A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, Krystina Tanjoco (she's the one sitting next to me), organized a group for her going away party. Since September she's been serving in San Marcos but left last week to go home to Hawaii. About 15 of us met from different areas of Nicaragua and converged in San Juan del Sur for 3 days. San Juan del Sur is on the southwest coast of Nicaragua and is the most well-known city here. It has some of the best surfing in the world and has a large Jesus on a hill much like Rio de Janeiro.
We stayed at a hotel called El Pacifico owned by a German couple and just relaxed a few days. I know that to most people this is not a big deal but to us these are luxury items very seldom seen or experienced that the hotel had:
1. a pool
2. hot water (note: I haven't had a hot shower since January)
3. AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!!!
4. free breakfast that wasn't rice & beans
5. two fat and sassy dogs
It was really nice getting to know new friends and a new vacation spot. We went to a beach called Las Maderas one day. I've NEVER IN MY LIFE seen waves so big. It's generally my goal to skip surfing beaches because I'm more of a swimmer but that's basically all that's available in SJDS. It was insane!! I'd see this massive wave coming and be in awe and then just when it folded over there's be an even BIGGER one behind it! The waves are so strong they wash up really high on the beach so they touch a rock outcropping far out. It was neat to explore it because thanks to the salt water there were sand dollars, barnacles, crabs, and a million other things I don't know the name for but had a great time messing with.
I'm going to post more pictures soon but for now I want to leave you with a clip from a new friend I made on the journey:
http://youtu.be/A9wSRaxO_S4
