It turns out that I planned two trips in the month of June trying to work with everyone's schedule. The first of which was to Nicaragua! Man was it HOT. A volunteer friend Audrey and I went together. It was a nine hour commute to Managua the capital by bus. Managua was very impressive. Although everyone says capitals usually aren't, especially since they tend to be dirty but this one wasn't. What made it uneventful was that it's not a pedestrian town. Everywhere we went we only saw four lane roads. So we walked around the national museum, legislative building and the original national cathedral. The cathedral was the best part. It's been closed after earthquake damages. I asked the men working if we could look around and they let us! It really is a cool church with AMAZING views of Managua and the lake. It made the rest of our awkward morning in eerie Managua worth it, we were the ONLY tourists around. 
Next, we headed to Granada which is such a great city. It's a colonial city dating back 1524 and has some amazing buildings built all throughout its history. We checked out the open market, had mojitos overlooking its central park and four cheese pasta for dinner on its famous Calle Calzada. I find the name of this street hilarious. This street is know for it's touristy restaurants and such, I can just imagine they started calling it that because that's where the people with shoes would go at night. In the morning we had an amazing international breakfast - I had french toast! Then we checked out San Francisco's convent and went up a bell tower for the best view of Granada and the lake. Headed to Isla Ometepe to take the ferry across. Now Managua and Granada were hot, but on the island we were MELTING! Our hostel turned out to be on a part of the island that had no wind. We were the only two guests and it was a ten minute walk to the thirty person town. We both decided we weren't up for being in a place more rural than our sites, skipped over hiking to up the volcanoes and left in the morning to the beach.
Our first day in San Juan del Sur was sweltering but then was raining the next two days. We stayed at this incredible hostel that was a mansion in the hills that had a shuttle down to the adorable town with old and new mixed in. Although it's a touristy place it wasn't overbearing, probably because this is no where near peak-season for Nicaragua. We had some good meals right on the water and it made me miss my favorite meals back home!Our first full day we hung out in the pool until the waves got better. The hostel has a truck that takes people out surfing everyday which we can rent boards from. So we took advantage. Playa Remanso is a protected bay and such a gorgeous place to be. My first day surfing went ok, I'm really good at catching waves on my belly! The board was a little too small for me to get up on. Took a nap on the beach after being out there for a couple hours, and I realized just how much I need the beach in my life. The next day we took a break and hung out in town and watched a movie at the hostel. I love hostels with an awesome couch set up. I really miss comfy family rooms, weird I know, haha.
My last day in San Juan we hung out at the hostel til the afternoon when the surf would be better. There were only three of us that were heading out that day with Marcus. He invited us to his friends place up on the hill overlooking Playa Madera (which is where they filmed Survivor Nicaragua). We were hanging out with some of the people there when another person staying there started introduced himself to all of us - Penn Badgley. I really should have invited him to sit with us but he went downstairs and layed on a hammock. But a little later I went and sat to chat with his friends, one of which I realized was Shawn Pyfrom. Mind you, we're about a thirty minute drive from town, at least twenty minutes of which are dirt roads. We're in at an extremely rural beach and meet two American actors, it's such a small world.
So we took to the waves which were INTENSE! I took out a bigger board which turned out to be a small boat and getting it out was the largest battle. Several times I just threw myself on to catch a wave and stop having to suffer anymore. I didn't get up to much because of that. But it was still so much fun and exhausting. I even have a huge bruise to show for it after banging into some rocks. It's funny that I was kind of dreading how exhausting it would be to get there and backpack around but it turned out to be relaxing and exactly what I needed. Since the rainy season has started I've had trouble getting rid of the chill and melting in Nicaragua did just that. Next up, home in 12 days!
