small surf town along the west coast in San Juan

I woke up today to the sounds of roosters that would not stop. I looked at my watch and it´s 6am. Time stands still and at times completely forgotten when you travel. So I hit the shower and the water pressure is non existence. The shower head was defective so the only water pressure was spraying against the side of the wall and not straight so I had to hump the wall and balance myself to get the soap off. You gotta love these $5 rooms.

So far I have gone from spending $20 a night traveling the first 2 weeks with friends from Vancouver to hitting $5 places with other traveling mates that are on a budget because they are traveling for a year. As a result I got bitten 15 times the first night making the mistake of sleeping in shorts and no shirt. But at the same time I have also met some pretty cool people like the 3 El Salvadore guys who make bracelets. They invited me to come by and drink some rum and listen to some Marley.

When I finally got out and about the only people I saw were nicas (locals) going to work. I explored the small town and got lost a few times and couldn´t find the hostel. So I ended up eating at this local soda and the lady rapid fired Spanish at me and all I can say was si, I´ll have one of that.

I have grown accusom to eating whatever is served to me and also using bigger bills then I need to and getting more change back because I do not know the number system yet. But thankfully Nica´s do not believe in coins.

After breakfast I realized my hostel was just across the street. The village is small but yet I somehow lose myself because all the alleys look the same.

Today I found a Gem of a place. This really cool coffee place ran by this American. It was the coolest coffee hang out I have came across. When you walk in you get this sense of home and the place looks very rustic and books are all aligned against the wall on a bunch of antique type bookshelves. It has this very calming and super chill atmosphere and you can´t help but completely getting lost when you sit down.

Then they played this song ¨in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...¨and I went in complete nostalgic mode. Completely zenned out and it all hit me and I am sitting there with the biggest smile on my face. It was complete nostalgic and euphoric and I completely drifted off for a few minutes in complete happiness. It was one of those rare times you get when you travel that it all hits you why you do it I love Nicaragua!!!

I could of sat there for the rest of the day but I had a list of things I wanted to do. One was getting a mosquito net. I notice beside my bed there is a huge whole in the window and the hostel is beside an empty lot full of grasses so I am sure I will add to my 15 bites and double down and hit 21 to get 30 more bites. Afterward I hit the farmacia and tried to communicate with the nicas that I wanted something for the itch but instead I got as far as bug spray. What the hell good enough.

Along the way home I saw two security guys one holding a big beating stick and the other holding a bad ass shotgun. I asked if i could take a picture and the guy with the shotgun was too embarrassed but his friend dropped his big beating stick and grabbed the shotgun from his friend and just like that posed for me. It was so funny they were treating this shotgun like some water pistol.

Afterward the sun was almost setting so I went to a cafe along the waterfront. It was quite interesting because 30 minutes sitting there I see a drunk guy almost drowning and his friend had to grab him out of the water.

Then this 45 year old European lady decided to go topless and caused a big commotion as all the nicas were yelling at one another to check her out. As she was walking out to the sunset the dog in the cafe went over to the log on the beach where she had put her shorts and pee´d on it. All in a matter of 30 minutes it was just too fun.

The sunset here is beautiful and the town of San Juan is kick ass. I still haven´t made my way to the beach yet but according to the locals there is flash flood now and last year they lost 2 cars to it. Apparently some car drove through the river and thought it was a couple feet deep and instead a big wave of water came rushing down the river and swepted his 4x4 out to sea.

So is that going to stop me?...I think not. I´ll just have to make sure I am wearing my hello kitty inflatable on each arm.

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