Nica: Take it easy, man!

This past weekend I got back from a surf trip to Nicaragua. Intense. Beautiful. Extremely fun. Big swell.

Pictures are up on Facebook.

Stayed in Gigante the first night. It's a great little fishing village with a unique feeling and atmosphere. Surfed Colorados and Ponga Drops. Both were great breaks, but Colorados was double overhead and barreling. A fun, big, heavy wave I got worked on a few times.

From there we went to San Juan del Sur. Got a flat tire and fixed it in the blazing sun. Satyed at Arenas Caliente for a couple nights. This was a surf hostel in the middle of town. San Juan was definitely a more central tourist attraction when compared to Gigante. Firs day, we took a boat to Yankees. While we were waiting for the surf to pick up, we fished. I caught a tiny blow fish, but that was better than my gringo counterparts who ended up with only the bait they casted overboard. The locals we were with caught some fish that was later made into some kick-ass ceviche and also grilled up. Some of the best stuff we had in Nica.

Yankees was kind of breaking weird, so we tried Hermosa. Hermosa had some fun waves, but I was dead tired in the water. Caught some fun ones this day, but it was probably the worst day of surf we had on the trip.

That night we hung out with a few other travelers. Consumed a bit of the ubiquitous Flor de Cana rum and some rather large Tona cervesas. I slept in a hammock and got some of the best sleep I had in Nica.

The next day we packed up a bit, and headed to playa Maderas with a couple guys we hung out with the night before, Andi and Reese. Amazing waves when we pulled up. Enough peaks for everybody. Pulled into some good ones. Took some fun pics. Ate some tacos a guy was selling on the beach, and covered a couple tourists on 4-wheelers in mud on the way there.

From Maderas we headed back towards Gigante. We stayed at Giant's Foot Surf Camp. It was a beautiful hostel located on the bay. We surfed Colorados one more time but this time we got there by way of a "secret" road that put us right on the beach. Some locals guarded the road, but we had an in with one of the guys we took along in our car. Surf was still pumping.

After surfing Colorados, winds were turning onshore, so we headed to Isla de Ometepe. This is an island in the middle of enormous Lago de Nicaragua formed by two volcanoes. We stayed the night, and ended up having a great time hanging with some locals and some Americans we met. The next day we hiked up through a jungle to a couple falls that were beautiful. Monkeys flying around in the canopy and lush green vegetation surrounded these fresh water cascades. Refreshing.

Later that day we caught the ferry back and headed back to mainland. From there we headed back to the west coast to a town known as Popoyo. We were thinking about staying there for only a night, but once we found Two Brothers, we weren't able to leave. We stayed the remainder of trip there. We surfed a few breaks Peaks, Popoyo Reef, and Beach Break. We missed Manzanilla, but at least we have something to look forward to on our return trip.

The trip back to the airport was interesting, but the trip was almost soured by a huge headache in the form of a buster rental car hombre. Enough said. Still a touchy subject.

All in all it was an amazing trip. I have officially been bitten by the travel bug, and I am currently planning a trip to my next destination...