Jennie's Nicaragua Adventure Part 3

 While at most of the places we stayed we could cook our own meals, we went out for meals a couple of times. While at Rancho Chilamate, I discovered a delightful little family-run restaurant nearby called Rustica which I ended up going to several times. Food was scrumptious and very inexpensive. In San Juan del Sur, we tried Dale Pues on Avenida El Abanil for lunch. It has a garden inside and the food was great. It also had a little store and we found some nice t-shirts there. Another good place to visit in SJDS is Nica Naturals, that sells the natural products made at Costa Dulce, such as shampoo and soaps, as well as specialty natural foods. We also enjoyed several seafood meals at the little beach restaurant in Playa Marsella called El Islote Bar and Grill.

  In pursuing my photos I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the Buena Vista Surf Club, where we stayed for the first couple of days, so these come from its website. After Costa Dulce, this place was a disappointment. The cabin was extremely dark, and the place was almost deserted after the first day, so kind of a strange vibe. Very little air circulation, sleeping under a mosquito net, with a fan, which was barely adequate. And there was no door on the bathroom which was definitely weird. As for the Buena Vista (Good View), the vegetation was so dense that you could not really see much of the ocean. There were many birds. Close to the surfing paradise of Playa Maderas, the steep hill coming back was a bit challenging. Again, compared to the tranquility of Playa Escameca, I found Playa Maderas with its three restaurants and many surfers not my favourite place, although it is extremely beautiful. On a walk trying to reach Playa Marsella, I discovered some tropical fish and ...

 While Ela's Place was a great little beach house, Playa El Remanso was not my favourite beach, as it was not that clean and there were too many people. I did go for a swim, and then headed back on my own as I was getting together for supper with Christina. Unfortunately I managed to miss the turn-off to our place and walked way too far. I turned around and slipped and fell in a mud puddle, hurting my knee. Some men were walking behind me, who made me feel uneasy as it was a very isolated area, but I asked them for directions and they told me to head back. I tried another direction and ended up going up a hill. By then the 10 minute walk back was well over 30 minutes and I was hot and tired. I felt like sitting on the road and crying. A man came up the hill on his motorbike, with his wife and baby on the back. They stopped, she got off with her baby, and he offered to give me a ride, even though I was in my wet bathing suit. He quickly found my place, even though I didn't know ...

 

On Wednesday we headed to San Juan del Sur (SJDS)  to meet our lawyer. To get there we trekked down to Playa Maderas and took the shuttle. First we went to pick up a nice red truck we had rented, as well as going to get sim cards for our phones. San Juan is located on a beautiful bay on the south-western Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Formerly a sleepy fishing town, it now attracts surfers and mainly young adventure travellers as there are a string of absolutely gorgeous beaches nearby to the north and south of this town.  There are many hostels catering to young travellers, as well as beautiful homes in the surrounding hills that can be rented for holidays. There is also a friendly and fairly large expat community of Canadians - they even celebrate Canadian thanksgiving in SJDS! This is the place to buy groceries and gas, find souvenirs, and try out their restaurants. We drove up to the northern tip of the bay to look at Cristo de la Misericordia, and to take pictures of th...

This is a nice view of Playa Marsella taken from Playa Maderas, the next beach to the north of it. I had hoped to walk there along the beach but discovered I couldn't. To get to Playa Marsella from the casita, you walk for about ten minutes down a dirt road along a small river, part of which is mangrove. When you get to the beach you see this sign - Danger - Crocodiles. Fortunately they are just in the river and not the ocean! As you can see, this is a tranquil and absolutely gorgeous beach which is great for swimming. Apparently there are waves for surfing during the rainy months, which roughly coincides with our summer, and that in Nicaragua is called winter.  We went to El Isolate Bar and Grill to celebrate our arrival  at Playa Marsella after months of negotiating  and finally closing on the purchase of the casita. There is a second restaurant on this beach but it was never open when we were there.