We set out for San Juan del Sur on Friday afternoon, on one of the hottest bus rides of my life. Not that it mattered because once the bus tarted flying through the roads, the breeze helped out a bit....also saying anything is the hottest of my life gets a bit redundant because everything is so far. Literally for less than two dollars we travelled like 2 hours to our destination. And oh, what a destination. I posted some sunset pictures earlier, but they can hardly capture the sea breeze and the pacific ocean crash on the sloping shore and the sunset and the quaint beauty of that small town. Which of course we all fell in love with. Here is the story of that love:
We walked along the beach looking for a hotel and landed at the one we'd looked up via interwebs..... It was a little bit removed from the town but okay enough. Enough as in there were beds and air conditioning when the power was on. Otherwise sorta growsy but who's counting. We've yet to do the hostel thing, so we aren't allowed to complain. We headed out for dinner and drinks by like 8pm, and struck gold. This restaurant bar dance floor was two tiered, palm frond roofs right on the beach. (just needed to point out that right now Paradise by Coldplay is playing.... Quite appropriate) Never order me drinks after an afternoon of sweating out my weight in water because I drank those daiquiris like they were nothing. ..........not sure how appropriate that is, but I'm on the other side of the world sort of, so go ahead and judge in your cozy Canadian life if you'd like. ;) Dinner was delightful, made more so by the fact that there was this magnificent lightning storm all around us, illuminating the palm trees and hills and the strange Jesus statue on the ridge top that made everything feel slightly sacred if just because there would be this figure illuminated every so often by cloud to cloud lightning tht rippled through the sky. At one point our power flickered out, and it was just us and the others on this balcony underneath lightning bugs and a million stars in half the sky and a million clouds with lightning bolts on the other half. It was.....surreal.
By 9:30 me and Alicia and Becky were back from walking Alan back to the hotel (cultural do: always move in groups) to hit up the dance floor. Well, we had a second round of drinks (....or fourth?) and watched the silly crowd of Nicaraguans and gringos and hippies move to the music. And then we danced and we cried and we laughed and had a really really really good time take my hand lets have a blast an remember this moment for the rest of our lives (.....bonus points if you knows the song from which that line comes). It seriously was a blast though, I have to say. I hugely enjoyed the crush of people, all the bodies and all the moving and all the breathing, drunk lungs inhale, exhale. The waiters moved through everybody, grabbing a shoulder here and an ass there, just a jolly good time. We met some Canadians, got kissed on the cheek by a Spanish man, danced on by a short Nicaraguan and generally touched by all the people. Which sounds like the creepiest thing but really it isn't, or wasn't. Especially because you could just look out at the lightning and then close your eyes and you are just part of humanity again, low and grounded and gritty and sweaty. So I guess I like dancing, then... I'm not a fan of the people so smashed they could barely stand (many of those) but it was funto see people like one of the Canadians, poor fellow, too awkward to know how to dance in such a situation, unable to just go with flow and do the locomotion. Which makes for much private hilarity.
We returned from this dancing escapade by 1, tired and sweaty but definitely exhilarated from such a great night. Promises of a next time floating in the air. And of course by this point our air conditioner is not working due to a lack of power, so it is quite humid all around. And of course when the a/c does turn back on, it is set to freezing, so the night turns into one of shivers under inadequate blankets. BRING IT ON.
As per my post yesterday, we had breakfast on the beach and then wandered the town. At which point, by a cloudy daylight, we are in love with it. Small and cleaner than Granada, the locals are way less aggressive (and hy aggressive I mean catcalls and whistling) and there are way more tourists but they are the kind of tourists that half-live there, tanned and with the body of surfers. Oh, the surfers. I will just let you imagine that.
We spent the afternoon on the beach, where I pulled in a spectacular sunburn (I wonder how many times I will curse the damn malaria pills for increasing my sensitivity and therefore my usual chances of burn) and played in those rolling, salty pacific waves. Lunch was at sushi-q, a place you'd least expect to find in Nicaragua but lo and behold there it was and holy CARP it was delicious. Back to the hotel. For naps and plans before heading out to another of the popular haunts for dinner. And they gave us free shots, which was cool, and tasted like that banana medicine of childhood, which made for a really strange time. At this point some members of our crew were quite drunk (I'm pointing a mental finger at Alan but shhhh) but all was good. We migrated back to the bar from the night before but the crowd was less, probably more drawn to the beach party going on down the road. We called it a night by 12, revived a girl who passed out in front of us, and finally got our air conditioning right.
This morning me and Alicia headed out early. Gosh I can't even write these words without getting all tight in the throat and prickly eyes from how spectacular the ensuing experience was. By 6:30 we were outside our hotel, and along comes whiz zing this big silver truck with a wonderfully cowboy-hatted woman behind the wheel, Blue. She picked us up and drove us to her ranch where we were to go for our ride.
I honestly can't find words for that experience. Check out their website ranchochilamate.com for an idea of how cool they are, or just google reviews of their place. Oh my lanta.
It is Blue and her partner Jamie (Jeremy) on this beautiful lot in the foothills of the Rivas department of Nicaragua, with a custom designed and built hacienda, by Jamie, who was a construction manager in Vancouver for 25years before picking up to live a dream after his kids grew up. They had these two dogs that came bounding out to greet us, friendly as anything, rivaling the kindness of our ranch hosts. The place was just gorgeous; we got outfitted in our hats and boots and a pair of borrowed jeans before Blue took us around for a photo shoot. And then we went down to meet our horses.
I'll just take a minute to remind you of how lush and growing and green everything currently is in Nicaragua at the moment. So imagine this kind of rainforest-jungle growth and magical trees and howler monkeys swinging from branches above us and the magpie-jay birds and the parakeets and the buzzing cicadas.
My mount was this sturdy little rescue named Bandito, who grew up on the beach but had been subject to ear-twisting and not nice things. He was responsive as heck beneath me and so eager. The horses were all so pretty, Nicaraguan sized for the most part, but healthy. We set out then through the scattered village in the hills, waving hello to children looking out from windows, crossing rivers and pigs and chickens and bridges. Over the hills and valleys and through cattle farms and forests, saying hola, buenas días to the friendliest people with all the time and no money. It was spectacular, passing under monkeys and poison spike fire ant trees and flowers and greenery.
And then we arrived at the beach.
This was the survivor beach where they filmed two seasons back to back or something like that. It is framed by these rocky crags on either side, trees and hermit crabs and driftwood-strewn sand splitting a river from the sea. And bless our luck, you could literally see Costa Rica from where we were. My god. We enjoyed a cold beer under the trees, talking about horse smell and life plans on this semi-famous spot. Blue told us about the Nicaraguan survivor winner who came back to ride. How during the game, the players can't talk to each other unless the cameras are rolling. Which sounds ridiculous, but also way more like a survivor situation- lots of alone time pondering with bouts of frenzied conversation and doing. It seemed strangely poetic, this game show in this country and the silence and the trees. Bandito didn't want the cookie I offered him, but he was literally chomping at the bit once we untied and mounted up.
Oh, my goodness. Could that little caballo ever GALLOP! We raced across the beach, swerving around the men fishing and the family playing on this Sunday morning. We charged across that sand, legs churning and wind blowing, my hat wishing to fly, my heart already doing so. Bandito galloped and galloped and galloped, lathering himself with sweat and panting but loving life, his beautiful ears pricked forward and heart pounding under the saddle. We slashed through the ocean surf, turned tight western circles of excited-horse expectation and literally raced the wind.
There are some feelings that words can capture, and then there are moments like this. As we approached the end of the shore on our third or fourth gallop, I caught my heart in my throat and laughed to myself. Who is so silly as to cry, the crashing shore and the costa horizon and the riding. Something moved me, has moved me for how spectacular that was. It was a gem of happiness and such the perfect moment of everything I could ever want in my life...horse and sea and sky and the ability to go anywhere, feel everything.
The amazing didn't end there either. Once we left the beach, we literally rose through an enchanted forest, with those monkeys and their monkey babies, passing by dangling vines and leafy tendrils and this unbelievably adorable porcupine. I wish I could give all the sad people of the world a face like that porcupine, sweet and innocent and wise and natural, curious of the world and us strange, strange beings. And then we were back on the road through the village, if you could call the stretched out collection of shack homes that, but not just any road. The trees formed that perfect canopy of all dreams, petals falling softly, a little kid standing in the middle of it all with her small dog. This a shout out to you, Anne Marie, and all my film+lit buddies. It was exactly out of three seasons, just different colours.
I'm telling you, there are things in this world that are just the way they need to be, so unbelievable and precious and all the evidence in the world of the way we are, of the hearts that beat and the hearts that feel and excuse all this but I just...yea. I don't know if I can put these feelings onto the interwebs, make them into anything tangible because I don't know if they can be translated. I think they just need to be felt.
And I wish you the very feeling-est of feelings, the very softest of flower petals falling over your wondrous head. There is so much lovely in the world, so much beauty. I never want to forget that, how you live a moment and then it is a memory but it is still there in your heart that makes you human. There is so much lovely to be beckoned, so much to be made of your time here. So many parrots to sing to you, laugh with you, so many friendly dogs and galloping horses and shy kids waving and river stone splashing and lightning struck trees and magic to be made and shared and found, again and again and again, here and there with him and her and you and me.
I have way missed my timeline for finishing this entry. There is always more to be said, even if it is just to say how I can hardly speak of this life. This is it, you know. In all the ways and hows and whys of the this and the it, however you define them.
It is also it because we have reached the point of no return. The normal vacation time of one or two weeks has been coasted on through with Spanish verbs and volcanos. We are now approaching the next phase of our stay here, which is that we aren't leaving. We are also forbidden to speak English, starting tomorrow, so there is that adventure to come. Spanish time it is.....which reminds me of my Spanish work yet to be done.
So, for this week I encourage you to find the magic in your life and in your world. This isn't some crazy lady from the southern hemisphere preaching love and peace. This is me saying that there is a lot of world to be discovered, a lot of life in everything you do. Grace and magic and lovely.
Use your real eyes.
dftba
-k
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