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Latinoamérica 2017
  • About a girl who travels

Latinoamérica 2017

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    San Juan del Sur 2.0

    8 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    As I wanted to make the most of my time in the surf camp I joined the group for the morning surf session and even went down to Playa Maderas with them for Passion Fruit Mojitos at sunset. I then took the last shuttle from the beach into town to San Juan del Sur to spend another night here.
    I asked for a dorm at Casa Oro again but they only had the more expensive option available for that night. So I was happy when an old lady walked by and offered me a room at her homestay for the same price. It was a nice place with a few private rooms surrounding a little backyard. The only 2 other guys staying here were in their fifties. This was probably a pretty uncommon experience in this hipster party town.
    For dinner I found a nice local fish restaurant which surft super fresh ceviche for $4.
    The next morning I actually met up with the crew from the surfcamp again. I had left my charger there and they brought it to me on their way to the beach.
    After this successful reunion and another good bye I made my way to Popoyo.    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Playa Popoyo

    9 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    My first night in Popoyo I stayed in the weirdest hostel: the Melting Elephant. More people had recommended it to me so I wrote them an e-mail asking about a bed without really looking at pictures. When I got there I suddenly realized that they had literally built a melting elephant. The whole house looked like it was slowly melting. Also inside lots of furniture were built in the walls with melting shapes. Actually the hostel was quite nice with a big kitchen and some hammocks in the back towards the beach. But when I got there I didn't really meet anybody and it felt the Popoyo Beach Hostel next door was much more social. So I booked only one night as I thought I could easily change to the Popoyo Beach Hostel the next day. Turned out the whole "town" was pretty much fully booked and I ended up staying in a room above the super market. Sounds weirder than it was. There were a few rooms and it was actually quite useful to have the tienda just downstairs for late night chocolate cravings ;) And I mostly spend my days hanging out at Popoyo Beach Hostel as they didn't really mind.
    Guasacate (which is the actual town at Popoyo Beach) was not much more than a dirt road along the beach with a few hotels and restaurants. It had the vibe of a surfers home. Opening hours of the super market would vary depending on the tides.
    For me it was the first time surfing by myself after a week of lessons at the surf camp. Luckily Kajal was here and gave me a proper tour of the different surf spots. For me only one was of interest: beginners bay.
    I was super proud after my first session as I caught a really nice wave and people actually cheered me for it when I paddled back out afterwards. So it must have even looked good 😏
    I was spending most of my time with Kajal and his friends. One of his friends made a super nice yoga session on the beach for us one morning. A perfect way to start the day!
    My last day here I was having breakfast at this little hat when a taxi stopped and Jens, a guy I had met in the surf camp, jumped out. It's always nice to see familiar faces. We spend the day hanging out at the Popoyo Beach Hostel talking about what had happened at the camp since I left. At night we went all together to the Magnific Rock Hotel which has a party every saturday night. On our way back we walked out on the magnific rock which goes pretty far into the ocean. It was amazing standing there in the moonlight while the waves were crashing against the rock everywhere around us. When we turned around to walk back we realized that the tide was coming in and we couldn't make our way back with dry feet 😬 Luckily the water hadn't risen to much. But this is why you should always be aware of the tide at the ocean, right?
    The next morning I wanted to catch the bus from Las Salinas back to Rivas. There were 2 options to get to the bus. Walk for about 25 minutes over the beach or go the other way around along the street which takes about an hour but here you have the chance to catch a ride with a car passing by. I decided to try to hitch hike but was actually walking for a while till the first car past by. It was a police truck and somehow they didn't wanna take me. The next car was a guy stopping every 100 meters to write down some numbers. He wasn't much faster than walking and was not really going to Las Salinas. I already thought I would have to walk the whole way when an air conditioned hotel shuttle pulled to the street in front of me. He stopped without me even giving a sign and even offered to take me all the way to Granada. This felt a little weird so I declined but was happy to have him take me to Las Salinas.    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Granada 2.0

    12 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    My job in Leon was starting on Monday and as it would have been quite a journey to get from Popoyo all the way to Leon I decided to stay one night in Granada. When I was there the first time I had choosen a really quiet hostel but I had read about this place "De boca en boca" which was supposed to be really nice. And it was. Definitely one of my favorite hostels so far.
    I was a little hang over from the party in Popoyo and as it was really hot in Granada I was planning on mostly just chilling there and the hostel was perfect for it. They had a nice garden in the center with lots of swings and hammocks. When I arrived a girl was collecting money to buy a little paddeling pool for guests to cool down.
    The only thing I hadn't seen last time I was in Granada was Lake Nicaragua so I decided to walk down there and check out the view towards Isla de Ometepe. So I did that. I figured you can't really see Ometepe from Granada but it was a nice walk and enough attraction for that day.
    Back at the hostel I was hanging out in one of the swings and started talking to people about our trips. It was really funny when I realized 2 of the people had been to the same surf camp like I was. Andy stayed there for quite a while and was the camp photographer. I had seen his pictures on the rapture camp facebook page and people had told me about him at the camp!
    As the hostel had a really nice kitchen so most of the people were cooking their dinner. But as I had been to lazy that day to go shopping I was happy to meet a few people I could join for a nice and cheap dinner.
    I really fell in love with the hostel and collected some nice ideas which I thought I could probably transfer to the hostel I was supposed to work in Leon.
    The next morning I left after some selfmade banana pancakes to start my job!    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Leon 2.0

    13 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    In the bus from Granada to Managua and onto Leon I met Chuck. He sat down next to me and we talked all the way to Leon. He was planning on heading onward to Las Penitas but as he had to change to another bus terminal to get there he walked with me to "El Albergue". I was quite nervous as I had only talked to the owner by mail and I had only seen pictures of the hostel. But I had this idea in my head of working in this nice hostel. Being a sweet host who actually shows around the guest answering their questions before they even ask. Spending a lot of time socializing with other travelers. Improving my spanish as the rest of the staff was all locals.
    Also I was looking forward to unpack for a while and get settled. Having a favorite Cafe and maybe finding a regular yoga class.
    When I walked through the door I could already feel that the pictures had painted this place in a better light than in real life. The owner was super friendly (maybe a bit cheesy) and told me I could chill for the day he would explain the work to me later. When he showed me to the dorm room I was a little confused by a bed standing randomly in the center of the room. It kind of blocked the way to get to the other beds. So I asked where this bed was supposed to go. When his answer was that this is where the bed belongs it dawned on me that we might have different ideas about how the perfect hostel has to look.
    It didn't get better when he showed me further around. I can't say it was dirty but it was also not really clean. And there was just a lot of stuff hanging and standing around everywhere. I didn't feel like unpacking so I just went to the garden and talked to a few guests.
    Later the owner walked around the hostel with me again as he got really excited about me being an interior architect and he wanted some ideas for changes in the hostel. As there were still 2 other volunteers working this week he thought I could just do the designs in my first week and start working at the reception the week after.
    I didn't really know what to think about the place, the owner and my work here so I took a walk around town hanging out for a while in the square in front of the cathedral. I figured it's probably best to just give it some time...
    The next morning one guy working at the hostel was supposed to show me what work needs to be done during the day shift (one person was working 8am to 3pm and another 3pm to 10pm). When I got to the kitchen at 7:45 he had already started to prepare the doe for the pancakes. I asked him about the ingredients but he only said "I do this every morning". He didn't really talk to me so I figured I just gonna watch him. After he had finished all the work in the kitchen and was hanging out at the reception I decided to just start with a design for a new tour desk next to the reception the owner had asked for. All I had was a piece of paper, a ruler and a pencil. I started with a floor plan and an elevation of the existing reception and the empty space next to it. I took most measurements by counting the floor tiles 😅
    When I was finished with the existing I figured I should get it copied before starting to draw in it. So I went to a copy shop around the corner. Next I figured I would need color so I went to a store to buy some colored pencils. It's been a long time since I have made a drawing like this but it was great fun.
    When the owner got to the hostel in the afternoon the first thing the guy working at the reception told him was that I hadn't been following him around all day and had even left in between. Luckily the owner knew what I was doing and told the guy not to worry about it. I showed him my drawing and after he had given me some feedback I told him I would do the changes the next morning and left for another walk around town.
    I went back to the rooftop bar I had been to before for sunset and thought about my situation over a drink. I could say for sure that I wouldn't recommend the hostel to any of my friends. So could I still work there? I decided to stay the week and go to Las Penitas on the weekend. My plan had always been to spend my offdays at Las Penitas surfing and as the owner of the hostel had a house there I would even have been able to stay there for free. If Las Penitas was great maybe I could find a way to like the hostel and my job there.
    After a while 2 guys showed up and asked if they could join my table as there were no other tables left with a good view. 2 friends of them showed up and also joined. I talked a lot with Winnie who had been traveling for over a year and was collecting money for a good cause with her page thetoothfairytravels.com
    After a few drinks we went to get dinner at a street food barbecue.
    I realized that I wasn't really saving a lot of money as the job only covered for accommodation and pancakes in the morning (just with sugar or jam). And as the kitchen in the hostel wasn't the cleanest I didn't feel like cooking there every night.
    I went to bed later and woke up the next morning with the typical rows of bites on my legs and shoulders and little blood stains all over my bedsheets. Bedbugs!
    This is when I was finally done with this place. I still finished the changes on my drawings in the morning when Chuck (the guy from the bus from Granada walked in). He was on his way to Estelí and it was good talking to him in this situation. He invited me to join him and some friends for the Somoto Canyon tour a few days later if I decided to leave the place. But I guess I had already made my decision and as soon as the owner showed up I told him really honest that I don't feel like I can sell a place really well which I wouldn't recommend to my friends. He was quite understanding but actually asked me to go for a beer that night. First I thought he just wanted to have a beer because I still helped him with the designs but when he got really pushy about it and said "He would really like to get to know me better without the context of the hostel!" I realized he was seriously hitting in me 😅 so I guess this was another fact that proofed my decision to leave right. I gave all my clothes to the laundry in case the bed bugs also made it into my backpack and left for good to spend the night at another hostel. The next morning I left early to catch the bus to Las Penitas.    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Las Penitas

    16 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Like you can see in the pictures also for me the sun doesn't always shine in paradise. I was pretty disappointed that things didn't work out like I thought they would with my job in Leon. I didn't really know where to go now and how to spend the next weeks. On the one hand that's of course a great feeling. But I had planned with leaving Nicaragua mid april wich would have worked out perfectly with meeting my friend Alena in Panama end of april. Now I felt lost. Should I just try to find a cheap place somewhere at the beach and keep on surfing? Should I try to find another volunteering position? Or should I just keep on going south taking my time and if it doesn't work out with meeting Alena it just wasn't supposed to happen?
    I went to Las Penitas to check out the surf so when I got there I tried to find someone who could tell me a bit about the spot and when and where to go best. I talked to one guy at my hostel but he wasn't really helpful. So I went to the beach and asked a guy carrying a surfboard and he said "Best time is now and you go in right here!" and he ran of in the water. I watched him and some other guys in the lineup for a while. The waves were pretty big and inconsistent with different peaks. And everybody surfing was pretty advanced. So I got intimidated and didn't even get me a board. So I ended up changing back and forth between the beach and the hammock trying to make a decision what to do next.
    I decided I would definitely go to Estelì the next day and do the Somoto Canyon Tour with Chuck and his friends. And as I still had the feeling I left the Rapture Surf Camp to early I figured I would just go back there for a few days and see from there. If I could make it there till Tuesday I would even make it to see Kim again before she was heading home Wednesday morning.
    Regarding the volunteering I had realized that it's probably a lot better to just ask directly at any hostel I really like once I'm there if they are looking for volunteers. Not again would I want to show up and see something not meeting my expectations at all again.
    I almost didn't talk to anybody that day. But after I had made this decision I went to a little roof top bar at the beach and watched the sunset. Which was cloudy but still supernice. And my mood finally cleared up a little...    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Estelì

    17 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ 🌫 19 °C

    I had met a few people who had told me about Estelì being a nice change compared to the rest of Nicaragua as it was a little higher and because of that a lot greener and even a bit cooler (I was actually a little afraid of that as I hadn't been much colder than 30 degrees in the last weeks). My plan was to go here on a weekend trip from Leon on my off days. Now that there was no job to take off days from I still wanted to go there. And as I really needed some nice people around me I was happy Chuck from the bus to Leon had invited me to join him and his friends. He seemed to be a nice guy so his friends should be fun as well.
    I took the bus from Las Penitas to Leon. A girl from my hostel took the same bus but I hadn't really talked to her before (I really hadn't talked much to anybody in Las Penitas). In Leon we both took one of the trucks that run like busses through town from one bus station to the other. The ride was pretty funny. Once we both jumped of at the bus station for Estelì we started talking and figured we were both going the same way. As we kept on talking we realized we had even more in common: the girl was Audrey. One of Chucks friends who was also joining the Canyon Tour the next day! It was nice to not be by myself the whole busride as it took about 4 hours to get to Estelì from Leon.
    Once in Estelì we checked in our hostel were Chuck had already made a reservation for the both of us. It's nice to meet this people who just keep a group together. When we met him we also met the rest of the group. By now we were 7 people doing the tour together the next morning.
    Estelì itself wasn't superspecial but the hostel was really nice and a good place to meet people and go for different tours in the surrounding areas.
    We spend a lot of time with a whole group of people. Sunday morning before I left for Granada together with Miriam we had a typical Nica breakfast: eggs with gallo pinto (rice with beans) and fried plantains. We all worked together and everybody was preparing something. At least the girls. The guys cut the mango (which is not the easiest job) and cleaned the dishes afterwards.    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Somoto Canyon

    18 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Early in the morning the crew around Chuck left full of excitement to go to Somoto. I didn't realize till we were on the bus that it was a 2h busride just to get to that town. Here we were picked up by our guide who jumped with us on a second bus to get to the entrance of the canyon. Here we got a little introduction to the tour and left everything but our water bottles and cameras behind as we were swimming a big part of the tour. Luckily I had bought the neopren swimsuit from Kim as this would also keep me warm here. Also the had water shoes so I didn't have to get my sneakers all wet.
    First we walked for a while into the nature and along the water till the point where we had to enter the water for the first time. Our guide took our bottles and cameras for us in his dry bag so we could swim freely. They made us wear life vests which I first thought was stupid but realized pretty quick that this was pretty cool as you could just float through the water with it.
    Along the way there were a lot of situations where we could jump into the water from rocks of different heights. In between we would hike, climb, swim and float through the canyon. The views were super impressive. Floating on your back through the water looking up you would see the canyon walls on both sides and the clouds moving over the gap. It was such a weird perspective.
    The canyon got narrower and narrower and the rocks to jump down from higher and higher. The last one was 20m. But nobody did that one except for a local guide. And even he was standing up there quite a while before he jumped.
    I took the one below that which was probably about 10m heigh. For the last bit you take a boat till the end of the canyon. After a nice lunch we started making our way back which still took us a few hours. But it was a really nice daytrip and the crew was super!    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Granada 3.0

    19 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    As I really fell in love with the hostel in Granada I decided to again not do a long travel day all the way from Estelì in the north to San Juan del Sur in the south but split up the journey and stay one night in Granada.
    I left our little crew in Estelì together with Miriam who lives in Granada. Once on the bus we ran into Laura. I had met Laura in Leon while working in the hostel. I told her how everything went down and she wasn't to surprised to hear that I quit. She was also on her way to Granada.
    It was nice talking to her. We talked about how used you get to see weird stuff which would really surprise you back home. Just in the morning I saw a horse which someone had left on the foodpath of a road fixed on a lantern like other people leaver their bike. In general you see a lot of animals running around everywhere alongside big roads. Cows, pigs, horses.
    We watched the landscape become dry again and after changing buses in Tipitapa (yes, that's really the name of a town) and Masaya we arrived in Granada. Laura walked with me to my hostel but as they were fully booked (I had made a reservation the night before) she had to stay somewhere around the corner. But she came back after dinner and we hung out together with another german guy talking about our travels. The next morning I had a last breakfast on the little roof top terrace before catching the bus to Rivas.    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    San Juan del Sur 3.0

    20 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    First of all I apologize for only posting pictures of sunsets all the time. I got lazy taking pictures but sunsets still catch me. I gonna try to change that habit ;)
    I spend another night in SJDS before heading back out to Maderas for the surfcamp. I had booked a night in a hostel which looked nice online and I thought this might be another option for volunteering. But when I got there I realized this place was more about partying than surfing. I walked a little around town and even though I didn't necessarily like SJDS it kind of felt like coming home. Just because it's so familiar now. I had been here not just the nights before and after the surfcamp last time I was there but also on a lot of short stops on the way to surf spots from the camp (we often stopped here to buy lunch or other stuff).
    At night I cooked dinner and hung out at the bar in the hostel and talked to the volunteer there. Her job seemed nice but like I said the hostel was a little to focused on partying - when I went to bed around 10:30 pm everybody else went out. Only one guy also said "I gonna go to bed. Early surf tomorrow.".    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Rapture Surf Camp 2.0

    21 mars 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    I was super excited to get back to rapture for a few more days. I wrote to Kim and she told me they were going for a 8:30 morning surf session at Playa Maderas. That worked perfectly for me as I could take the Shuttle running to Maderas from Sun Juan early in the morning and just join them there.
    It was funny to be waiting at the beach for the rapture surf shuttle to arrive. Kim was the only guest I still knew but there were also Wade (surf guide), Dany and Alvaro (surf instructor) and Sarah (volunteer) jumping of that car.
    Even though I had only not being surfing for about 10 days it took me a while to get back into it. Especially as I wasn't taking lessons anymore. But it was still fun. We went to 3 different beaches the 3 days I was there which was perfect. I still liked Remanso best.
    The crowd of people was again really nice. A group of 5 germans who had been there last time I was here also came back so there were a few more familiar faces.
    I talked a lot with Sarah about her job as a volunteer and was pretty excited when Vincent asked me how long I would still be in Nicaragua as they might need a new volunteer soon. But Sarah told me she was leaving in about 3 weeks. That didn't really make sense with my schedule. But the next day Sarah came to me and told me she had decided to leave early and wanted to recommend me as her replacement! We went to talk to Vincent about it but he told me there was a friend of his arriving the next day to take Sarahs Job. Seriously? How close could I miss this opportunity twice? But luckily it took him like 5 minutes to realize that he would prefer spending time with his friend without him working. So here I am. Working as a volunteer at my favorite place where I can go surfing almost every day!    Läs mer

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  • About a girl who travelsLatinoamérica 2017About a girl who travels

    Visa run to Costa Rica

    7 april 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    As I'm moving a lot slower than originally planned I was about to extend my 90 day visa for the CA4 countries. Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have an agreement that establishes free movement between the 4 countries. But this also means there is only one visa for the 4 countries. As I entered Guatemala on January 9th I had to leave to Costa Rica before April 9th.
    Luckily this worked out perfectly with the planned trip to Costa Rica to buy surfboards for the camp. Originally it would have been only me and Luis going but the night before we left Anna-Lena joined our team as she was excited about a little adventure and was keen to see another country besides Nicaragua. We left early in the morning and took a taxi to the border in Peñas Blancas. The border crossing was easy for Anna-Lena and me. They even accepted my fake plane ticket as proof I was leaving Costa Rica. Unfortunately Anna-Lena didn't have anything and they made her buy a $25 bus ticket for a bus from San Juan to a destination outside Costa Rica which couldn't really be identified on the ticket. I wonder if you could actually use these tickets to get on a bus or if they are really just sold for the immigration?
    Luis had a pretty hard time at the border leaving Nicaragua. His passport looks pretty smashed and as he has been doing visa-runs between the 2 countries for a while now they asked a lot of questions. But in the end they let him pass. We rented a car and continued our journey on to Jacó. Once in Costa Rica the vegetation changed right away. Which is weird. Nature doesn't care about borders, right? But everything was a lot greener. Also the streets were better and once we made it to Liberia (the first proper city behind the border) we were hit by the american influence in form of all the typical fast food chains. We actually did stop here for "breakfast" at Burgerking. It's been a while since I have eaten there even before I went on my trip but somehow it fit the situation.
    After about 5 hours of driving we arrived in Jacó. Definitely not a place I would recommend to anybody except for buying cheap surfboards. The guy from the surf shop told us he makes most of his money with lessons for one-time-customers. Usually bachelor-parties who are already drunk and won't stay in the water for longer than half an hour.
    Food and accommodation is expensive. Once the sun is down hookers wander the streets. And all in all it's not even a nice town or beach.
    But the hostel we stayed was a nice little green oasis in this overloaded party place and we had great sushi at a nice restaurant.
    We picked up the boards the next morning and started our drive back towards Nicaragua. As it was the first Saturday of Semana Santa (the week before easter when lots of people are of work and go traveling) the streets leading towards the Peninsula de Nicoya were a lot more crowded but we still managed to get to the border within a decent time. The border crossing was a little adventure. We were only allowed two boards per person. But we had 8 boards for only 3 people. We thought we would just find someone helping us bringing the boards over but somehow it wasn't that easy to find someone willing to carry two boards across the border for us. We ended up paying one of the guys who carry your luggage $20 for taking all the boards around the building which was the actual border and customs checkpoint. Everybody could see we didn't put the boards through customs but no one cared.
    But the hardest part was again to get Luis across the border. They really don't like his fucked up passport.
    But once they let him go it was just another taxi ride back to San Juan and from here a 4x4 to get back up to the camp with our brand-new boards.    Läs mer

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    Rapture Surf Camp // Birthday Bash

    13 april 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I was pretty excited to spend my birthday at the surfcamp as this would mean I would spend it with people I knew and could probably even have "a little" party.
    My friend Ines from Guatemala was also coming to visit me at the camp the week of my birthday. She arrived the day before. We thought about celebrating into my birthday. But as people at the camp usually go to bed early to be fresh & ready to surf the next morning, we skipped that. My birthday started with an early morning surf session at Playa Maderas and after I caught a few nice waves I was already satisfied with my birthday even before breakfast. But it kept on getting better. Ines had seriously brought a cake all the way from Guatemala which she baked with her mum before getting on the bus. Also everybody seemed to be in a party mood so we got a cooler and beer to take to Yankee Beach with us. So I spend my afternoon eating birthday cake and drinking cold beer at the beach with two more surf sessions. When the sun was going down I thought I didn't need anything else for the perfect birthday. But the day wasn't over. Our surf guide Wade had promised to take over the bar for me that night and organized a Mojito Special. So after dinner (my favorite at the camp: beef tacos!) we started drinking mojitos at the bar. First I thought it might be a quiet night again. But at some point Ines started doing rounds of rum shots and I guess that's when things started getting crazy 😜
    The night turned into a wild party with people dancing on the bar (me) and doing the shotgun-thing with beer cans (not me). A girl arrived late at night and Johannes and I did paper-scissor-stone to figure out who had to check her in. Even though I won I somehow ended up showing her around. And according to what she told us later I didn't stop explaining to her that it's normally not like that in the camp - people partying after midnight (which is true). But we kept on going till around 3:30am. Before I went to bed (or actually the hammock as we were fully booked and I was sleeping under the stars that night) I was shocked of the mess behind the bar - who should clean this up? But when I woke up the next morning everything had magically disappeared.
    All together this was definitely one of my best birthdays ever!

    As Ines was staying a full week we took advantage of the semana santa weekend and went to Saturday Funday (over easter they did three parties which means Friday to Sunday Funday). We went to San Juan with almost everybody from the camp and had a few drinks in the bars along the main road. But when we went to Pacha Mama we realized that not a lot of people decided to go for the saturday option. Compared to my first time this one was more a Rapture Funday - I guess we made out almost 50% of the crowd 😅
    We still had a lot of fun but went home quite early and I was happy to enjoy a relaxed sunday as the end of my birthday weekend.    Läs mer

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    Rapture Surf Camp // Sunset Booze Cruise

    22 april 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    The surfcamp had a boat available for boat trips to a few surf spots further up the coast for a while now. But as this trip was only for more experienced surfers we figured we should offer another option to use the boat. So I used one of these days where I had to stay at the camp by myself to wait for new guests to make a poster for a "Sunset Booze Cruise". When the guests got back to the camp that day everybody wanted to join so we actually had to split up into two groups. I joined the first group with a few of the guys who had been at the camp for quite a while.
    The tour included free sangria (after my recipe which I had invented a few days before for a Sangria Night at the camp), beer and ceviche. So I prepared a cooler with all the stuff and Wade gave us a ride down to Playa Marsellas where the boat picked us up. The waves were wild that day so it wasn't the easiest task for the captain to come onto the beach with his boat but he managed and he took us out to the ocean safely. But now actually drinking the sangria wasn't the easiest task for us as we were jumping over the waves like crazy.
    We went up north along the coast and made a stop at a nice and secluded beach where we were almost all by ourselves except for one other fancy yacht (next to our small fishing boat).
    On the way back we convinced the captain to let us jump in the open ocean. The water was super clear out there!
    Unfortunately we (or our captain) didn't catch any fish while we were on the boat but the other group did the next day and they happily shared it with everybody (prepared by our kitchen).    Läs mer

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    Rapture Surf Camp // Horseback Ride

    25 april 2017, Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    As a present from everyone who stayed at the surfcamp for my birthday I got to go on a horseback ride on the beach for sunset. I picked a day when a few people from the camp were going as well.
    I told our guide I had some experience with horses and would like to have a horse "un poco mas rapido". His question was "un poco mas loco" tambien?
    When we got to the beach I understood what he was talking about. My horse really wanted to run! But this was what I was looking for. At some point Heikes horse started racing mine and from this moment on we had a lot of fun together racing down the beach while the others stayed behind. Even though I had been to the camp for a few weeks now I never went further down the beaches coming after Playa Maderas. So it was a nice way to explore them by horse now. We took a little break on the last bay watching the sun go down before heading back with a few more races for Heike and me.    Läs mer

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    Bordercrossing to Costa Rica

    7 maj 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    After being in Nicaragua for almost 3 month it was time to leave for Costa Rica. Luckily I wasn't leaving by myself. Rozsa had decided to come with me to Santa Teresa and Anna was joining us till Rivas from where she was heading to Granada.
    Of course my last night at the surfcamp involved some passionfruit mojitos but as we had a long day ahead of us we had decided to leave on the 8:30 shuttle from Playa Maderas. So I enjoyed one last free hangover breakfast with eggs and gallo pinto. Packed my pancake as a snack for the journey and said my goodbyes to everybody. It wasn't easy leaving the camp after over 6 weeks of working there but I was also excited to be back on the road and see new things. But first we had to make our way to Santa Teresa. I knew how to get there but wasn't quite sure if it was possible to get there in a day as the last ferry from Puntarenas to the Nicoya Peninsula was leaving at 5pm. So I figured to just take one step at a time and just stay somewhere overnight in case we can't make it.
    So Johannes gave us a ride from the surfcamp to Casa Maderas from where we took a shuttle to San Juan del Sur. Here we probably jumped on the wrong bus which was leaving 30 minutes later as the busdriver told us the other one was going another way. I was a little annoyed by that but decided not to get into it. This 30 minutes won't make us miss the ferry in Puntarenas, right? Also I could use the time to by some rope as new straps for my little backpack in SJDS.
    We took that bus to Rivas. Back to that crazy bus station where you can't trust anybody as everybody is just trying to sell you a taxi. Again they told us the next bus to the border was running in an hour but it left almost immediately after we got on it.
    The bordercrossing was fairly easy as I had been here before on my visa run a few weeks ago and new exactly where to go. Once we made it over to Costa Rica the bus for Liberia was already waiting and again left right after we got on it. Things seemed to work out fine. Until we made it to Liberia. It was 1:30 by now. From here we had to take the bus to Puntarenas. The next was running at 2:30. According to the one bus driver this was taking 2 hours. According to another it was 3 hours. So all we could do was hoping the first one was right so we would make it in time for the ferry at 5. We met Laura at the bus stop, a girl who was also going to Santa Teresa. She was Colombian living in Costa Rica. Funny thing was that she came over to asking us how to get there. We told her what we knew and traveled together from now on.
    It would have been a pleasant surprise if the bus would have made it to Puntarenas in the promised 2h. But unfortunately the second bus driver was right - we made it to Puntarenas at exactly 5:30pm. Half an hour to late - maybe that half an hour we lost due to the wrong bus in SJDS? ;)
    But luckily there was another ferry running at 8:30pm. This one just didn't have a bus waiting on the other side bringing us to Santa Teresa. We decided to find a restaurant with WIFI to figure out what to do next.
    Turned out hotels in Puntarenas were really expensive and as we all just wanted to get to Santa Teresa we decided to go for the last ferry and pay a taxi taking us from there.
    We spend the time waiting for the ferry in the restaurant with greasy hangover food while Laura told us the story of her life. She was so funny and open hearted. It was fun listening to her and it definitely made the waiting less annoying!
    The ferry ride was kind of interesting as it was completely dark and you couldn't really make out where we were going. The following taxi drive was pretty crazy and fast but still it was 11:30pm when we finally arrived at our hostel. This 14hour journey was a nice welcome back in the world of traveling :)    Läs mer

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    Santa Teresa

    8 maj 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ 🌫 27 °C

    I had chosen the hostel in Santa Teresa to be closer to Playa del Carmen. This beach break was supposed to be easier then the main break in the north of Santa Teresa. Debbie, who had been in the surfcamp in Nicaragua when I first got there as a guest, was volunteering in a hostel up north and we met the next morning to go surfing together!
    The waves were a lot different than what I was used to as they weren't as powerful but after a while I figured it out and actually had a lot of fun.
    After our session we walked with Debbie along the beach to her part of town. On the way back we walked along the street and checked out a few stores and hostels here as Rozsa wasn't sure if she wanted to stay where we were. The area up north was definitely nicer but as I came here for the surf I was really happy with our location.
    I went back in the water around 4pm and was hoping for a nice sunset afterwards. But it rained most of the time I was in the water and even though it didn't really matter as long as I was in the water I didn't really feel like sitting on the beach in the rain afterwards.
    It kept on raining the whole night and only stopped for half an hour which we used to run to the super market to buy some stuff for a first self made dinner in a long time. When we got back to the hostel it smelled amazing. A couple was making chicken curry with everything you can imagine. Even fresh peanuts and cilantro as a topping. I don't know if they saw Rozsas jealous eyes walking in with our pathetic ingredients for spaghetti with tomato sauce but they invited us immediately as they had far to much anyways. So we put our stuff aside for the next day and joined their delicious dinner!
    The next morning we actually went surfing with a pretty big group from our hostel. It was nice to have other people around again. The conditions were perfect in the beginning. The sun was just coming up and I caught a few nice rights going directly at the sun. Such a nice way to wake up!
    Later I met Debbie again at Banana Beach. A fancy beach club with expensive but really nice smoothies and cocktails. As it wasn't raining that day I went back to the beach for sunset before preparing the pasta we got around the night before with Rozsa. We hung out at the hostel talking to our roommates. The next morning I left early to make my way all the way across the country to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast.    Läs mer

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    Puerto Viejo

    10 maj 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    I knew I couldn't make the journey to Bocas del Toro in one day so my plan was originally to spend one night in San José. But as lots of people recommended Puerto Viejo I figured I should try to make it there to avoid San Jose. From Santa Teresa there was an early morning bus going straight to San José. San José has a lot of different bus terminals but luckily the bus to Puerto Viejo was leaving just 2 blocks down from the one were I was arriving. We arrived 10 minutes before that bus was leaving and it was raining heavily. But the next bus was leaving in 2 hours so decided to make a run for it. A guy got of the bus together with me and when he heard me asking for directions to the bus terminal for Puerto Viejo he joined me to find it. We were running up and down the streets in the pouring rain. Everybody we asked send us another way. At some point I decided to just trust my intuition and kept running the way that felt right to me even though one guy had told us otherwise. I was super happy this turned out to be the right decision and we could finally see another bus station and a bus marked "Puerto Viejo" parked ready to go. We dropped our wet backpacks at the bus and ran for the counter to buy our tickets. A minute later we were sitting on the bus soaking wet but laughing and happy that we made it!
    The busride took longer than expected so it was almost 8pm when we finally made it to Puerto Viejo.
    Some of the nicer hostels in Puerto Viejo are not right in town but a little further down the road towards Playa Cocles. I thought about going there as this was supposed to be the surf beach for beginners but as it was late and dark I decided to stay in town and check out the beach tomorrow. After checking in and a quick dinner at my hostel I met Linda, a girl I had met on the bus, for a drink at a nice restaurant called "Madre Tierra". We talked a lot about jobs and traveling. She's in the lucky position to combine her job with traveling and lives in Costa Rica right now. It was really nice talking to her.
    The next morning I woke up early and went out to explore the town and the beaches. Unfortunately it was grey and raining on and off so everything looked a bit sad and uninviting. You could still get the caribbean-reggea-vibe of that town but as lots of places were closed (due to the early morning or low season) I didn't really feel like staying. I went to have a look at "Salsa Brava" a Point Break close to town but there were absolutely no waves so I knew there was no chance of Surf at the other beach as well.
    So I decided I had seen it all and caught an early bus towards Panama.    Läs mer

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    Bordercrossing to Panama

    11 maj 2017, Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After so many border crossings this one was fairly easy and uneventful. As I had already left Costa Rica once I knew I would have to pay $8,- leaving tax at some random little shop before the border so I started looking for signs as soon as I got of the bus. After I got my stamp to leave Costa Rica I had to cross a bridge to get to Panama. The area between the borders is always weird but this bridge over Rio Sixaola was actually quite nice.
    On the Panamanian side there were lots of guys who wanted to sell me a shuttle straight to Bocas. But after I told them I wanted to take the public transport they actually showed me where to find the bus to Changinola. There I changed to Almirante from where I had to take a boat to Isla Colon, the main one of the islands of Bocas del Toro. I shared a bench on the boat with the typical couple you meet traveling everywhere: He, a little older, white and rich. She, a little younger, local and beautiful. But I tried to not be judgmental and when the boat left they both cracked a can of beer and tried drinking it while the boat jumped over some heavy waves. When this made me laugh they offered me a beer as well and now we had a lot of fun together drinking our beer on the bumpy boatride. It showed me again that it helps to keep an open mind and not have to many prejudices.    Läs mer

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    Bocas del Toro // Isla Colon

    11 maj 2017, Panama ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I had spend my last night in Germany in cologne with Alena, one of my best friends from school. She gave me a ride to the airport the next morning and was the last familiar face I saw before going on my big adventure. 135 days later I met her again in Bocas del Toro, Panama!
    As we both didn't know exactly when we would get to Bocas we figured we would just meet at the hostel. As I had forgotten that there was a time difference between Costa Rica and Panama I arrived a little later than expected. When I got to the hostel I had a message from her saying that she was going for a coffee with Gregori, a guy who was working at the hostel who she had met when she was in Panama a year earlier. I asked around at the hostel if anybody had an idea where the went and some guy told me to try the german bakery. And this was where I found her. It was totally weird but also super nice meeting her again on the other side of the world!
    We stayed for a while having another coffee with Gregori before heading back to the hostel where we went to the roof with a bottle of wine and talked about everything that had happened since I left. I really enjoy meeting so many new people on my trip and you can have really interesting conversations with people you barely know. But talking to Alena who knows me since 20 years was a whole different thing and it felt great.
    Later we went to an Italian restaurant and had a huge pasta for dinner. As Alena was only traveling for 3 weeks she was of course on a different budget. But as I had saved a lot of money volunteering in Nicaragua I decided to treat me well for a few days and not be to cautious about money.
    The next morning it was raining so we weren't to sure what to do. After breakfast at the hostel (free pancakes) we walked around town for a while and Alena showed me what she remembered from last year. We also walked through a few less touristy streets and made our way to the airport where Alena wanted to check the prices for flights to Panama City.
    When we got back to the hostel it had stopped raining completely and it didn't look like it would start again soon. So we decided to rent bikes and go to Playa Bluff. Finding a bike that fit Alenas long legs wasn't too easy but she found one that was kind of ok. So off we went on our beach cruisers stopping along the way for some drinks and snacks to take with us. The first part of the way was easy along paved roads. But after a while the road became pretty bumpy and partly even sandy. But we took it easy and even pushed our bikes whenever the hills were just a little to steep for us :)
    When we arrived to Playa Bluff we found our space on the long and beautiful beach to lay down all by ourselves - another upside to being here in low season.
    It never fully cleared up that day but it didn't rain again and we spend a few hours chilling at the beach.
    At night we went to a small local restaurant a guy from the hostel had recommended and had traditional caribbean fish soup with coconut milk. I liked it a lot.
    After another bottle of wine on the rooftop of our hostel we went over to the party hostel "Selina". The crowd was pretty young here but the location was nice right at the water and we had great fun dancing. We checked out two other places later on but didn't really get back into the dancing vibe.
    The next day we went to Isla Bastimentos (additional post). At night we had really good burritos at a nice place along the main road and drinks at another place with a terrace to the water we had seen the night before.
    Alenas favorite place in Panama had always been Boquete. And even though she had just spent a week there, she still felt like she needed to go back there one more time. She had been talking about it since we met in Bocas. And the good thing about knowing someone for so long - you know if something is really important to that someone. So as I also didn't feel like I would miss out on something here in Bocas and I was excited for her to show me her favorite places in Boquete in person we decided to catch the shuttle the next morning to go to Boquete together.    Läs mer

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    Bocas del Toro // Isla Bastimentos

    13 maj 2017, Panama ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We had thought about spending a night on Bastimentos but as Bocas town was already super quiet due to off season we figured it would probably be a little to quiet on the other islands. So we decided to just go there for the day to Red Frog Beach. We bought some snacks and prepared some guacamole before taking a boat over to the island. The boatride was already quite nice as we got closer looks of the other islands. We also stopped at the main harbour of Bastimentos and got a view of the town. We didn't get of here but drove further down to the entrance to National Park from where it was just a short walk to Red Frog Beach. The beach was again super quiet and with a clear sky today even more beautiful than yesterday. Also the water was a little nicer as the waves weren't breaking right on the shore and you could get in and out of the water a little easier.
    I took a walk to a little viewing plattform at the end of the beach but even though I kept my eyes open I didn't see any red frogs. We relaxed at the beach reading and catching a little to much sun.
    After a while we went over to a little bar for a fresh fruit juice to find out they had fresh piña coladas! We couldn't say no to that.
    So we enjoyed our cocktail at the beach before walking back to catch our boat back to the main island.    Läs mer

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    Shuttle to Boquete

    14 maj 2017, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Due to absurdity this journey deserves its own post :)
    You know I normally prefer public transportation to tourist shuttles as even though they are usually a lot quicker they are also a lot more expensive and what I have is time what I need to save is money. But as I was traveling with Alena and her time was limited we took the shuttle. As I had already bought my ticket for the boat to get of the island when I came we were on 2 different boats but met on the other side and jumped in the airconditioned mini-van with WIFI which was supposed to bring us to Boquete in 3 1/2 hours. All went well till we suddenly stopped without any obvious reason. Our busdriver also didn't know what was happening so he just passed by the other cars waiting till we made it to the front of the line and saw what was going on: some people were blocking the street with 2 cars and some rocks and a big banner. First we thought this was some kind of joke and it couldn't take more than half an hour to move them. But we had to realize that no one was even trying to move this people. So one lady, who seemed to be their head, kept sitting on an old fridge in the middle of the street and nothing happened. After an hour we got out of the van again and explored the area around. There were some little stores along the street but we kept on going till we got to a Chinese supermarket with chicken feet and beer. Probably the real reason we left the car. The beer. Not the chicken feet.
    After another hour Alena started to get really upset. She wanted to get to Boquete and it was hard to accept that we couldn't do anything but wait. We talked to our driver and he tried to explain the situation to us. Apparently there was another road between 2 towns that had been closed ages ago. Now some people wanted to open this road again but the bus companies stopped this as right now the bus from David to Changinola was the only way to get from town to town. So people blocking the street were trying to harm the bus company. Unfortunately the busses were the only ones that weren't really bothered by the blocked street as they just had a bus coming from both sides. They swapped over people and luggage, turned around and made their way back (of course this happens when I'm taking the shuttle). Also it was sunday and no one who could do something was working. So basically the whole blocking didn't really make scene.
    He also said that the people blocking the street were indigos paid by the government to do so. But he kind of lost us at that point. Maybe this degree of corruption is to high for us.
    At some point Alena got really annoyed and decided to go for a run (after 2 beers). I was amazed by how relaxed I was with the whole situation. I guess this is what traveling Central America for 5 month does to you :)
    After Alena was gone for a while people suddenly started to move. We couldn't really figure out what had happened but suddenly they moved the cars and started carrying away the rocks. Our driver didn't wanna let anybody go past us and squeezed back into line. Everybody jumped back in the car. But we were still missing Alena! The cars started moving quite slowly as everybody had to get back in line. But we were like the third car passing the blocking and everybody just wanted to keep moving. But where was Alena. Suddenly one of the guys saw her right in front of us coming down the road. So we opened the door and barely stopped to let her jump in. Once the door was closed our driver started speeding down the road like crazy. He probably tried to make up for the 3 hours we had been standing around not moving at all. Alena opened her last beer and was finally relaxed again. Even though we would make it to Boquete later than planned, we at least had some story to tell!    Läs mer

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    Boquete

    15 maj 2017, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Even though Alena had told me so much about Boquete I still expected something completely different! Somehow I thought Boquete was this little village along a little road next to a river up a mountain. Boquete is basically just one street. But this one is like a proper road. Also the town is a lot more wealthy than most of the places I've seen in the last month. Lots of international restaurants and fancy shops. Proper houses with nicely cut gardens. Almost everybody seems to have their own car. But maybe this is not special to Boquete but actually just normal in Panama? They do have the canal and are definitely a richer country compared to Nicaragua or El Salvador. Also a lot of international people were living here and lots of western stuff was available all over town.
    Of course this isn't necessarily a bad thing I just had to adjust my expectations that this was not the authentic little village with an old Panamanian Lady selling coffee in a rustic cafe.
    When we arrived to the hostel we were greeted by the owner and his dogs. I understood immediately why Alena felt so much at home here. The hostel was one of the nicest and cleanest I have stayed and the stuff was super friendly and open hearted.
    We had a quick shower and headed out again to the Brewery Factory. On the way we made a quick stop at another restaurant to say hello to some of Alenas friends. At the brewery we got some snacks from a food truck integrated in the bar and some of the good beer. I choose the coconut one. Sounds weirder than it was ;)
    I liked the design and the vibe of the place a lot.
    Usually there is life music at night but we missed it due to our belated journey. We shared a table with some guys from David and after a while Adam joined us. Adam was a guy Alena had met the week before who was playing at the Brewery and other places around town. When the brewery closed we walked over to Taboo Lounge - a bar that belongs to the only night club in town which was unfortunately closed tonight. We were the only people here and actually not really up for another drink but Adam said we should have one more cocktail together. So we went for purple rain - a new creation by one of the bartenders. They came in huge glasses and the bartender switched the music to purple rain immediately. Everybody took pictures of us and our huge cocktails and we figured we gonna show up on a lot of Instagram profiles tomorrow ;)
    The bar filled up more and more and Adam seemed to know everybody. We ended up having another cocktail before we headed over to Mamallenas Hostal to visit Isaac, another of Alenas friends. We hung out for a while but I was super tired so we went home with just a quick stop at the 24h supermarket to buy breakfast for the next day.
    The next morning after breakfast we took a collectivo to get towards the quetzal trail as we wanted to go for a hike around the area. The driver dropped us of at a crossroad but we walked quite a while from here without finding the trail. After a while we got to the turnoff for another trail to 3 waterfalls and as Alena hadn't seen that one as well we decided to take it.
    The hike was partly more a climb but that made it more exciting and fun. When we got to the last waterfall we weren't sure if the guy at the entrance had said "you can climb up to the top of the waterfall" or "you shouldn't climb up to the top of the waterfall". Actually I had just seen him pointing to the top of the waterfall on a picture and assumed he was telling us to go there. So we decided we would just keep on going along the trail and see if it was possible. It was possible. And even though we are still not sure we were supposed to go up there it was definitely worth it.
    When we got back to the street afterwards a collectivo picked us up right there. It started raining shortly after we got into the car so I guess we did everything right.
    Back in town we went to one of Alenas favorite places for quesadillas and smoothies.
    As it was Alenas last night she invited some of her friends for a home cooked dinner at the hostel. She made Spaghetti Bolognese and a salad that could have fed 10 people easily. Unfortunately we were only 5 but it gave us all something to eat the next day.
    The dinner was really nice and it was nice meeting Alenas friends here.
    The next morning I walked around town one last time with Alena and she showed me where the hostel used to be and another new hostel the owner is working on.
    After I walked Alena to her bus I walked around town by myself for a while and found a little market.
    Later I went back to that new hostel with the owner as he wanted some tips for the bathroom (I should start saying I'm a teacher or something). I think I didn't really help him as we talked about different options but kind of figured just the one he didn't like was working but it was nice to see a Panamanian construction side. When we got back to the hostel it started to rain again so I stayed inside on the sofa next to the reception and made some travel plans for the next days. For dinner I had some of the leftovers from the night before and I kind of didn't leave my spot on the sofa talking to other guests and stuff till I went to bed.
    The next morning I left early to catch the bus to head back towards the Pacific Coast again.    Läs mer

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    Santa Catalina

    17 maj 2017, Panama ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    To get to Santa Catalina on public transport I had to take 4 different busses. The first to David where I changed to a bus for Santiago. From here to Zona and from there to Santa Catalina. All busses were running regularly except for the last to Santa Catalina. This one was only running every 2 hours and the last one was at around 5. But I left Boquete early and even made it to the 3 o'clock bus to Santa Catalina.
    In Santa Catalina I was staying at Villa Vento Surf. I had talked to Steven, the guy who runs the hostel, when I was looking for a volunteering position a few weeks back. He had offered me to work for free accommodation but as I ended up at Rapture in Nicaragua I didn't take his offer. But now I still wanted to see the place. It was a nice hostel and Steve and the girls working there were fun. I probably could have had a got time there but it was nothing compared to Rapture.
    I was looking forward to surf again so the first thing I did was heading down to the beach to check where I could rent a board for the next days. There was a point break which I was a little afraid to surf but also a beach break for less advanced surfers at the beach the other end of town. My hostel was kind of "in the center" which was basically one road with a few hostels, restaurants and shops with a small town beach which was nice for watching the sunset. From here a long road let along some more spread out hostels and restaurants towards the main surf beach where it had some more hostels right at the beach.
    I figured I should rent a board at one of the hostels at the beach so I wouldn't have to carry it all the way along the road as It took almost half an hour to get there.
    Walking along the road the place felt kind of deserted. Most restaurants were closed and I met almost nobody on the street. Here you could really feel it was off-season. When I got to the beach I was pretty disappointed to learn that the hostels here were only renting 8' softtops - a kind of board I had outgrown by now. The next morning I went back for high tide (which was the right time to surf this beach) hoping I would meet somebody who would know where to get a proper board. I saw to girls who were using exactly the kind of board I was looking for so I just asked if maybe the rented them somewhere around here. Turned out they were their own boards but they offered me to use them right away! Super nice. So ended up spending the morning with them surfing and chilling at the beach talking about life.
    In the afternoon I went to a nice restaurant overlooking the beach to write for my blogg but I ended up talking to a guy I met. He was from El Salvador but was working in a Hostel in Santa Catalina. We met again that night for dinner and he told me a lot about his country. It was nice because as I had been to El Salvador I could relate to lots of the things he was saying. He confirmed that the guy we met at the soccer game at Sonsonate was most definitely a member or leader of one of the big gangs in El Salvador. He explained a bit about the whole situation with gangs running the country but also confirmed what I had been telling everybody who was shocked I went to El Salvador. Even though there might be a lot of crime it's not dangerous for tourists as it doesn't concern you.
    The next day I took the only board we had at our hostel and carried it all the way to the beach as I didn't wanna trust my luck to meet someone who's willing to give me his board again. After another morning of surfing and chilling at the beach I spend the afternoon in a spot overlooking the pointbreak writing my blogg. Even though no one was surfing it was nice watching the waves from here.
    At night I had dinner at the hostel talking to Simon. We shared his left over rum and exchanged travel experiences.    Läs mer

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