Days 752-758! Another week down! It was another great week of surfing, hanging out with people at the hostel, and very much chilling out. The waves were starting to get better this week, which made the surf sessions a lot more enjoyable than they had been.

The month of January is zooming by and we kick start this week on Thursday, January 22nd. Evan and I woke up and left the hostel at 5:30am….

Why?

To go for our first dawn patrol surf session together!

Since one of us has to be at the hostel between 8am and 8pm, the bright and early surf session is the only time we can go out and surf together. We walked down the hill to the beach in the dark and by the time we got to Playa Maderas, the sun was slowly starting to creep out. It was a cloudy morning though, so the sun wasn’t lighting up the sky very quickly. It was nice to see the sunrise though! It’s been a while since I’ve done a morning surf.

The surf session ended up being a lot of fun! Unlike the surf session the day before, which was absolutely frigid, this one was very manageable temperature wise. There were some warm pockets in the water and the wind wasn’t howling through the ocean as much. It was super fun having Evan in the water to cheer each other on into waves and chat with while waiting for sets of waves to come.

The waves themselves were nice and I was able to catch a few nice rides. I felt like they were easier to catch this morning than they had been for a while. The waves started to pick up in size and I caught some bigger closeout waves, I also caught plenty of nose dives too. We surfed for about an hour and 45 minutes before catching one more wave in and hiking back up the hill to the hostel. I was tired at the beginning of the session, but I was so glad we got out and surfed and I was looking forward to it again the following day.

We got back, showered, and ate. Then it was time for me to plop down into a hammock, read, and nap. Since Evan hasn’t been surfing the past week, due to a foot injury, I wanted him to take the first double surf session. So he worked the morning shift checking in one guest. I took a little nap in my bed, since I was really exhausted, but otherwise the rest of the morning was spent in the hammock.

The owners have a laundry machine and they let Evan and I use it today! Free laundry is always a nice plus.

The hostel slowly started to have fewer and fewer people hanging around it as the day moved on. I made myself lunch and chatted with the remaining guests. Then 4 of us, Evan, Rita from Italy, and Adi from Israel played a new card game (for me). I don’t remember the name but it was a trump style card game where you “attack” the player sitting to your left and their goal is to defend against the attackers. It was very simple and easy to play.

I went back to reading as everyone else was leaving the hostel for surfing or the beach. I on the other hand took my speaker to the skate bowl and surf skated around for an hour. I felt like I was really improving the pumping action required to generate speed on the surf skate. It’s pretty cool seeing such quick progress and enjoying surf skating so much.

I hopped in the shower afterwards and of course this was the exact time when a check-in showed up. I hurried out of the shower and showed them their private room and around the hostel. And then… it was time to read in the hammock again. But I didn’t get far as the owner’s daughters had just gotten home from school. They wanted to run around and play, but I convinced them to hang out and chat, which was much nicer.

Around 6pm, I FaceTimed my Bubbie and Zeidie (my grandmother and grandfather). It was really nice chatting with them, updating them on my life and future plans, and hearing everything going on in their world!

The girls had gone home by the time I got back, so I settled in to read more. I ended up making dinner, reading more, and chatting with guests. There’s a plantain tree on the hostel’s property. So for dinner I picked a green one and made some tostones. It was not the best tasting, which I honestly have no idea why. But cool that we have them accessible to us! I then called it an early night so I could get up and surf in the morning again.

I woke up at 5:15am on Friday, January 23rd for a nice and early morning surf. Evan woke up and then said that he was too tired after his double surf session the day before. He promptly went back to bed after that and I headed down to the beach by myself in the dark.

I was the second person to arrive at the beach and did some stretching on the shore before getting in. I had gotten there before first light, but you could still see the ocean pretty well. I ended up surfing for just under two hours. The water was chilly again but nothing as bad as the couple nights prior where I was shivering in the water. The session was overall very good and I was happy to have gone out, again, for a surf in the morning. The waves were starting to pick up in size, I had a couple nice rides, and a few familiar faces were in the water too which was nice.

Unfortunately, on probably my best wave of the morning, I got flipped off my board by the wave and my nose slammed into my knee before I knew what was happening. I heard a crunch and was quite nervous at first that I might’ve broken my nose. But after a few minutes of assessment (no bloody nose), prodding, and chilling out, I decided all was good and I paddled back into the waves for no surfing.

Since I was planing on having the double surf today, I got back, showered, made myself breakfast, and then turned on and off the water pump for the morning. I chatted with some guests and tucked into a hammock to continue reading the 4th Harry Potter book. There were no check-ins today, but two guests showed up late the night before, so I did the check-in with them when they got up.

For lunch, Evan and I made some curry with our leftover vegetables. It actually ended up tasting really good and was a nice switch up from the constant gallo pinto. It was also fun cooking up the meal with him instead of doing it solo!

I read some more post lunch and then for the hour and a half leading up to my second surf session I played guitar. Some of the guests sat and listened and gave some nice compliments, which is always a nice thing to hear people are enjoying my playing.

3:30pm hit and it was time to head to the beach again! I walked down with one of the guests and when we got to the beach we were met with some nice sized waves. I stretched and entered the water for a very fun, but crowded, surf session! I had a few nice rides and there were some big waves rolling in. Some sets were easily well above overhead in height and I caught one or two of them. One of the local kids kept dropping in on my waves and I eventually asked him what his name was. I then proceeded to say, in Spanish, that he really liked the waves I went for, which made him laugh.

On one wave, I started paddling for it and the wave pushed my surfboard out from under me. It ended up bumping into another surfer, not very hard, and somehow popped off one of my fins. When I turned around, he was just holding it and I was shocked to see it. He was okay and not upset… But I was a bit confused how it happened. I couldn’t just shove it back in and went to shore to investigate further. There were screws in the fin box and I asked one of the beach rentals if I could use their fin key to loosen and retighten them.

It turned out the fin had already been ripped off before and the fin could just slide out if the screw wasn’t tight enough. I got the screw tightened and then decided to go back into the water for a couple more waves.

I headed back to the hostel and after showering, I immediately started cooking dinner. I was very hungry after my surf session and cooked myself my usual gallo pinto, egg, veggies, corn tortillas and tostones. The kitchen was a busy spot tonight and I chatted with all the guests using it, read a bit more, and then went off to bed.

Just when I thought my day was over, all of a sudden I felt something on my foot while lying in bed. And then, a sharp pain! I had just been stung by a wasp on my ankle! In my haste to get ride of the bugger, I somehow got it up my shorts and it stung me again. When I went to shake out my blanket it fell out of my shorts and onto the floor. It was a really big wasp too, not the most pleasant way to finish the day… but at least I had more surfing in the morning to look forward to.

My alarm went off at 5:15am on Saturday, January 24th. It was time to roll out of bed and set out for another morning surf session. Evan joined me this time and we walked down to the beach. We arrived and were the first two people at the beach! First light was just starting to peak through the sky and, after stretching, we entered the cold ocean.

At one point during the session, the hostel owner, Stephan, told us to not worry about making it back to the hostel by 8am. So we ended up surfing for over 2 hours (I think close to 2.5 hours). I caught a bunch of fun waves and didn’t hurt myself today, which is always a plus. Throughout the session, the waves got bigger and bigger and I went on some waves that were easily overhead. But they just closed out so I either rode it till it did or I got tumbled big time. It was a lot of fun!

It started drizzling on and off during the session too, causing a pretty serious rainbow to hang around for quite some time. It was a very picturesque start to the day!

Stephan, Evan, and I hiked back to the hostel and started our day. I showered, ate breakfast, and then kicked back for the morning. Evan was taking the morning shift since he was going to surf the afternoon (we were trading off who got the double surf). I read in a hammock making significant progress in the book I’m reading. Around 11am the food truck came, which was perfect timing because I was running low on some essentials.

I loaded up a basket with avocados, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, plantains, a cucumber, and eggs. It all was only 250 cordobas ($7).

Evan and I spent the rest of the early afternoon entertaining the owners kids. We chatted with them, they demanded stories and attention, and played some little games with them as well. The main game that one of them wanted to play was “concentration.” This is a game that I learned when I was a lot younger.

A bit after lunch, they were called to their house to get ready to head out to a skate jam the hostel was sponsoring. I unfortunately couldn’t join since I had to work the afternoon shift. After a quick nap, I read some more and played guitar for a couple hours.

Some new guests from Australia checked in and I showed them to their room and around the hostel.

For dinner, a group of 7 of us made fish. We had veggies, guacamole, and rice to go with it too. While I wasn’t cooking, me and another guest jammed for a bit, providing music to the others that were cooking. The guest I was jamming with had a mini guitar that had a built in amp and I soloed on top of the songs she was playing.

Dinner ended up being delicious, costing around 120 cordobas and after helping clean up, I said goodnight and went to bed to pass out. I was exhausted from all the surfing and had some more to do the following morning.

Evan and I woke up, yet again, for our early bird morning surf session. We were given quite the treat when we arrived at the beach, no one else was there yet.

The sun was just coming up, but unfortunately the waves looked pretty messy. We had a nice stretch and then entered the water (which was finally not freezing cold), and to our surprise the waves were actually alright! The waves started to clean up too and become less chaotic which made the surf season even better. The waves were peeling across the beach (breaking evenly and not closing out) and they had some size to them too. Pretty much until around 7:30am Evan, a random surfer, and I had the water to ourselves. Everyone else was missing out!

There was another rainbow, and a bit of a double rainbow, today. We actually got rained on a fair amount too. When more people entered the water one told us he had taken a picture of us sitting in the water with the rainbow. He sent it to me later in the day.

Evan and I were catching wave after wave. They were nice ones too where I could pump up and down the wave. There were also some big closeout waves that I had a fun time “sending it” on and either having a big drop or a big tumble.

Evan and I finally had enough after 8am, it was another successful session. We walked back to the hostel and made breakfast. Surfing works up a serious appetite. I was working the morning shift today and didn’t end up having much to do. The one check in that came during my shift was when I was cooking lunch, so Evan did it for me.

For the majority of the morning I read and chatted with guests. Around 11am I had my weekly FaceTime call with my parents.

As always, it was lovely chatting with them, catching them up on my week, and hearing about theirs. I didn’t have a crazy amount to update them on, I’ve been spending my days surfing, reading, playing guitar, and hangin at the hostel.

I whipped up lunch and then played some guitar for a bit. A check in came during the start of Evan’s shift, so I checked them in. Then it was time to get ready for my afternoon surf. I headed down to the beach with a hot sun pelting down on me. When I arrived I was met with very little waves and a very messy ocean. I decided I’d go in anyways since I was already down there.

Surprisingly my first and second wave were actually very fun and pretty much the best of the session. The last wave I took was also a nice wave, so I gave my session a nice bookend. The rest of it was okay, it was a lot of sitting around, and too many people for how little the waves. I still enjoyed and the sunset was stunning, I wish I had a picture.

I had a beer on the beach with a couple of the friends of the hostel owner. We discussed that we wanted to have a jam tonight and organized to meet at the hostel around 7:30pm. I walked home afterwards, it was already past 6pm and I needed to shower and make food.

I made myself dinner in a very busy kitchen. The hostel dorms were close to being full if not already full, which meant a lot more people in the kitchen. By the time I was halfway through eating I heard the music drifting down to the kitchen. I quickly finished up my diner and cleaned all my dishes, then it was jammin’ time!

There were 8 of us tonight, 3 drums and 5 guitars. We’d switch off who was soloing and who picked the chord progression. It was another blast! We actually semi played one of my originals as well, they all wanted to hear one. So I shared with them a ska song I’ve been working on. The others jammed on top of the chords, it was a cool feeling to have people jamming to one of my songs. I ended up going to bed around 10pm, with full intentions of waking up for a morning surf.

Evan and I rolled out of bed early, yet again, on Monday, January 26th. The tides were starting to push later, but first light was still a good time to go surfing. We wanted to take advantage of the good surf with a lack of a crowd. It was drizzly again today which brought another rainbow, three days in a row of rainbows during morning surf!

The surf session started off a bit rocky. The waves weren’t nearly as good as the morning before. But there were still some fun waves hiding in the mess of waves. Eventually the waves started to pick up and more people started to paddle out into the surf lineup. I ended up having a few big waves that curled across the beach making for some nice rides! I was able to practice pumping my legs down the wave to generate speed and threw in a couple turns, practicing that as well.

Overall, it ended up being another fun session here at Playa Maderas.

Stephan and I walked back to the hostel together after the surf session. I picked his brain a bit about the hostel, asking questions about the financial side, what he does outside of running the hostel, etc. He was fairly open with me and I explained that I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do work wise and opening or managing a hostel is on the list of possibilities. I think within the past two years I’ve seen what really works about some hostels and what really doesn’t with others.

After breakfast, I read and read and read. I was so close to the end of the 4th Harry Potter book and was determined to finish it today. I did end up finishing it, but before I did, the cleaning lady forgot to clean one of the dorm beds that was needed. So I changed the sheets and got the bed ready for the guest (who had been hanging around the hostel waiting to take a nap all morning).

Other than that, it was a very uneventful morning. I started up on the 5th Harry Potter book as I continue my way through reading the entire series! At this pace I’ll be done before I leave Nicaragua.

The daughters of the owners came by a bit after lunch and had donuts. They offered me one and I gladly accepted, it was probably the sweetest thing they’ve done! Otherwise it’s been constant “play with us,” “tell us stories,” etc. I went for a surf skate in the hostel’s skate bowl and the girls came to hang out and chat while I did. Until… a howler monkey climbed up into the tree above the bowl and started knocking nuts into the bowl. I had just swept out the bowl and tree nuts are definitely a hazard for falling. So I decided to stop earlier than I wanted to, the monkey didn’t seem to have any intentions on leaving.

I then chatted with the girls for a bit until their mom yelled to them and said it was time to go to the beach for the sunset. They weren’t keen on going, until I said I’d go and then they changed their attitude. The four of us walked down to the beach and we were met with a gorgeous orange sunset (I didn’t have my phone). I sat and chatted with Corinna, the other owner, while the kids ran around with some of their friends. It was at this point I looked down at my foot and noticed my toe ring was gone! It must’ve fallen off during my surf in the morning.

It’s just a piece of jewelry and I’ll definitely find another one at some point. But I’ve had it since Thailand! I’ll miss wearing it for now. Stephan got out from surfing, I didn’t go because the tide was too low, and then his kids decided it was time to play with me.

They wanted me to cartwheel with them… but I’m terrible at cartwheels. So they tried to teach me instead. I don’t think my cartwheel improved at all, but it was fun goofing around with them.

Phillip finished surfing and drove us all back up to the hostel. I sat back in a hammock reading more and then made a late dinner. I didn’t do much else the rest of the night, but I made plans to go surfing tomorrow early morning with Phillip, Stephan, and Evan. Then it was time for bed.

We went for another early surf on Tuesday, January 27th. This was going to be the last of the “super” early wake ups as high tide is pushing further and further into the afternoon. I rolled out of bed around 5:45am and by 6am we were picked up by Phillip in his truck and heading to the beach.

Today was a special day in the surf, not because of the waves though (they were okay), but because Evan brought Philip’s camera with him and took pictures of us during our surf session!

It was a fun session, but the waves weren’t an amazing. Evan unfortunately missed my two best waves, however I was still happy to have photos to see how I’m popping up, angling down the wave, etc. It’s not often I get to see this from an outside perspective!

After a couple hours, we came back to the hostel, which was out of power (due to the construction work going on nearby), and I made myself breakfast. I then returned to my favorite hammock and read for the morning. There were two interruptions from my reading. The first was checking in a guest who was actually from a town in Australia near where I was living! The second was the food truck! They unfortunately didn’t have cheese again, but I stocked up on the regular veggies and added in a couple passion fruits as well, which were very cheap (maybe 10 cordobas each).

I made myself lunch with my new fruits and vegetables and afterwards, Phillip, was wanting to hang out with Evan and I. We whipped out the hostel’s Settlers of Catan board and got into a heated game.

It ended up being a super close and competitive game. But, unlike in El Transito where we got into little disputes over the rules, these two Germans love to play by the rule book. So, every time something came up, we immediately went to the rule book and that’s what we used to decide. Thankfully not much came up either. I started out hot and was getting good dice rolls, but in the end, Evan pulled out on top.

The game playing wasn’t over yet. Stephan didn’t want to play Catan, but he did want to play more poker. It was still the early afternoon, which was the earliest we starred a poker game, and we ended up playing until dinner time. There were multiple full house hands, triples, and people winning with the 2 and the 7, which is a rule where if someone was dealt both a 2 and a 7 and wins everyone gives that player a 25 chip. This is because 2 and 7 is the worst hand to be dealt.

With a bunch of different chip leads and crazy hands, I ended up getting second getting my 100 cordobas back. Evan won this time around!

I had a late dinner after we wrapped up and added my passion fruit to the dinner lineup. It was pretty tart, but it was a nice addition to my meal. Evan had some pineapple too, so we chatted while enjoying that and then headed off to bed.

High tide was at 9:43am on Wednesday, January 28th. This meant waking up at 6:45am and heading out at 7am. Unfortunately we got to the beach still a little too early and the tide was still far out. But I took my time stretching and caught a couple nice waves early in the season.

I was able to catch some nice waves during the session and chatted with Phillip and Stephan while in the water. Everyone left before I did, I was having a good time. And after they left, I caught two nice big waves, so they missed out! I followed suit, after I caught a couple bigger waves, and headed back to the hostel.

I made myself breakfast when we got back. Just as I was about to finish up cooking, Stephan asked Evan, Phillip, and I to help him. Yesterday night the pump stopped working and today we were going to work on fixing it. We had a handful of local workers helping out as well. The well was 67m (219 feet) deep and we all worked on pulling out the pump without breaking anything. It was a pretty muddy affair.

I read for a bit and then made myself lunch. I then played guitar for a bit and then went back to reading. Evan went into town with Phillip and I just hung out at the hostel waiting for guests to check in. Later in the day we had to go back to the pump to put it back in the ground.

Afterwards, we celebrated by playing 2 vs 2 chess. Stephan and I ended up being a team, Phillip and Evan were the other. Each partner would take a turn making a move, but we were not allowed to discuss the moves with each other. We played two games, the first of which Stephan and I won. The second Stephan and I had the advantage at the beginning, then it shifted to Phillip and Evan, and then back to us at the end of the match.

Stephan and I played two more matches one on one and we ended up with a score of 1 to 1.

It was time for dinner now and then after my late dinner it was time for bed.

It ended up being a very surf heavy week! I’m really enjoying my time here in Playa Maderas… but time is flying by very fast! I have 11 days left until I head back to El Transito. But I’m going to make the most out of this next week and a half!

I’ll see you next week, as we get nearer and nearer to heading to San Diego to work!

– Elie