Days 633-639! Time for one last full week here in El Tránsito! My time here has been absolutely awesome and I’m sad to go, but I have another adventure waiting for me at the next hostel I’ll be volunteering at. But let’s focus on this week! It was full of good surf sessions, new friends, and lots of reading and relaxing. I even finally got some photos of me while surfing on some nice waves! Pretty stoked to have those!

I was a little too tired from karaoke night to wake up early for a morning surf. But I did have a nice time semi-sleeping in on Thursday, September 25th.

When I got up, I had breakfast and then went to reading more of the book I’ve been reading (another Brandon Sanderson book). The kindle is such a nifty invention! I spent pretty much of the morning reading and hanging out with the hostel guests. I also did yoga which ended up being a pretty difficult session, but needed! The new yoga instructor’s classes are very good and professional.

I got El Ancla for lunch, like just about every other day. But I guess they didn’t have enough change, so they told me to pay them back the following day. That’s something I feel like you’d never find in the US. But in my travels, I’ve found the locals of small towns like El Transito (or Koh Tao, Thailand for example) to be trusting, friendly, and helpful. A lot of the time they ask their neighbors for the change too.

I finally got my chance to surf later on in the afternoon. But unfortunately it only lasted for 45 minutes. In those 45 minutes though, I caught 3 really nice waves on a 7’8” board. Then clouds rolled in and lightning soon followed. So I caught my final wave and came in. Unfortunately the lightning lasted till the sun went down. I decided I wouldn’t risk it and I’d make sure to get up early for a surf session the next morning.

At “family” dinner we had vegetarian curry which was delicious! I guess a lot of people had late lunches and didn’t want to save their meals for the following day so I ended up being the bottomless pit finishing 4 other people’s meals (and saving one for a snack for tomorrow).

We finished off the night with another surf theory lesson by Bailey. It was the same lesson, but I helped set up the electronics and stuck around to support him and encourage others to stick around and listen. I think the guests really liked it!

I woke up at 6:15am on Friday, September 26th for my first early morning surf in a while! But before I got to surfing, the hostel dog, Snoop, wanted to go out for a walk. So the next 15 minutes I followed him up and down the beach as he did his business.

Now it was surfing time!

The sea looked calm enough for a longer board, so I paddled out on the 8’1” board I’ve been having fun riding. I had a really fun surf session… I got out of the water around 9:30am so it was probably around 3 hours! It was a fairly busy morning in the lineup but I was able to paddle around and pick up a bunch of nice waves.

I also took a number of big falls and got stuck in the impact zone for a number of big sets too… the give and take of surfing!

Throughout the morning, more and more surfers got out of the water, presumably for breakfast. But I kept on going until I caught a really nice wave that turned into a second wave and I rode almost to shore. I was about to call it for the morning but I was itching for one more. So I paddled back out anddddd didn’t really catch anything after that besides more nosedives. The winds had shifted and I was tired… so it was time to go in for breakfast.

I ate and then got to work on a Instagram video for the hostel. This took me until lunch, where I got El Ancla again and paid for both my meal today and the meal I had yesterday.

After lunch I went on another short walk with Snoop and then laid in the shade reading. I was getting close to finishing my book, but then I was asked to play Skip-Bo with a couple other volunteers. So I did that for a bit before going back to reading. And then I got interrupted by another whale siting!! This time, I actually saw the whales fully breaching the water. Full sized humpback whales jumping out of the water… it was insane! I went back to reading and THEN I got interrupted again by the arrival of our newest volunteer, Lui from New Zealand.

Lui was going to be our newest surf instructor. We chatted for a while getting to know each other. We’re the same age and doing similar things in life, I have a feeling we’ll become friends over the next couple weeks (the end of this volunteer stint is sneaking up fast). The ocean was choppy this afternoon and the waves were looking heavy… but I decided to go for an afternoon surf anyways.

Nothing beats getting knocked around by waves to a beautiful sunset! Actually the first three waves I went for I caught. But after that I didn’t fair so well. I took out a 6’10” fish board (a type of surfboard with a v in the tail resembling a fishes tail), I wanted a smaller board for the powerful waves. The other day I wasn’t able to duck dive this board… but I guess my strength has built up over the past couple weeks since I used it last and I was able to duck dive most waves! There were still plenty I mistimed or didn’t go deep enough on, but for the most part I was doing pretty well!

The back half of my hour surf session wasn’t nearly as good as I got pulled into a tough set of waves and struggled to find a better spot to sit. But I was still very happy that I caught the three good waves and proved to myself I could surf the “short” board.

After four hours total of surfing today, my body had had enough! I enjoyed the rest of the sunset at the hostel, listening to music and chatting with the guests and the other volunteers. All the guests were leaving tomorrow, so they did their farewell dinner speech together. They each said one word each to form the sentence, which was quite funny.

One of the volunteers, Isa, was also leaving us tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed hanging out with her and getting to know her while volunteering together! But… as it goes on the road, it was time to say “see you later.”

I also chatted with the hostel director about future volunteering and even the potential of being one of the two hostel managers in the future. He sounded very interested in both and I said I could see myself coming back even in January (when they had availability next) to volunteer. The manager role wouldn’t be until April/May and would be a 6 month commitment… but I’d be very down to stay at this hostel for much longer and learn the ropes to managing a hostel! We’ll see what comes of that.

After dinner I hosted the beer pong tournament. We only had four teams again, so I decided to do it in a round robin fashion. We had almost finished the entire “tournament” but then three of the local surfers (that chat with us in the surf lineup) came to the hostel wanting to join. So I started having them play everyone. This format kind of slowly petered out and we didn’t end up finishing, but I think everyone still had fun. I also think people wanted to get to bed to hopefully catch an early surf.

As did I!

I woke up early on Saturday, September 27th… but the waves were even worse than the afternoon waves the day before. I went on a walk with our very excited hostel dog, Snoop. He’s allowed to go romp around as he pleases but he really enjoys someone walking with him (even though he walks a fair bit in front of you). I got back to the hostel and went back to sleep for a little bit.

I got back up, read, did an hour of a slow paced yoga, went back to reading, and then the last of our guests left. It was really nice having some new faces around, people actively wanting to partake in activities, and to have good chats with fellow travelers. But, I was also looking forward to more mellow days, lots of time to read, and plenty of surfing.

I went to El Ancla for lunch and when I showed up they were making a big stew. One of the older family members told me I should get it and I asked how much… I believe she said 150 cordobas but I’m still shaky on my numbers so I defaulted to my regular pollo frito (also I wasn’t really in the soup mood). Before I left she had me try it, which was very sweet. I told her it was really good but I’d get it another day.

When I came back I saw the same woman starting to put the stew into a take away container and then I also was given the biggest portion of food from them I had seen! And then she handed me the container of soup as well!! She even tried to give me my 20 cordobas of change and I was like, “no no no.” I thanked her and gave her a hug, and she gave me a little kiss on the cheek. I’ve somehow received another mother to add to my list of mothers around the world…

It was such a sweet and kind gesture. I shared the soup, which she had explained to me was a very traditional Nicaraguan soup, with all the volunteers. It had pumpkin, plantains, some other veggies, and beef… and she had just given it to me for free. All the volunteers were hyped up that they had given us the soup and we all really enjoyed it. I intended on telling the family tomorrow that I shared it and we all loved it.

After lunch, I played Skip-Bo with Emilie and Lui. After a number of tough fought games, I helped another volunteer, Matt, peel a bunchhhh of garlic. Probably the most amount of garlic I’ve ever peeled. He makes a tasty peanut and garlic chili oil.

The last time Lui was at the hostel, he left a skateboard. Turns out, it was still here! So him and I headed into town to the local skate park. The owners of the hostel created a cement half pipe and have plans to add more. When we showed up it was empty. Lui is pretty good at skating on the half pipe… I’ve never done it before! So he ran me through the basics and we’d switch off who was riding.

Eventually a local kid came over and started skating with us. His name’s Carlos, 11 years old, and he was a lot better than me! He was a bit shy and was mainly watching us but we encouraged him to hop in a take a turn. Eventually a whole gaggle of kids showed up!

One of the kids, Miguel, is one of the local surfers who’s always out. And since surfing correlates to skating he was pretty dang good at that too. I started to slowly get the idea behind skating back and forth (I didn’t dare drop in yet), but after an hour or so, we called it quits and headed back to the hostel.

It’s nice to see that the local kids are using the skatepark! To have access to surfing and skating is really cool (in my opinion).

We then went over to a hostel nearby called Sunslice. The manager, Selma, was having a little birthday party. She’s often at the hostel, so we went over to have a drink and celebrate a little. It was really nice getting to know everyone over at that hostel, we see them every day but never talk to each other more than just hellos!

I popped back to our hostel for a very quiet dinner and then I went back to Sunslice to dance the night away (I didn’t stay super late, the saying is just a fun one).

The reason I didn’t stay late was so I could wake up early on Sunday, September 28th. I wanted to get a surf in, so I got up at 6am, checked the waves, went on a walk with Snoop, and then paddled out on the 8’1” longboard I’ve been using. The waves looked like it’d be a good longboard day… but I struggled to get out past the break. I was determined to get out and tried a different part of the beach and was successful!

But… after an hour of paddling around and having no luck (the waves were very weak until they broke, but it was too steep for the longboard). I went back in, drank some water, and took out a shorter board.

I went back out on the 6’10” fish surfboard I used the other day and again had troubles paddling out… there was a rough cross rip today which made getting out difficult. But again, I was determined and tried another spot and was able to work my way back out to the lineup. A few of the hostel owner’s friends were in the lineup and I was chitchatting with them. I finally caught my first wave of the day on a good sized wave. The short ride made my morning of struggling worth it!

I’m also really happy that I’m able to use this short of a board! It adds a good surfboard to my tool belt.

I ended up paddling back to the lineup and catching one more really good wave all the way back in! And when I was walking up to the hostel, my friend Wilson (who takes photos of surfers) said he finally caught a pick of me on that wave!

I had breakfast and worked on some social media work for the hostel. And then I joined the yoga teacher, Lean, on the yoga deck. I tweaked my shoulder a bit today in the water while surfing and she is a physical therapist! So she helped me through some exercises I can do to stretch that part of my shoulder.

After that, there was a local baseball game happening at the stadium I saw when I first arrived to town. Some of the volunteers had already headed to it, so Lean and I headed over. But just before we did, Snoop started whining at me and it turned out he wanted to go on another walk. So I joined him on the beach for a short one.

The baseball game was packed with locals who had come out to support the home team. Some of the hostel workers were in the stands and even one of them was one of the team’s coaches. I stayed for around an hour and caught the end of the first game, it was a double header today. It was fun to watch and experience baseball in another country. There was only one ump and he stood behind the pitcher, which was interesting.

Otherwise, it was the same game. The fans weren’t nearly as rowdy as the football fans in Antigua, Guatemala, however it was still a fun atmosphere.

I headed back to the hostel for lunch and got El Ancla again. I thanked them for the soup and in fact told them I shared it with my friends and we all enjoyed it. They were happy to hear. Today they made some sort of fried rice with beef, chicken and shrimp… they told me to get it and I was like ehhh I really do like the pollo frito. But they said, no try it… and I did… it was fantastic, so I had to get it. They’re so sweet!

I was in a pretty big food coma after this incredible meal. I sat in a hammock reading for the next few hours. I then decided to go for an afternoon surf. My shoulder was still uncomfortable but when I got into the water it was alright. The board I wanted to use was already in the water with someone else. So I took out the board just smaller than it, a 6’8” normal board. Surprisingly, I was able to paddle out a lot easier than earlier in the day.

I struggled and struggled to catch a wave, the ocean wasn’t my friend today, outside of the two fun waves I caught in the morning. And then a storm rolled in and lightning followed. I quickly started paddling in and actually finally caught my first wave of the session. It was small but I road it all the way back to shore.

We had another quiet dinner, played some card games (specially a more extreme version of Shithead), and then called it an early night!

I went out for a surf the morning of Monday, September 29th. The waves were starting to build up with the on coming swell, but I wanted to take a crack at it anyways.

It was a tough paddle out on the 6’10” fish board but I made it after what felt like 10-15 minutes of paddling and duck diving. I was pretty happy that I was able to make it through! I tried to catch one wave and almost caught it (took a nose dive instead). And then after a couple more attempts and having some longer time being held under the water by waves, I called it quits. Thankfully I did because no more than 30 minutes later, a surfer from the hostel nearby, Sunslice, broke a board trying to catch one of the waves.

I made the right choice…

I grabbed the hostels guitar and strummed on the patio watching the surfers that were braving the swell. Out of nowhere a group of (presumably) Nicaraguan Navy troops started walking down the beach. It was an interesting sight to see. I don’t think I’ve ever seen automatic rifles on the beach before.

I had breakfast, read, did an hour of yoga… and then read some more! A really nice way to start the day.

I then took a stroll to the local tienda (store) to get a snack. The main mission though was to exchange American dollars to cordoba. If you buy something at the store with USD, they’ll give you cordobas in exchange. And since I didn’t want to bring a $20 bill to the kind restaurant ladies, and force them to use all their small bills to give me change, I went to the store to do it instead.

El Ancla was closed so I had lunch from the other restaurant, Comedor. And then… went back to reading! I’ve really enjoyed having so much time to get back into reading and I’ve already made my moneys worth with this Kindle.

A guest arrived today, Sam from Australia! He’s from Darwin, so not a surfer, but was here to chill by the ocean. He came just in time as we were setting up the volleyball net for some beach volleyball. We invited over the Sunslice volunteers and guests too and had a blast playing in the drizzle, which turned into a gorgeous sunset!

The cooks at the hostel tried out a new meal tonight, vegetarian meatballs. It was delicious! After enjoying a fantastic meal I hopped in the shower, when I got back out to the table, our new volunteer arrived! Kaitlyn from Michigan.

With a new guest and volunteer, we all ended up staying up late hanging out and getting to know each other. It was lovely night and perfect timing too, because on Tuesday, September 30th I woke up to some huge waves and decided it’d be a good day to relax and sleep in… so I went back to bed for a little bit.

I woke back up and got straight into reading. I was also watching huge waves come crashing down and there were some surfers (locals and non-locals) braving the big swell. I finished Steelheart, the first of Brandon Sanderson’s Rackoners Series. And then read his short story, Mitosis, which is considered book 1.5 of the series. I then dove into the second ACATAR book, A Court of Mist and Fury. It was a big reading morning!

I then helped set up the hostels pizza day. I wasn’t in the mood for it, so I got food from one of the local restaurants instead. After lunch, I went to the tide pools with a few of the volunteers, the new guest, and Snoop! Snoop was especially excited to tag along, but he didn’t swim with us this time. A couple locals I knew were at the tide pool, so I got a nice l opportunity to practice some Spanish today too!

I read more, had a nice sunset yoga session, had dinner, and played some Shithead. We had to stay up a bit later than we wanted to because the owner was coming back from Managua and we had to help carry supplies in.

But then it was time for bed!

The waves were starting to quiet down on Wednesday, October 1st… but not fully. After a day off from surfing though, I wanted to get in! So I paddled out into a solid 3-4ft wave day.

At the beginning of the session, I caught a couple very nice waves on the 6’10” surfboard I’ve been using… I also took a number of big spills. On one wave I tried to catch, I was getting sucked over the lip… I thought I had caught it and when I stood up I felt I was going to get dumped. So I tried to beat it by jumping back over the wave… bad idea, my momentum took me straight up and then straight back down for an even bigger plunge into the water. Thankfully, I didn’t hurt myself or damage the board.

After a solid surf session, I headed back in and FaceTimed my parents!

It had been a little over a week since our last chat, and we had plenty to catch up on. As always, it’s really nice chatting with them, it would of course be better in person, but I’m glad technology allows us to chat face to face!

I finished up a Instagram reel for the hostel and then continued on reading the rest of the morning.

I went on a midday walk with snoop, he didn’t want to go on one this morning for some reason. And then had another delicious meal from El Ancla. While I was in my food coma, I went back to reading and then eventually picked up the guitar to work on a song I’ve been plucking around on.

I went on an evening walk with snoop and then played some very competitive Spikeball with some guys from Sunslice. It’s nice to have another group of people to spend time with!

I enjoyed another beautiful sunset before dinner. Just before dinner, 4 new guests arrived. Two guys from Switzerland that had been here a few days ago, and two guys from French Canada.

It was great timing on their part because it was karaoke night! A few of the Sunslice crew came over and we had a fun night of singing and dancing. A huge thunderstorm rolled through knocking out the power a couple times, but we kept trying and eventually kept on singing through the storm with lightning illuminating the sea as we sang.

I was able to sneak off to bed on the early side as karaoke wrapped up around 11pm. I wanted to be able to wake up early for a morning surf. The surf report was looking like the waves would be perfect for longboarding.

But… that’ll be for next week’s post!

This was my final full week in El Tránsito. Next week, I’ll be heading to Costa Rica to start my next volunteering adventure! There’s still a few more days to come, but I’ve had such an amazing time here at Free Spirit Hostel. We’ll get into the sappiness on the next post but being able to surf and do yoga every day, hang out with like minded people, and take time to relax and enjoy life is so wonderful.

But we’ll get more into that next week!

I’ll see you then!

– Elie