Spanish School and Our Nicaraguan Familia

I had contacted several spanish schools before arriving in SJDS and based on their responses we had decided on Nica Spanish School. Turns out they were located right across from the Casa Oro Hostal so we stopped by to say "hola" and make arrangements to meet our homestay family later that day. Our classes would start the following morning. Our family is a young couple with a one year old daughter. Jessica and Carlos just happened to be walking down the street while we were at the school, dressed in their Sunday best, heading to the celebration festivities. They made a quick detour and took us to their home, which actually was a little more like a small hotel with a common kitchen and outdoor kitchen area. At dinner we determined that this could be a little difficult for John as they spoke very little English, but they talked alot, spoke slowly and clearly, and repeated themselves often -- all good things when you are trying to learn a new language by immersion.
Ximena, their daughter, was absolutely adorable and the center of attention of course. For a one year old we were surprised at how steady she was walking around the patio which had an uneven surface. Jessica told us she was never fond of crawling and went right to walking.









"Desayuno, Lisa, John, desayuno." Breakfast was served at 7:30 and either Jessica or Carlos would call us down. Classes started 8 am or whenever we arrived really as the classes were one-on-one, private instruction. We had planned on taking 2 weeks of classes here. John was studying with Fernando and his brother Christian was my maestro. Being back in school was a little draining - 4 hours of classes in the every morning. The seven simple tenses - presente, preterite, imperfect, futuro, conditional, imperative, participle present and past - then there are the compound tenses and subjunctive ... just learning the names of the tenses was a new chore. Many of these were refreshers for me. Conversation was my issue - putting a sentence together on the fly left me tongue tied. I really wish I had learned Spanish years ago. As for John he was just starting out with the basics.




For the next two weeks our weekdays were simple; class from 8 to noon, return to our casa for almuerzo with our familia, then study for a couple of hours, head to the Gato Negro Café (a very cool coffee shop/bookstore run by some ex-pats) for a afternoon caffeine pick-me-up and then back to studying. Dinner was served in the outdoor dining area - Jessica was a fantastic cook and we would share childhood stories, and talk about all sorts of things - in Spanish of course. Classes were good but for me the dinner conversation was the best and really helped me improve my conversational skills. We thank our lucky stars for our Nicaraguan familia - muchas gracias Jessica y Carlos y Ximena!

Patron Saint San Juan Bautista - The Celebration Begins

San Juan del Sur (SJDS) is a great little town for just walking around. What once was a small fishing village, it now a quickly growing tourist beach town. Luckily the development does not seem to have gone so far as to eliminate all the local flavor. In fact, it turns out that without knowing it we had planned our visit in SJDS during one of their largest celebrations which was in honor of their patron saint - San Juan Bautistia. Every town in Nicaragua has a patron saint, and they take the celebrations in honor of that Saint very seriously.

Although the official day for the celebration is June 24, the town along with neighboring barrios, start celebrating much earlier than that. Each day a different group would have the honor of parading around the town carrying the statute of San Juan Bautista which is normally watchfully placed in front of the church at the main parque. The day after we arrived the first group marched by our hostal, singing, dancing and cheering to the beat of a local 4 piece band - carrying the statute throughout the town.

This group was quite large and we were not sure what organization or town they were from but it seemed like everyone in town was joining in the fun and following them in their march. Even the beachgoers threw their things together and followed behind the procession.










The next day, about the same time, mid-day, the celebrations started again. This was the day that the school kids paid their respects, singing, laughing, cheering, while the band followed behind them. Every so often you would hear the big "boom" of a firecracker. This would become a very normal sound for the next 2 weeks. Not just your safe and sane" fireworks like we have in California - these were the real thing. Loud and, well just LOUD!

Spanish and Surf - San Juan del Sur

Before leaving Costa Rica I had done a little research, sent some emails, etc in hopes of finding a good location for taking Spanish classes; one with a good school at good prices, with positive reviews on homestays, and some outside activities - preferably good surf. We had both hoped to improve our language skills during our time in Latin America. That certainly did not happen in Costa Rica as just about everyone speaks English (at least in the towns we visited). Now we were determined to stay focused and do nothing but study - well at least for a couple of weeks. San Juan del Sur had several spanish schools to pick from and was known as a good base for local surfing so it sounded like a perfect spot.



We decided to spend our first night at the well-known and very busy Casa Oro Hostal in order to get some beta on the surf before immersing outselves in the language study. The hostel is bustling with young 20 somethings waiting on a shuttle or just chillin. Like every popular hostel it comes with free internet, a big community kitchen and plenty of beta on tours and transportation. The room is little more than a wooden box, with a vinyl curtain separating the toilet from the room, but were were not here for the accommodations - it was beta we were after and the staff was helpful and the walls of the main building were covered with information on surf beaches, shuttle times, and other activities.

Although there are several surf shops in town offering transport and boards, Casa Oro seems to run the most regular and convenient shuttles to the surf beaches at Playa Maderas and Remanso. And their monster rigs are not only sure to handle any muddy river crossing but they are pretty cool looking too!

Bienviendos Nicaragua! Volcanoes, Windmills, and Pink Floyd

These are our first visions and sounds of Nicaragua. Almost immediately after crossing the border you see the two conical shapes of Volcano Conception (1610 meters) and Volcano Maderas rising up out of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. The constant winds caused by the “lake effect” of Lake Nicaragua make it a perfect place for wind turbines, the site of which reminded us of home and the drive east on the 10 Freeway through Palm Springs which is essentially a wind tunnel caused by the heat of the desert combined with the location of the surrounding mountains creating another perfect spot for a wind turbine farm.

At first site it was a surprise, how could such a poor country be investing in alternative energy when the United States is still struggling with the concept? I wonder if this is foreign investment, who manufactured and maintains these turbines...we never did find out. Interestingly, however, we quickly learned that notwithstanding attempts to generate power, electricity was a heated topic in Nicaragua. The electricity problems played a very vital role in the 2006 elections where the Sandinista supported party won in the democratic elections in part based on promises of fixing the electricity problem (which basically was an issue of unrealiable or no electricity as the company which had control of generating the power, a company from Spain, did not believe it was worth its trouble to solve the problems with their service in Nicaragua.) Once elected, the new government quickly negotiated a new contract and the power went back on …intermittently that is. But now the issue is dispersed-literally-as there is generally power except for random hours during the day .. Or night .. If you call to complain, it could miraculously go back on .. Or not. Essentially the people get a “little” more electricity and reliability, but a higher bill that apparently is not based solely on usage and certainly does not change because the power is unavailable. In other words, it is still a huge problem.

Politics - we were to soon to find out was a a much discussed topic of conversation with Nicas. More on that later, back to our first sights and sounds of Nicaragua. “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. HEY TEACHER, leave us kids alone.“ Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall is a catchy tune, but it becomes almost surreal when it is booming from the speakers of a run-down taxi with a cracked windshield through the Nicaraguan countryside. The speakers might have been worth more than the car. I guess he assumed all Westerners played their music at eardrum crushing volume. We caught this taxi in the town of Rivas where the bus dropped us off, en-route to San Juan del Sur and some clases de espanol. I only wish I had a photo, or better yet a video clip of this little trip!

Crossing the Nicaraguan Border

We returned our car in Liberia, CR and stayed at the Hotel Guanacasta where we enjoyed our last Pilsner cervezas and delicious casadas set to the sounds of some boisterous karaoke by an all male crowd.
There are several buses to pick from that take you across the CR-Nic border. The hotel booked us seats on a Central Line bus headed to Rivas, Nicaragua. The cheaper option would have been to take the local bus to the border, handle the paperwork yourself, walk across the border, then enter Nicaragua and get another local bus onward We had heard the touts at the border could be voracious so we opted for the tourist bus who essentially handled everything for you at both border posts. Well almost, you still needed to grab your bags, walk through the checkpoint, and hit the button - green - you are clear, red - you are stopped for a random inspection. I knew I should have gotten in front of John. I got RED. I carried my very large backpack into the room where they did the searches. The border agent asked me to open the bag. I thought, hmm, once I open the bag it just leads to more smaller bags, each stuffed to the brim with different items - all the tops in one bag, all the pants & shorts in another, winter stuff in another, and then there are the hiking boots, poles, etc. He looked at how tightly and fully packed my bag was and was probably thinking the same thing as me (this could take some time if I have to unpack this bag) he said “solomente ropa” (only clothes) to which I responded “si” and he waved me off.

A Few More Days of Surf, a Few More Days With Friends

Tamarindo had really become our home base on this Costa Rican trip. We felt right at home at the Hotel Mamiri where we had met Eric & Fanny. After an early morning surf there was no better breakfast place in town than right in front of our hotel at Jimmy's - french toast - Elvis style, bottomless coffee and conversation with Sue & Jimmy. There was no shortage of surf shops in town, and it seems as if we had made friends at several of them. We were always dropping by to get the latest scoop on surf beta, where to go, what time is best...

We enjoyed some fun surf at Playa Grande and right in town at the Tamarindo river mouth. The swell was dying down so we both got long boards, one we nicknamed the “magic carpet ride” which we fought over as it really was magic - with just a few paddle strokes you could catch just about a bump in the water and ride it all the way to shore. Eric joined us on our final trip to Grande, along with another Californian we met at the Mamiri, Dan. unfortunately a new swell had come in and really kicked up the surf. Our long boards were a bit of a detriment and it got a little scary out there. But we made up for it with one last brilliant day at the river mouth with the trusty Magic Carpet Ride - long, long rights and one final majestic sunset. The time had come to say our good-byes and make our way to Liberia where we would catch a bus for Nicaragua. We can’t say we loved Tamarindo for the town (too touristy) but just like Los Angeles with its overwhelming crowds and traffic, sometimes it is what you find within the city (friends, Santa Monica Mountains, ocean, etc) that makes all the difference. We hope to see our CR friends again - until then - pura vida y hasta luego!

Quintessential Surf Town - Santa Teresa

Miles of uncrowned beach break, minimal development but yet adequate (as well as adorable) accommodations, dirt roads - the town was immediately appealing as it was not developed as a tourist destination but it still had sufficient services There would be a few hostels, a few restaurants and maybe a surf shop clustered together, then a stretch of road with very little, then another little crop. Dirt paths big enough for a motorcycle or bicycle but usually not wide enough for a car lead to the beach.




We drove down the road and looked at a few places to stay. All were acceptable, but this one place caught my eye and I wanted to see what they had to offer in our price range. Disfrutalo Villas had individual ranchos (small cabinas with palapa style roofs) as well as some dorms. The one we were shown was a private rancho completely enclosed in lush vegetation, and tons of mango trees. Once inside, the rancho had a wrap around deck with hammocks and chairs, a kitchen and little living room area with the bed upstairs in the loft. We fell in love. But it was out of our price range and we had just been talking about the need to watch our expenditures as Costa Rica was costing us more than anticipated. We drove down the street, about 2 blocks if that, and contemplated how much we could save if we made all our own meals. What the hell - we turned around and moved into our oasis (at $38 a night). For 3 nights we enjoyed the luxury of our own little cozy home where ripe mangos fell conveniently from the trees every morning providing free breakfast.




The surf varied from our first day when there was little happening, to a couple days later when the swell had really picked up. It was a good beach break, sandy bottom, rights and lefts and little crowd to speak of. In the realm of “it’s a small world” we were walking down the beach when someone called John’s name. We figured it was someone we had met at another beach here in Costa Rica. However it turned out to be Chris from Los Angeles, someone John had worked with sometime last year. Yes, it really is a small world.





As we were heading out of town we drove down to take one last look at the beach. The surf was going off - perfect peeling rights and lefts. Even though we had been out earlier we were tempted to get back in the water. Only problem was that we had checked out of the hotel and the car was packed, so we would have had to wrestle to see who stayed behind with the stuff. To protect our marriage we decided we would just continue on with as planned and head north - en-route back to Tamarindo.