Nicaragua's Pacific coastline

Our final 5 days in Nicaragua were spent on the pacific coast, in the seaside village of San Juan del Sur (SJDS). SJDS has a bit of a bad rap and some say it's too touristic, but we found it to be an excellent place to base ourselves for purposes of comfort and convenience.

There's a small, lovely, and very active Catholic church in the central plaza where people gather around, and the locals still shop for their fruits and vegetables in the central mercado. The town beach however is not really the main attraction for the intrepid traveler, and though it's lined with a nice malecon and many beachfront restaurants, we didn't spend much day time in town.

By night however, we dined in several of the town's excellent expat-owned eateries -- one of which was owned by a young couple originally from Santa Cruz and San Anselmo. We found SJDS had an interesting mix of traditional, local life, and traveler/surfer/expat life. There's a coexistence and living together side-by-side that makes for an intriguing, cultural intermingling -- and we enjoyed a bit of it all.

By day we hired a friendly, non-English speaking driver named Juan to take us to and fro, allowing us to visit the many beaches both north and south of town. We went to Playa Maderas and had a great day, lounging in the sun, picnicking on canned tuna and cerveza, and then body surfing and boogie-boarding (Deb) in fun-sized, fast and hollow breakers.

Deb is getting braver and stronger in the surf, and she had a wave riding breakthrough that day - and in all the days to follow.

The next day we hit Playa El Coco, which is about 50 mins south of SJDS. Our daily routine became snacking on our pre-packed lunch of canned tuna/sardines and cerveza, then playing in the surf, lazing, reading, and lounging the day away on near deserted beaches.

We ventured north to Playa Mathilda and this was probably our favorite of all the beaches we were able to access around here, and there we spent yet another full day at play. Mathilda was even more scenic and beautiful than the others, and again we found some good rideable surf in which to frolic. We also saw Playa Majahual, and revisited Madera for more of our daily beach rituals ... perfecto! All of the beaches that we explored in this region were pristine, clean, and nearly empty of people, and we never once felt threatened or concerned (though we had heard some tales of troubles).

The roads were all very rough and unpaved in the area (except in the zona central), with few road markers, and many a challenging, curvy, and dusty hillside to negotiate. We were very glad to have our amigo Juan to taxi us to our chosen destinations, as these were not easy navigation's to accomplish. Along the way to these spots we saw much simple local life and traditional ways of living. Every home had a water-well out front, with the cows and goats, roosters and hens, pigs and horses all running about in the countryside. Women and small children carried their machete knives, and horse (and sometimes) ox-drawn carts rolled down the dusty streets. There are lots of very cute children, and the young women are dark-haired beauties. We enjoyed good coffee and colorful sunsets, met new friends both local and travelers from other lands, and saw much that was different from our ordinary, "modern lifestyles."

We also heard how much the area has changed since the "old days" and we noted that much more change was afoot. Land is being bought up by the "wealthy" foreigners, and there are large new hillside homes being built. Some of the roads will soon be paved, and more and bigger development will inevitably come. These beaches and coves are still rather inaccessible - but this will not always be the case. There's already a 12-hole Frisbee golf disc course on the dusty road on the way to Playa Maderas - seemingly way off the beaten track - for now! We are glad that we came here before the area becomes less authentic, and our adventures in this country have been both diverse and mind-expanding.

These travels afford us new perspective to more fully appreciate the good fortune with which we've been bestowed. We're humbled by, and grateful for these opportunities to see how the other side lives, and we hope to continue to learn and grow along the way.