beach trip

We're back from a trip to the coast - a very exciting trip as it is Anita's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! We think, that is. As we are geographically challenged and are not sure of some locations where she's been in the water, which I'm too embarrassed to ask about, so we'll just go with the idea that it was her first time. And she loved it! As did I. The water was so warm, it was like a bath.

Anyways, to start, we took the fun chicken bus to get there, and we learned a valuable lesson. Sit in the front of the bus. We made this promise to ourselves after arriving in San Juan with sore butts and mild cases of car sickness. Plus on the second bus we had to take, we stood in the back, thinking it would be just a quick trip and to kindly let our fellow passengers enjoy the seats (we are thoughtful people), only to get cramped into the corner by bags of food and supplies, and ladies who decided to get comfortable and stand in our very valuable personal space, directly underneath my armpit and where Anita's left foot should go. You would think that the presence of my armpit would be enough to make someone move (trust me, it should be), but apparently for this lady it wasn't. I may not smell as bad as I think I do. Anita woke up the next day with one sore leg.

But alas we arrived in the small town of San Juan del Sur, and it was so cute. We had heard many compaints that it is a touristy, overpriced beach town, which it was, but it was still so cute! I loved it. And I think I want to live in a beach town. Everyone is so relaxed. And the water is so nice. Just so refreshing. Especially after the heat of Granada, since there was a wonderful breeze through town.

We situated ourselves, and then that night met up with a friend of a girl I work with who lives down there. He does fishing tours and rents out property, and it was interesting to talk with someone who lives there and can have some more insight into the town. Basically, it's Telluride in Nicaragua. A small town, tourists discovered it, realtors came in and drove up the prices, and now there are more realtors than locals (or so it seems) and no one is buying. What do you do. We had drinks and food up at this gorgeous resort where you look out over the ocean and watch the sun set, and it was a nice introduction to things.

The next day we headed off to some neighboring beaches, and they were gorgeous. Totally uncrowded, and we ended up all by ourselves where we decided to camp out for the day. It was hot as hell, but we found a shady spot to bring relief to our tanning process, and read our books and enjoyed ourselves, not doing anything really. Not much thinking going on with me, just focused on tanning and having an empty brain, both of which come naturally to me. We came home to realize we were more red than tan, which was not the best surprise, especially since it elevated our inner temperature about 10 degrees, making for a hot night sleep. Oh and also, being in San Juan enabled us to take showers in the morning (hooray for non-stop water!) but apparently they encounter the problem of electricity being turned off sporadically. Wonderful! Which you wouldn't think would be too much of a problem except when you realize that fans need electricity. Yes, they do, I can assure you.

The next day was a day of relaxing. And watching European soccer/football. Yay Barcelona! Otherwise we wandered around, had lunch at the market which had amazing local food (We are getting our nutrients! We ate fish there! Protein at last!), and went for a hike up to see Jesus. Not the real guy, sadly, but a statue of him that overlooks the town from a mountain. Pretty cool. He meant business. There we encountered a family from Ohio who I am quite positive are in the dictionary under the listing for "American tourists". They did such charming things as refer to the Nicaraguan cordoba as "not real money" and ignore the girl who worked at the gate when she spoke to them since they didn't know a word of spanish. The father wore a shirt telling the world that he loves Alaska and the mother informed Anita, when she told them she was from Spain, that she too had a t-shirt that said Spain on it. Great folks. The hike was also entertaining since on the way, you get to see the monstrosities that foreigners have constructed there. I'm talking Mediterranean villas with infinity pools at every place. I think I'm just jealous.

So now we are back in Granada, where, only AFTER our walk home with heavy bags, it seems to be getting a bit cooler. As in, it may now be 93 degrees instead of 95. We're getting somewhere. Tomorrow is our day of planning for this weekend's class, which takes a long time when you put it off all day, doing other unimportant stuff and procrastinating. I'm good at that.