Lots of cows later we pulled into San Juan Del Sur, a surf destination along the Pacific coast.
This is apparently one of the best spots in the world for surfing due to the wind direction. The wind is dominantly blowing out to sea instead of onto shore, this reduces the chop and produces a much better curl. Being how the bikes are better than pets for breaking the ice with strangers, we learned all this info from the nice Ausie couple that stopped to comment about our “rigs”. They also provided us with the location of a nice clean room to rent, apparently the lady is always cleaning her white tile. I liked the sounds of that, so Brenda took off walking with the lady so as to get the general location of the room. I am not sure where the man went. We later learned, from Natalie who sells condo’s, that these type of winds also reduce the amount of sea spray that hits the buildings and cars in town so things last longer and maintenance is reduced. This makes it much more desirable for development and tourism. The town also has an active recycle program, garbage collection, and best of all...potable tap water. I know, crazy stuff. There are also all kinds of accommodations available, restaurants and bars to choose from, and about half a dozen surf beaches with an hour of town, depending on dry the roads are. We took a day trip south to Play del Coco, one of the better beaches in the vicinity, it is located about 20km down a jungle road.
It was very quiet though as the waves were not happening, so we explored the area and found a road into Yankee Beach. This too did not have alot to offer but in the process of finding the beach we got turned around and drove onto the property of a bed and breakfast joint. Did, I mention we are 20km down a very rough jungle road outside of town only 15000 people. This place was like walking into the Wilshire Grande, an absolute over the top oasis. The only way to explain it is to follow this link and go to their website. www.orquideadelsur.com
Well over an hour later we finally left Orquidea Del Sur and returned to San Juan del Sur, along the way we seen a bunch of kids having baseball practice. I had brought a baseball to give away and this seemed like the perfect opportunity, so we zipped back to the room, grabbed the ball, returned to the field and just threw it over the fence to the kid on third base. The ball was still in the plastic wrapper, he looked at it, then at us, then ran it over to the coach or parent on the first base line. They looked at it, then at us and gave a big wave. Mission accomplished.
The main beach in San Juan is protected by a huge statue of Jesus, perched on the highest cliff. We tried to find the road that lead to Jesus but could not. I guess we were not meant to find Jesus on this day. LOL. So instead we an ice cream cone and that at least made us feel like we were in Heaven temporarily. Then another first happened, a blackout. The whole city went black for about 20 minutes, I guess He didn’t like the ice cream joke.
Being the adventurous eaters, we tried to find a place even more strange than the lady cooking chicken and beef on a half barrel BBQ on the sidewalk in front of a Bodega ( we ate there last night). Very good and only $3. We were not successful in the strange category but managed to find a place that served larger portions for the same money. Located in the center of the market area there are a couple of small cookeries and some tables to eat at. We figured the food must be fresh as the supplies are surrounding us. We were right, very fresh, very tasty, very economical.
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