San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

How long: 6 Nights
Stayed: Colonial Hotel, Sueno del Mar, Eco Hotel Playa Hermosa
Travelling with: Susan and Derek

Finally made it to San Juan del Sur after a long days travel!! Set off from San Jose at 10 on a local bus that took 7 hours to get to the border. No aircon and so the bus was about a million degrees. Window open with a breeze like a hairdyer to the face. Got dropped on the Costa Rica side of the borderd and had to go to exit immigration there. Then walk a few 100 metres down the road to the Nicaraguan side. All very straight forward...thanks to the numerous blogs i had read in advance. Came out of immigration and got pounced on by bus and taxi touts. Unfortunately got a bit fleeced now! Ended up paying 12 dollars for a 15 minute bus journey...3 more than I paid for the previous 7 hour one! And they promised to drop me in the middle of a town where there were loads of taxis to take me the rest of the way....a journey that would cost me $2. In fact when they dropped me on the side of the road where there was one taxi charging $10. Fuckers! Wandered the road a bit until I met a kindly lady who explained that there were colectivos passing that way and she the stopped one for me. I paid the gringo rate....which was at least double the local but at that stage prob would have paid the $10 just to get off the road. And off we went. Dropped me at the hotel where I met up with Susan.
Saturday night in San Juan so after a short rest and shower we headed out for a lovely Tapas meal. Then on for a drink and ended up in Corcks "irish" bar....needless to say that was Susans doing. Corcks was full of all the local alcoholics which was fun at first but got very tiresome with lots of unwelcome attention. Didn't stay long.
Next day we took a wander around town and then settled on the beach for the afternoon. Derek turned up at about 5 and we had a few nice beers on the beach and caught a beautiful sunset!
Next day we set off looking for a taxi/shuttle to take us to the beach and met up with Kenneth who was to be our chauffaur and surfing coach for the next week. Over next few days we visited Playa Marsella which was a stunning, almost deserted beach with an amazing sunset and the best lobster i have had in a while. Playa Ramonsa where we had out first surfing lesson and the best fish tacos ever, Playa Hermosa which lived up to its name and where i had two more surfing lessons and rode my first (and only ) green wave. We stayed out in the eco lodge in Hermosa for a night which was really lovely and then headed back to San Juan for one last night. Beautiful almost deserted beaches and breathtaking sunsets. Sunset photo count...abiut 12 thousand!
Last night in San Juan we headed out for a party, which was great fun until my bag was snatched from my hand on the way home by two boys on a motorbike. Had to admire the efficiency! Thankfully I had left phone and cards at home so was just down some cash and my lovely bag. But it was a lesson....a crossy over bag should be worn as a crossy over bag and not carried in your hand as a little gift to the local yewts!
All in all a very enjoyable time in San Juan and environs. Lots of laughs and good to be with some Irish again :)Read more