A sad day. Four days and three nights of warm water, torched skin, beautiful beaches, pumping surf, good company, new friends, minor concussions, and crazy experiences in Nicaragua went by in what felt like seconds.
I didn’t want to get out of bed. Apart from looking like a lobster, my skin hot to the touch, and being exhausted, the alarm sounding off like a fire horn at 6 represented much more than the start of the day. It was the last day in this beautiful country; a place that I was just beginning to fall madly in love with.
It wasn’t what I expected. It was so… real. We drove for long periods of time along the coast, through some main cities and into a town nearby for dinner, and everywhere we went was incredibly poor. There were no fancy hotels or resorts to be seen, no excessive shopping centers, nor many other white people, yet there wasn’t a moment where we felt unsafe and the locals (especially the kids) never stopped smiling and waving. The landscape wasn’t what I expected either. El Salvador and Costa Rica, Nica’s neighbors, are more tropical, while Nicaragua is somewhat dry and dusty once you get steps away from the beach or lakes (at least where we were), but still with rich soil and woodsy foliage. It had a somewhat desert on the beach feel, and was a change of pace from abundant green, like most other areas in central america.
El Transito, the beach we surfed a few days prior, was the spot for our final surf of the trip. All eager to get one last good sesh in before we all said our teary goodbyes, we loaded in the surfmobile and took one more tour down the bumpy unpaved road, and arrived to set our sights on the breathtaking beachbreak.
In a flash I was in the airport, talking with photographer Brendan Simmons and rapper Chris Portugal about our favorite parts of the trip (we all couldn’t pick one, there was too many to list). Why do the best things in life always go by too fast.
Thank you Nica for everything you provided the past week (even the concussion). This isn’t goodbye. It’s see you later, and later might have to be quite soon.
