Latinoamérica 2017

During my first weeks back at the camp Nicaragua was hit by tropical storm „Nate“.
It was already quite windy and raining a lot the night before during dinner time so we had to move the tables closer together to avoid the rain coming into the restaurant area which had only a roof but 2 completely open sides.
But when I closed the bar and went to bed everything seemed normal. I woken up during the night when the storm started getting stronger and stronger. We had closed all the windows but through an open part above the windows which was only covered with a mosquito net the rain still came in and reached the first row of beds (mine was one of these). I knew there was nothing really we could do but I didn’t really go back to sleep for most of the time. I actually saw one of the trees in the jungle right outside our window falling down and I heard a few more further away.
Around 7 I got up to check out the camp. Luckily our buildings were really robust so nothing really happened here. But a tree had fallen on our water pump and electricity lines from SJDS. So for now we were out of running water and power. Everything was wet and covered with leaves and dirt from the jungle but other than that no harm was done.
Lots of trees came down in the jungle, a few had fallen on our road and a lot of the other roads were also blocked or flooded. This meant no chance for our staff to get to the camp by motorcycle. So Johannes went to pick them all up and bring them to the camp via a backroad above our camp (from here you can walk down) while José and I started preparing breakfast for the guests (luckily we cook with gas).
Once the staff showed up everybody was getting to work right away. It was amazing to see that even the guests helped cleaning away the mess the storm had left us with.
The wind was still pretty strong and it was raining on and of. We could see massive waves down in Maderas. It was pretty obvious there was noch chance of surfing today.
After some of the guys had cleared the trees of the road Johannes drove to town to go shopping for the next days (we weren’t sure if the storm would pick up again) and took some of the guests with him. I stayed back with the rest. There wasn’t much to do and as everything was still wet most people just went back to there beds. The only other place that was pretty well protected from the rain was the bar. So after a quick nap we decided to do the obvious - start drinking!
I poored everybody a shoot and honestly the second we put our glasses down after taking this shot the power came back on! We tried the same thing again and again to get the water running but this wouldn’t work.
After a while we saw Johannes coming up the road walking. Two more trees had fallen on our road again and he came to pick up the chain saw so he could bring up the car which was parked down the road with his shopping and our guests.8
After dinner everybody went to bed quite early. But as the forecast was saying the storm would pick up again we made sure everything was secured for the night - first of all our surfboards 😉
Luckily the night was a lot quieter and the next day the weather was almost back to normal. But as the ocean was still to crazy to go surfing we made another tour into town to give our guests a chance to get out of the camp. This time I was driving and it was shocking to see what the storm had done to the roads and the small houses alongside of it. Also the view of the beach in SJDS was devastating. The bay is usually really quiet with some fishing boats laying on the beach which is lined by a few restaurants. Now the water went up all the way to the street and the fishing boats had been crashed against the restaurants.
On our way home we went down to Playa Maderas to take a look at our home beach. It was covered with rubbish. So we decided to organize a beach clean up the next day.
So the next morning I took all our guests and lots of bags back down there. Everybody filled up a bag and as lots of other groups had the same idea the beach was starting to look a little better.
After this we made our first attempt to get back into the water. We went to Playa Remanso as this beach is the most protected and waves here are usually the smallest. But they were still to heavy for most of us. I actually managed to paddle out with Melina but after I had to ditch my board a few times to dive through massive waves crashing right onto me I realized there was no chance of surfing for me. I took a wave to carry me back to the beach and actually managed to stand up in the white water. It was definitely the heaviest white wash I ever surfed 😅
The next day was a sunday which is usually surf-free. But as we hadn’t really been surfing for 3 days now we took our guests back to the beach. While Johannes went with the more experienced ones down to Maderas, Lorena and I took the beginners/intermediates to SJDS. I had never seen proper waves here but as the swell was still pretty big it was actually a lot of fun.

Within just a few days life at the camp got back to normal. But you could still see the damage Nate had done to the area along the roads. So we decided to use our social media reach to get our followers and former guests to donate money for a local organisation. Lorena did a beatiful short video which we posted on our facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Rapturecamps/videos/1915010555193270/Read more