Nicaragua Week #8 : Nathaniel's POV 🇳🇮

Nicaragua is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. It is full of spectacular beaches, amazing animals and very kind people.

After the whole El Salvador shebang, the family and I were in dire need of some R&R, which is how we came across Laguna Apoyo . The place we were staying at on Laguna Apoyo was called the Paradiso Hostel (everything in Spanish ends with "o") and was complete with a pool table, ping pong table, hammocks, bar, beach chairs and a whole army of staff everywhere. We spent many hours soaking in the warm, mineral waters of the volcanic lake which frankly melted all the stress off our backs and helped us get ready for two weeks or so of driving every other day.

We did many activities at laguna Apoyo including kayaking, trivia nights with the other guests, swimming, floating around the lake in tires and so much more. One of my personal favorite activities was reading in the soft hammocks located every five or so meters (I devoured 3 whole novels in those hammocks alone)! The surrounding area was also extremely beautiful, it was a lush green crater with a perfectly round lip going around it. The nearest city was called Grenada where we took a little day-trip and got carted to the taxi in a horse-drawn carriage! On another day, we drove up to another volcano (I know its a lot of volcanoes in Central America!!!) and were able to watch a beautiful sunset tinted all sorts of cool colours because of the volcanic smoke. We were also able to peer over a ledge into the eye of the volcano and see churning lava that burned a vibrant orange.

David Attenborough, Planet Earth Narrator: "And now, observe the beautiful volcanic lake and its turquoise hue, and, oh my folks... if you look closely you can see three of the rarest sharks on earth! These rare specimens are what we call "Pool Sharks"... observe as the three young pool sharks banter and celebrate, all fighting for billiard supremacy..."

Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but we seriously turned into pool sharks. We would play around 10-15 rounds per day against each other, our parents and even some of the staff. One day, we split up a pack of "Principes" (the Central American version of Oreos but WAY better) and used those as chips to bet on our winning chances, and let me tell you this, it did NOT go well.

Anyways, after around four days of relaxing at Laguna Apoyo, we finally set off for whiter beaches and set our sights on San Juan del Sur.

San Juan Del Sur is like those posters at Walmart that say: "Are you in need of a BREAK??? Well, come on down to San Juan Del Sur and RELAX" and then you see a mom suntanning and her kids all joyfully building sandcastles while her husband has a drink with his buds. Well, the beach was like that, but our family was not. We immediately got out the boogie board and sprinted down to the enormous waves and promptly got drowned. We were all accustomed to huge waves because of a beach in El Salvador that we briefly went to, but this was a whole new level. Once you did get a wave though, you would get amazingly high and then could ride the wave all the way to the sand.

The next day, my dad decided to invest in some surfing lessons and surfboards for the day which led to us laying on surfboards while two long-haired Nicaraguan surf instructors taught us how to jump up on a surfboard and stay standing. The minute we got to the waves though, we were hooked. Jonah, Elias and I started on the surf but eventually moved up to 2-3 footers and near the end I even caught a 5- footer for a little bit before it manhandled me back into the drink. The only incident occurred when I thought my foot was tangled in the strap but was actually a jellyfish! I got burns all down my leg and had to put lime juice on it to cool it down but all in all, I was fine. We spent practically the whole day out on the water and by the time the sun started setting we were all feeling very briny and I think that I was growing barnacles on my feet.

We really enjoyed playing volleyball, guitar and beach soccer when the sun died down and we could actually do things not related to water because at Laguna Apoly there was not much open space to play games like that. There was only one major incident which was that I left my Kobo (an eReader) at Laguna Apoyo, but we solved it by meeting up with one of the staff in a city nearby for a pretty penny. One evening on the beach we spotted an enormous sea turtle trudging up to the sand to lay eggs! We followed it around and took PLENTY of pictures along with the other groups of Overlanders who we had been camping alongside.

This is an easy example of how beautiful and exotic Nicaragua really is, but the real reason behind its beauty is the fact that their government has really stepped up on cleaning up all the garbage which has limited the stray dogs, stopped people from using the roads as their garbage can and so much more. It also gives the people a sense of pride when you have a clean, beautiful country to live in which motivates them to contribute to the effort of creating a greener earth.

One thing that has been a problem lately in Central America has been power-hungry bosses. A lot of the people in high positions here tend to want themselves to always be in control. For example, when we were heading to Costa Rica, we got pulled over by a roadside checkpoint and were asked for our Nicaraguan insurance, we had it on a photo that an official agency gave us but she wouldn't accept it! Eventually she realized she was wrong but would still not let us go, so we asked her if we could talk to her boss and she said she was the boss, so we just waited it out. Finally she told one of her workers to tell us we could go because she could see we were not going to cave in and she did not want to lose any respect by telling us herself. Things like this happen all the time, from McDonald's all the way to the border bureaucrats, but we have learned to be patient or let it go in situations like this or it could lead to trouble.

And so, on a happier note, our stay in Nicaragua ended with us all happily trucking down the Panamerican contented with our experience in one of the lushest places on earth.

Thank you all for reading and supporting the blog!

See you guys in the next post!

- Nathaniel Fast