Just like Laguna de Apoyo this is another busy place. We just can't seem to find the time to write a post between laying on the beach, swimming, and having drinks while watching the sunset. hahaha
The ferry trip from Ometepe was uneventful except for more weird music videos in the taxi van like I mentioned. When we arrived on the San Jorge side (mainland) we, of course, were mobbed by taxi drivers. I told them I did want a taxi and they said quinientos cordobas ($25) and I told them to take a flying leap. Coraleigh was also happy because she got to use her new word "demasiado" which means too much. The taxi driver, funny enough, agreed and said ok cuatrocientos ($20) to which I still said no. We eventually got him down to 315 cordobas or just at $15. He was just trying to rip us off. He swore it was "un buen precio", yeah sure it is buddy. We were told by our hotel owner on Ometepe and our guidebook that it costs $15.
San Juan del Sur is a small town. So small you could walk every street in town in one morning, but its real nice. The nicest and cleanest we've seen in Nicaragua and the beach is beautiful. The sand is so fine its like powder and the protected harbor makes for a nice half-moon shaped beach. The hostel we originally attempted to stay at was doing construction and had no double rooms, just dorms. We're too picky for dorms, haha. So we went to another hostel and they only had one with this crappy foam mattress on the floor and the door was curtains. Finally we came to our hotel called Encanto del Sur, which funny enough is very similar to our hotel on Ometepe called El Encanto. We were so happy to find the hotel to be clean and bug free, and it comes with A/C all for $25. Still no hot water, but that'll cost you $50+ at least. We blew our budget in Costa Rica so now we're trying to make up for it here.
The hotel owner informed us that a corner room with more windows would be available in one day so we decided we would move there after one night. Its a good thing because our dreams of bug freeness were shattered when we came home late that night to find a weird giant worm thing, a cockroach, AND a scorpion in our bathroom. Its a good thing we were both drunk. haha, of course Coraleigh made me smash all of them. The worm and cockroach were fine, but I dropped a big water bottle on the scorpion because I didn't want to attempt to step on it for fear of its stinger coming up over the edge of my flip-flops. The thing was big, about 4 inches long. We figured they came through the wall through the sink holes which were too big; we were glad to see our new room's bathroom was more remodeled and had a new pedestal sink instead of a rotting wood base. No more bugs since.
We spent the first few days just roaming town; Coraleigh bought a new beach dress, an awesome cat towel(see my manly pic), and we stocked up on some essentials (we've almost been on the road a month now). We spent a lot of time on the beach too playing in the waves and reading. Today the weather was blazing hot and we both got weird burns in the spots were sunscreen was forgotten. I have a circle right around my belly button and Coraleigh has a blotch on the back of one leg.
We've been eating well here since there are a lot of options. Funny thing is that this pizza place right by our hotel is excellent and we've already eaten there twice. The owner is a retired Italian expat and makes a truly authentic pizza for only $7. Delicious. We've also ordered wine with our pizza both nights, Italian Sangiovese and Cab for under $15 each and they were great. Drinks at a bar: glass of wine, a beer, and a rum and soda for Claire (this English girl we met) came to $5 and thats at the busiest beachfront bar here. It makes it hard to control yourself. :O)
Tonight was really awesome and I never thought it would be like this, but we decided to do this turtle expedition. It just so happens that yesterday was the beginning of the biggest "arribata" of the year for the Olive Ridley turtle (about 2 feet across and 3 feet long). Last night alone on this one beach over 10,000 females came ashore to make a nest and lay eggs. This beach is protected by La Flor wildlife refuge and we went there tonight. It was incredible even in the dark (the turtles only nest at night). There were so many turtles on this 1km stretch of beach that you literally had to watch your step for fear of hitting an adult or stepping on a baby. The rangers had some babies (tiny! about 3 inches long) they were going to release, but there were so many adults they kept them for a later time for fear of them getting squished by all the adults coming ashore.
There was some lightning in the distance and when it lit the sky the sight was amazing; thousands of turtles in the surf and on the beach. We watched one dig its nest, lay eggs, and cover the hole. It then did circles and kinda kicked and dug in areas slightly away from the nest so as to conceal its location from predators by creating a false nest. We used these special red lights since turtles are sensitive to white light so my pictures didn't come out, but I got some cool videos. Also the picture in the dawn hours we got from the internet, but it gives you an idea of what we saw. There were literally that many turtles on the beach. Luckily the turtles were so cool because the ride there and back completely sucked. We (us and 8 other people) crammed into this 4x4 van and it took over an hour to go only 10 miles. The road, once again, was horrible; we even forded two small rivers.
Tomorrow we signed up for some sailing where lunch is included and drinks are free all day. A nice change from the beach so we'll let you know how it goes!
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