Monday 15th May 2006. San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. A Nicaraguan Wedding.

It was just normal day. Having woken up after a long nights sleep (due to the searing heat we get so tired – it’s the height of summer – we are sleepy average 10 hrs a night!) and had lunch at Pelican Eyes Hotel Resort we pop into town for some supplies and bump into our friend Jorge. Jorge is a local who works at the surf shop so we’ve spent a lot of time with him and come to like him a lot. He tells us that he has just been to our house to invite us to the wedding of Byron & Isabel later that afternoon. Byron is the owner of the surf shop Arena Caliente and Isabel is his girlfriend who is currently visiting from Canada with their two year old son Manu. A few hours later we walk into town to our friend Bridget’s house where the wedding is being held. The wedding is held in the garden with all the boys that we have come to know from the surf shop there, Byron’s family and a few other people like us – tourists who have been in San Juan for an extended period of time. Weddings in Nicaragua are either religious or civil as in the UK but here the venue needn’t be licensed - as long as you have a lawyer you can get married anywhere.

So the wedding began in the lush garden adorned with white balloons. Isabel was given away by Byron’s elder brother Kervin who also runs the surf shop. The wedding was short and sweet and it was the only wedding that we have been to where you could drink beer and smoke a cigarette during the ceremony! Witnessing the wedding brought back a lot of happy memories of our own wedding just a few months ago. After the wedding we continued the party in the garden with some local food and pizzas and of course lots of Nica Libres (Nica rum and lemonade).

We are very happy to have experienced a Nica wedding (something we never expected to do) and wish Byron, Isabel and Manu every happiness in their new life in Canada.

The Wedding Party (Byron & Isabel at centre in blue dress and flower shirt – Manu at front)

The Goodfellows

The 3 Gringos (aka L-R, Kevin, Oliver & Brent)