Beach Days

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

After we had recovered from the stomach bug that sidelined us for our first few days in San Juan del Sur, we were finally feeling well enough to get out and explore the area a bit. The town of San Juan del Sur is quite the happening place. There are tonnes of bars & restaurants located right on the beach, but the beach itself isn’t the greatest. One of the hostels in town offers shuttles to nearby playas where the beaches are bigger, and the waves are better for surfing. We did two day trips to two separate beaches: Playa Maderas and Playa Hermosa. Both beaches are about 30 minutes away from SJDS. Both were very similar in that they were fairly deserted and the beaches themselves were HUGE!

Playa Maderas

Only a 25 minute shuttle ride away (complete with insane hills & incredibly rocky terrain), Maderas is a popular spot for day trippers & surfers. It has 4 restaurants on the beach with one, Tres Hermanos, offering the best nachos in town (according to Mac). The beach is huge and it’s also relatively easy to access its neighbouring beaches: Playa Playones & Playa Majagual.

The burn on Mac’s leg (from our San Ramon waterfall adventure) was still healing, so we didn’t go in the water. I’m not terribly upset for two reasons: 1) it was SO wavy! Those that managed to get a surfboard in the water were having a hard enough time staying upright while sitting that I can’t imagine trying to swim! And 2) there was an unbelievable amount of pelicans flying over the water that dive bombed the ocean – without warning! – for unsuspecting fish. I would have been terrified of being in the flight path of one of those huge birds!

 Playa Hermosa

While Maderas is north of SJDS, Hermosa is located about 30 minutes south. It’s not as popular as Playa Maderas which shows in the lack of eating establishments on the beach. There is a hotel/resort right on the beach and the only place to eat/drink anything is at their restaurant. The food wasn’t terrible, but in true Nica fashion, the service was slow slow slow. It’s not like we had anywhere to be though, so we were happy to sit & watch the tide change while we waited for our food.

Hermosa is similar to Maderas in that the beach itself is huge! The water was a bit calmer than Maderas so quite a number of people were trying their hands at surfing. Mac and I did go in the ocean this time around, but I lasted about 4 minutes. The water was earth-shatteringly cold and going under the waves left me gasping for air! The waves were very strong too and left me feeling like I had gone through a washing machine! Satisfied that we at least made it in the ocean, we spent the rest of our day relaxing & reading in the hammocks.

One thing that plagued our visits to both Maderas & Hermosa was the wind. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this anywhere else while talking about Nicaragua, but January & February are known to be the ‘windy season’. Something to do with the jet stream or air currents from up north (Canada & USA) during the winter makes its way to Central America causing relentless wind all day. It’s not so bad in the cities, but on the beach with no protection, we were literally sand blasted several times during our stays. Both beaches had super-fine sand too, so that stuff got everywhere!!

San Juan del Sur

Other than briefly walking on the beach to get from one restaurant to the sidewalk, we didn’t really spend much time on SJDS’s actual beach. But I can’t not mention its fabulous sunsets. Every night around 5pm, vacationers make their way to one of the several patios or bars that line the beach. With numerous happy hour specials to be had, it’s quite the event.

For our first sunset viewing experience in San Juan, we were treated to a water propelled boarding experience. One guy drove his jet ski around the bay, while the other guy was hooked up to a what looked like a wake board that was connected to the end of the jet ski making it so that he was floating about 20ft above the ocean. He did flips and turns and dives. It was really quite  something to watch!

He had a great backdrop for his performance too. The sunset was beautiful (aren’t they always though?).