs and the constant singing of the cockerel (day and night!) we have had nothing to complain about so far!

The remains of the ant nest built in our bedroom door!