Nicaragua

January - February 2019
A 15-day adventure by Robert & Benoît
  • 30footprints
  • 2countries
  • 15days
  • 150photos
  • 0videos
  • 32.3kkilometers
  • 12.8kkilometers
  • Ready Set Go

    January 30, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ -15 °C

    I am pretty excited to head off for this trip. We have had lots of snow in the last couple of weeks. I do not mind trading snow ❄️ for sand for a couple weeks and also get some vitamin D ☀️. We are headed to a yoga retreat with great friends. We made a similar trip last year in Costa Rica and had a blast.

    We made our list and checked it twice and packed our bags last night. As usual I am probably bringing more clothes than what I actually need but hey that's my pattern. My bag is pretty packed. We want to carry on our stuff to avoid having to check them in.

    This morning we completed our self check-in for our flight and got electronic boarding passes. We are heading to Montreal tonight, our flight is at 6am tomorrow. We did no want to have to drive at night so we booked a room near the airport. As a bonus we can leave our car for 2 weeks without any extra fees. A shuttle will bring us to the airport at around 3:30 am 🌙. I probably won't get much sleep tonight anyway.

    Off to a new adventure!
    Read more

  • Day 1

    Courte nuit à l'hotel avant le depart

    January 31, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ -17 °C

    Une courte nuit au Travelodge pour éviter de conduire à 2h du matin pour notre vol de 6h. Un dernier goût du froid de l’hiver québécois avant le départ en prenant la navette vers l’aéroport 🥶

  • Day 1

    Travel day

    January 31, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    An early wake up (3:30 am) this morning. Our plane leaves at 6:00 am so we need to get to the airport pretty early. We hop on the shuttle at 4:00 am and arrive 15 minutes later. It's pretty cold out there, I will be happy to trade the minus sign for the plus sign.

    At the airport we go to the American gates and head for the line up for security and customs. When we get there we see a sea of people waiting in line; there must be over 400 people. We thankfully see the Nexus logo where only 3 people are in front of us. This Nexus card pays for itself.

    Once security and customs are over we head to gate 81. We get to our gate pretty early, there is no one yet arrived. We head over to get coffee and a snack for the plane. About 45 minutes later we are starting to worry that our travel companions who had to use the regular security line might miss the plane. I ask the flight attendants if there is any way to wait for them. They simply tell me that if they miss their plane they will "simply" have to book another flight. Thanks...

    We are asked to board and still no sign from our friends. We are worried as we have passed the gate and are waiting to get in the plane. Thankfully at the last minute we get a text that they made it and will be able to board. They had to run through the airport.

    Our flight to Miami goes great. We have an hour and a half wait before we take the next flight to Managua. We stop to eat and head to the gate last minute. As we arrive our names are called at the desk. "Shit did we lose our seats" is the first thing that comes to my mind. It was finally just a re-sanning of our passports. She would not tell us why but that it had to be done.

    This flight was a bit longer than expected, one of the pilots seatbelt was defective and needed to be replaced before we took off. A mechanic is required to fix this. It took an hour due to the replacement part being completely at the other side of the airport.

    The flight went well, we arrived in Managua about 45 minutes later than the original expected time. Our whole group goes through customs and immigration without any problems. Yay 🙂. At the exit Gustavo, our driver, is waiting for us to do the last leg of our travel for the day. We have a 3 hour drive heading north to our destination.

    The drive took a bit over 4 hours. Traffic was present and the roads are under lots of construction. Gustavo did a great job getting us to the resort. We made a small pit stop for some alcoholic beverages. We are ready.

    Upon our arrival we are shown our cabanas and get the explanation on how things are setup. It's going to be a really nice stay. Once we set everything our supper is served. The food is great. We are pretty tired from our journey so we head to bed.

    Tomorrow we start surfing 🏄‍♂️
    Read more

  • Day 1

    Enfin arrivés à destination

    January 31, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Après une longue journée de transport, on arrive finalement au resort Coco Loco à la noirceur vers 20h30. Le dernier bout de route de terre était assez rough : on devait rouler à 5 ou 10 km/h. Je suis affamé. Heureusement un excellent repas nous attend.

    Notre cabana est spacieuse et bien aménagée. Il y a 3 lits donc si on se chicane on va être OK ;-) Les toilettes sont bio, j’ajouterai quelque chose là dessus plus tard 💩

    J’ai hâte de voir le resort à la lumière du jour.
    Read more

  • Day 1

    #AwesomeFood Day 1

    January 31, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Après une journée de bouffe d’aéroport, les gens au resort nous avait préparé un délicieux souper (tardif car on est arrivé à 20h30). Ça s’annonce comme un délicieux voyage… va y avoir un pré-déjeuner servi à partir de 5h30 (gruau, pain, yogourt), suivi d’un déjeuner chaud, d’un lunch et d’un souper. 🤤😋

    *Souper*
    Poisson local frais, riz et légumes grillés;
    Dessert : brownies avec crème glacée à la vanille.
    Read more

  • Day 2

    First time surfing

    February 1, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Sleep was great. They have fans in the rooms to keep us cool and we have the ocean waves providing a nice soothing rhythm. Perfect sleeping conditions for me.

    I wake up at 5:30. It is central time here so it’s really 6:30. I thought others would be up for coffee and the sunrise. Nope, I'm on on my own, I meet Mylena who is part of the morning staff. She brings in the coffee while I try practicing my Spanish and have a small conversation with her. The conversation is short, my vocabulary is still too limited 🤷‍♂️. Mylena offers to help me practice, I need to find more sentences to say for her tomorrow morning.

    After our first breakfast we get our first surfing lesson which is included in our stay. Oscar has a team of instructors ready to help us with our first waves. It's quite the sport, I did not think that I would have been out of breath that much practicing this sport. Battling the crashing waves as you head to sea requires lots of jumping over the break and then trying not to be pulled back to shore. After a couple of attempts to stand on the board we are able to ride the waves. It's a great feeling when you ride the wave.

    After a couple hours of surfing we head back to the Casa Grande for second breakfast. Another great meal is served. Jamie, one of the owners, comes to chat with us. He shares a short version of his story on how he decided to come Nicaragua to build something that will benefit the community. He will share more when the rest of the remaining guests have arrived early next week.

    I then decide to head for a nap as the surfing took quite the toll on my body. Once rested we have a super relaxing yoga session with Nicky who made us go through some great stretch poses. After yoga we eat lunch which is again really tasty and also healthy. I think I may gain 10 pounds this week. Alvaro is the cook and so far all the food he has prepared was amazing.

    We relax for the rest of the afternoon with some reading, swimming and enjoying local rum. Another group of guests arrive around 7:30pm. We know these guys as we met them last year at the retreat in Costa Rica. We will be 18 total, more are arriving at midnight and the remaining will arrive Saturday at different times.

    The day ends with another great meal. I think it will be pretty easy to fall asleep tonight.
    Read more

  • Day 2

    #AwesomeFood Day 2

    February 1, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    *Déjeuner*
    Crêpes aux bananes;
    Pouding au chia, noix et coconut;
    Œufs durs avec sauce piquante.

    *Lunch*
    Assiette de humus, légumes grillés et bananes plantain.

    *Souper*
    Crudités et guacamole avec tortillas maison;
    Chili végé avec riz et pain;
    Dessert : sorbet à l’ananas et sirop de agave.
    Read more

  • Day 3

    Another great day

    February 2, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I wake up at 6:00 to get ready for some boot camp style training this morning. I am leading th session and we are a group of 10 that decide to workout. Pretty good, we have a couple others that will probably join for our next sessions.

    After the sweating session we have a little breakfast and get ready for surfing. We want to see if we can apply what we leaned yesterday. We start on the easy waves and then try some of the bigger ones. I flip head over feet a couple of times when I would try the big waves. I also nose dived other times. I was afraid to get hit by the board, thankfully I only got hit once by Ben's board. I try the easier waves and am able to stand and ride a couple nice ones. After a while my knees and ribs get pretty chafed so I decide to stop for the day and take photos of the others who are still having fun.

    Big breakfast is served after surfing. We stuff ourselves and then chill until 1:30 where we have our first yoga session with Basia. She gets us to do mostly stretching as we did yesterday. Tomorrow will be more of a "Flow" yoga. We will be working harder.

    We spend the rest of the afternoon chatting and meeting the remainder of the guests whom arrived today. We're going to have a great week. The people are great, the food is excellent and the place is amazing. I'm really happy to have accepted the invitation to join.
    Read more

  • Day 3

    #AwesomeFood Day 3

    February 2, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    *Déjeuner*
    Gallo pinto (riz avec bines)
    Œufs brouillés
    Pico de gallo (salsa de légumes)
    Tortillas
    Bananes plantain sucrées
    Fromage

    *Dîner*
    Quesadillas végétariens
    Riz et salade nicaraguanénne

    *Souper*
    Jalapeños farcis au fromage
    Poisson pané avec salsa au melon d’eau, riz tropical et légumes
    Dessert : Yolos (dates, sirop d’agave, beurre de peanuts et chocolat)
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Surf's Up

    February 3, 2019 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We start the day with Boot Camp session number 2. We are 11 this morning so I prepare 6 stations. I also decide to increase the intervals from 50 seconds to 60 seconds. After the workout is done and I have a quick shower and a mini breakfast as yoga starts in 20 minutes.

    Yoga feels like a second workout this morning. My shoulders are screaming for a break. I push through and take a couple of small breaks to get me through the flow work. Near the end we get to more of the stretching movements, I am happy when we reach the last Shavasana.

    Big breakfast is served after yoga. While we eat the crew is preparing a cooler with beer; today the guys will bring us surfing at another beach. We prepare our things and meet everyone at the beach house. There is a pickup truck loaded with the surf board.

    Once everyone is arrived we start our walk toward the other beach, it takes us about 15 minutes to get there. We bring our things to a shaded area and grab a board. Ben and I decide to share a board and take turns. While on is surfing the other tries to take photos of the others surfing.

    It's good surfing for beginners, the waves are not too high and they can take us for a good ride. It's easier for me today to catch the waves and stand quickly. We surf for a couple of hours before we head back to the resort.

    After lunch we have some time to ourselves before our second yoga session. I go take a nap while it's the hottest and stay in the shade.

    The afternoon yoga is a accompanied with music. Cat and Andreas work as a duo to make us feel the music vibrations while performing relaxing yoga poses. It's an interesting experience. I am curious to see what they will do the following days.

    Jamie has setup a TV and plugged it to his computer to stream the Superbowl. Some of the guys here wanted to watch it. The cooks even prepared some finger foods for us like chicken wings, popcorn, fried cheese and other tasty food.

    Before heading to bed, we take a detour to the beach to watch the stars. It's quite the lovely sky without all the pollution caused by light. We also notice many hermit crabs running on the beach. They are quite quick.

    Another great day in Paradise.
    Read more