Surf City

About ready to leave the fun town of San Juan del Sur in southern Nicaragua, about 25 miles from the Costa Rican border.  This is a vacation community on the beach and draws surfers from all over...a magnet for the young packpacker set seeking the perfect wave for the least expense.  All in all, a good stop for us, and reminicent of both Jim and my visit here in 2006.  The only mishap came on our entry to the town last evening, when a big white duck flew to the middle of the road directly in front of our truck.  Just before the gruesome thump, thump, I swear I heard him say, AFLAC...Jim says it was, OH SHIT.  As the hotel room came with breakfast, we enjoyed fruit and tacos this morning...chicken, we wondered?  Likely duck.

The route down Nicaragua was long, but eventful.  Our goal was to avoid the metropolis of Managua, another town that leaves one wondering why anyone would ever put it on their travel list.  After the highway seemed to just stop with construction in progress, we spied a road on the map that took us 7 miles west to the coast on a good road.  The plan was to then head south and reconnect with the highway after looping around the construction.  Two hours later we emerged battered and sweaty from one of the worst rocky dirt roads either of us have ever been on, past disturbingand humbling scenes of rural poverty.  Missing a key turn (Nigarauguans save money by not putting up road signs), we found ourselves in the middle of you know where.  Relying on the kindness of strangers for directions...maybe 6 times, we worked our way out of the labyrinth back onto the Pan American toward our next goal of Cost Rica.