San Juan Del Sur
Life quickly slowed down at Casa De Olas, Lauren and I became friends with a beautiful group of people (Marjan, Hanna, Eli, Charlie, Edward, Mike and A.J – later joined by Patrick and Ewout). It is with these people that we took life easy, lazing in the sun by the pool; reading, listening to music and having A LOT of beer. By day Casa De Olas was the perfect escape, nestled up high in the hills with a beautiful view over the bay where everyone went to surf. But by night when the guys who surfed came back and the sun went down the party came alive.
It was mine and Laurens second day in San Juan when we caught wind of a bar crawl that the hostel (Naked Tiger) next door put on down in the town. It was the perfect timing, Eli was turning thirty the following day and we were all ready to celebrate it in a big way with him. After pre-drinks round our bar we caught the shuttle down to the town to catch up with the Naked Tiger crew, although, we were on a different wavelength to the rest of the bar crawl since we arrived late and were already buzzed from our pre-party. Upon a unanimous vote we decided that we needed to dance we chose to leave the bar crawl and head towards a bar where we could hear music playing. The nine of us strolled into this bar to find a local salsa dancing competition going down; sequins and sparkles and all. I don’t know how it came about, but we ended up dancing with the locals. At one point we had created a salsa circle, taking it in turns to show our stuff, at which point an older lady hopped into the circle and put all of our moves to shame. We twirled, we danced and we laughed a lot, as the music came to a close at the Salsa bar we were ready to carry on the night.
Lauren learning Salsa
Salsa Dancing Local
We ended up at Iguana which is a late night bar in San Juan by the beach, where we danced continuously for hours, stopping only to sink rum. The night (which I dubbed as Eli-eve) was easily one of the best nights out I’ve ever had, thanks to the lovely people I got to spend it with.
Casa De Olas Crew
I couldn’t imagine better hostel pals
Marjan and Eli
After Eli-Eve our days were spent down at the beach and chilling in town. Both Lauren and I had planned on learning how to surf, however, due to an eye infection I couldn’t give it a go; instead I nestled myself on the beach where I sat and watched Lauren give it a go for the first time; she absolutely rocked it! The group later sat around the table of the restaurant on the beach, surrounded by my friends with sun kissed skin and salt in our hair watching the sun as it sank into the ocean. I felt completely blissful in San Juan Del Sur; by day we would wander around the colourful town exploring the markets and the restaurants, it is in the town that we had the most amazing Lobster which featured on my ‘Foodie Feasts around the Globe’ list.
San Juan Del Sur
Down at the market
Watching Lauren surf
Beer, tacos, beach, check.
By nightfall the entire hostel would sit around the bar, playing drinking games and laughing under the stars, we drank Buzz Punch (rum cocktails, named after buzz the monkey) until our heads were light and we created some amazing memories. I would tell you the stories but I honestly think they are “you’ve got to be there” kind of tales, some of which still make me laugh today. The nights would eventually have Charlie performing the Hakka on the bar followed by a game of ‘Roxanne’ and quite possibly a trip to the Naked Tiger next door where we would drink late into the night. Lauren and I had planned on leaving San Juan and Nicaragua on the Friday to head down to Costa Rica to carry on our journey, although everyone who we spoke to said how crazy that was, who leaves San Juan Del Sur on the Friday, when the biggest night of the week takes place in San Juan on Sunday – the aptly named party Sunday Funday. We adored San Juan and Casa De Olas so it didn’t take much convincing for us to change our plans to stay a couple more days hidden in Nicaragua in preparation for the biggest party of our trip.
Coming up next: Sunday Funday and Moving on
thefarawayfolk 