Las Peñitas, Nicaragua
Our time in Nica has been spent slowly passing the days staring at the ocean. 
It's hot here. Very hot. We spent the first few days at a surf camp decompressing from our border crossing day and trying to find the will to drive further. No waves to speak of and im still nursing my neck/ego from the last attempt, so we mostly chill in the shade of the bus.
We eventually drive on, working our way down the coast and closer to where we will meet Bailey. We are SO excited to have here coming to visit! Feels like we’ve been out here on our own for such a long time and the infusion of energy from home is much needed. We’ve also been talking about a potential trip to the northwest in late summer/fall to get a needed fix. Such an exciting proposition!
The drive was interesting as we are approaching Semana Santa, which is easily the biggest holiday for latin american countries and we’ve been warned throughout our trip to avoid highways and beaches during that week. Its still a week away, but the sides of the road are littered with buses packed with people, everyone tossing bags and beer onto the roof before heading to the beach. Everyone is in a hurry to get where they are going and a bit more aggressive than we’ve experienced to date.
We are now in Las Peñitas. A quiet beach town, but clearly being “found”. As has been the norm lately, the beach is lined with wall after wall of beach home compounds. Most look vacant or fully dilapidated but as our time here continues its clear most are vacation homes that sit empty most of the year and the owners are starting to arrive to spruce the place up before guests come for holy week. In most cases, this means unloading the bed and fridge they brought from home and putting a layer of fronds on the palapa.
Upon pulling into our parking/camping spot at Playa Roca, jen introduced herself as Jennifer and a few guys immediately guessed her last name was Lopez. Now every time we walk the street at least one person shouts out at JLo as we walk by...so cool to be famous.
Most of our evenings here we’ve spent at the Lazy Turtle with Val and Ryan. This crazy canadian couple started a business here last year and are a blast to talk with about the good, bad and the ugly related to trying to survive life on a beach. Val also happens to make a crazy good drink and Ryan is a wizard in the kitchen, so its easy to see why we get drawn back in. This is the type of place we would like to own one day if we can ever figure out how- where travelers stop in to rest and sit around talking about their travel experiences and where friends and family know they have a home away from home.