Nicaragua and Costa Rica

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Hello,

There are 3 videos above. Just hit play and it will run through them all. The break dancing was very impressive and our best videos didn´t turn out in the lighting...some of which included cartwheels and various flip tricks with the little kid holding onto a bigger kid´s stomach upside down. The little kid had his own moves as well!

We took a bus from Antigua to Managua and arrived at night. As I said, Guate City was sketchy and so is Managua. All the big cities down here are while the more rural areas are not. As soon as we got off, we were swamped by the typical welcoming committee...a swarm of aggressive taxi drivers. After some hassel, we succeeded in awarding a female driver our service and were firm on $20 for the 45 min ride to Granada. After trying to dump us at a bus station, going to the gas station twice to invoke some sort of siphoning method, and surviving a completely unlit roadway with a barely running automobile, we made it to the safe haven tourist town of Granada. Then to Isla de Ometepe, and then to the beaches of San Juan del Sur and El Popoyo. From Nicaragua, we took a bus to San Jose in Costa Rica, and then another to Sierpe to visit my friend from college, Cassidy. From there, we finished in Dominical. I had two days of so-so surf in Dominical and we went rafting. Nicaragua and Costa were amazing with my highlights being El Popoyo and our visit with Cassidy...thanks so much to Cassidy, Trevor, and Jake for making it a great time!

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Photos

Granada
Cool little town in Nicaragua, some colonial style buildings. We liked Guatemala´s Antigua a little better.

on the way to Isla de Ometepe
From Granada you can catch a 3 hour ferry to an island in lake nicaragua. It´s formed by two volcanos with a small isthmus inbetween.

Isla de Ometepe
We arrived the night before during a rain storm and claire had the seat under the broken sun roof. This was the next morning´s walk up to our quiet spot near the volcano...we had the share the road with bulls, pigs and the usual gallo/dog scene.

Isla de Ometepe
This is at our place, El Provenir. Super quiet spot with great views of the volcano. Have a beer and chill in the hammock.

Isla de Ometepe
We did our biggest hike yet here. 4 hours up (and 4 down) one of the volcanos. Claire made it 3/4 of the way and then the guide and I went on while she waited on the trail. The guide seemed anxious to get home and I was to get back to Claire so we did the last hour up and hour back in 1. This is at the very beginning, hiking through pretty bean fields with cool volcanic rocks.

Isla de Ometepe
View 1/4 of the way up, just after bean fields. Here you can see the isthmus between the two volcanos. After this it was all cloud cover, jungle, mud and bugs.

Isla de Ometepe
On the way back down. The climb was an intense muddy scramble and I forgot to take pictures of the nonsense that was further up. Unfortunately, Claire got eaten alive by something while sitting on a log waiting for us...she had no idea at this point though. I had two ticks as well but luckily found them in the shower before they dug in too much.

Isla de Ometepe
More bean fields.

El Popoyo
We had great beach time here and I had 3 great days of surfing - morning and afternoon sessions. One evening, it rained down where the hill is in this picture. There´s a river mouth which makes nice banks. The swell was small, but they were little perfections. It was raining slightly but oddly sunny at the same time, creating the hugest rainbow and perfect frame for the jungle loaded shoreline. It was just me and a guy named Nick in the water (former hedge fund manager in Hong Kong). Pelicans were crusing inches from the breaking waves next to us. This was a special evening of surf for me and adds to only a handful of really memorable times in the water.

El Popoyo
At El Toro, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary here!

Costa Rica
Some of Cassidy´s catch from the previous day.

Costa Rica
At the model home on Cassidy´s development: http://www.sierpedelpacifico.com/. He and his dad run a property development with lots for sale on the river with Ocean access. It´s a super nice setup....secluded in the jungle and about 5 minutes from the ocean in one direction and 5 minutes from the town of Sierpe in the other.

Costa Rica
Sitting down to the first course...guacamola and fried plaintains. Claire is obesessed with fried plaintains and queso.

Costa Rica
Cassidy cutting up the yellowfin for sashimi.

Costa Rica
We had sashimi every night.

Costa Rica
Down the Sierpe river to the Ocean. Cassidy´s boat had some mechanical issues from the day before so we took Trevor´s boat...so clutch of them.

Costa
Apparently wisconsin´s fishing skills transfer.

Costa
We caught albecore tunas and amberjack. We lost a couple yellowfin tunas and snapper. They usually catch a bunch of dorado as well. I think we caught 12-15 fish which Cassidy called a very slow day. My 25lb amberjack pulled like an absolute beast. Jigging is a workout too, we were both sore in strange ways the next day.

Comments

[Drew]

Get it in while you can
Sun, surfing, delicious fresh fish--hard to come by around here.