Hotel Gran Oceano San Juan del Sur

... door to a little comedor and sat down. Our waitress was<br>ridiculously friendly and we immediately felt at home. Teddy had an<br>extended convo (in espanol!) with a guy on the boat about what the best<br>food to get on the island was, and he had said fish. So we both went<br>with the fried fish and gallo pinto (rice and beans). We also ordered a<br>litro of beer to go along with it. Though it took about an hour, the<br>fish was incredible. It came out ...

... at the local bars, Republika and The Pier (our favourites). Republika is a sports bar just down the street from our hotel which plays football games (no hockey!!), sells 75 Cordoba (ca. $3) personal rum buckets and has a variety of fun games to choose from (such as Jenga). The bar is managed by a couple from North Carolina who moved down to San Juan about a year ago. The other bar we have been frequenting, called The Pier, is located on the main strip down by the beach. The bar ...

... the beyond dead Casa Feliz. After a few quick emails to the Jameses to say I&#8217;ve arrived; a very expensive pizza; and meeting a chef/painter and his girlfriend. I head exhausted to bed, it has been a very very long day.<br><br>Life's a Beach<br><br>The next morning by either brilliant planning or complete serendipity, I run into James Murphy from San Pedro and he persuades me, as if it needed much, to head to Maderas beach on the Casa D&#8217;Oro shuttle with my bags ...

... all other sorts of interesting species. Al was just dying to do some kayaking and we had missed opportunities from Panama and Costa Rica. We jumped (ok, well hobbled) out of bed that morning and put in our breakfast order early as the bus was leaving at 8.30am outside the hostel in the direction of the kayak company. <br><br>We never made the bus. Our breakfast order took over an hour to make despite the fact that we were the only people eating. We saw the bus making its way past us ...

... These two, however, had no such feelings. Their moans and groans and sighs and flesh made enough sounds to rouse the security guard to pull his chair up to the entrance of the open area and focus his attention on their cubicle (I know this because I was constantly doing the mad dash between my room and the toilet). <br><br>The couple eventually finished a few hours later, I fell asleep in a hammock exhausted by my night and, when awake, made Alan swap our room for ...

... bus from Rivas to San Jose will take about 7 hours and then we'll have another 6 hours to the Panama border. (Please, please, please let there be AC as we were promised!)<br><br>I've decided it's best to ignore the fact that I found out today the taxi ride on Wednesday from Rivas to here should've cost $3 and we paid $8. I'm going to try to let all that stuff go before it pushes me over the edge. There's a fine line when traveling between watching your back and ...

San Juan Del Sur is located on the Pacific Ocean just a few kilometers from the border of Nicaragua, Expecting yet another small hippy town, we were surprised to find an ugly bay town. The only thing going for this place was the close proximity it has to some great surfing beaches. The first day for surf we went to Playa Remosa. Upon arriving we found a beach flooded with many learners lying flay ...

... path to go to the waterfalls, but the guard told us there was a cheaper path a bit further, but he was not sure how well maintained it was. We went there, and there was nobody to get the money, so we said "free, perfekt". We started to walk, but from the very beginning we were not that sure about the way, it was horribly maintained, and there were more ways to other "fincas" and also dry rivers which confounded us. I was attacked in my feet by stupid ants, and we both ...

... day we were there we went to a water hole called El Ojo de Agua, which means The Eye of Water. It was gorgeous. I think it was once just a river or a creek but they had damned it up and poured some concrete to make a nice natural looking pool. The water was so fresh and clear it was such a pleasure to swim in. Plus it was soooo hot there that is was a relief to submerse yourself in the cool water. We had all ...