Playa Colorado

We head out in search of wavesIt's possible to simply stay in town at SJDS and hop a truck or boat out to any of the nearby breaks, but we opted to drive north a bit in hopes of finding an opportunity to sleep walking distance from a moderate wave.  We haven't been in the water in a while and wanted something tame in terms of central america waves.  We also wanted somewhere with solid wifi so we could make some decisions about our path home and timeline for getting there. Everything we read about waves in Nica keeps telling us that playa colorado was a dream spot so we spent (more money that we should have) for a gorgeous condo overlooking the ocean.  After SJDS, nothing in Nica is close to the highway so we made the long journey down questionably paved, then dirt roads to our next stop.  As we stop at the gated entrance we realize we may have made a terrible mistake.

The beach here is indeed amazing, and it has three waves that between them mean something is almost always surfable...but something just feels odd about a place that builds walls (and a golf course) around something nature built for everyone.  It's unsettling, and even more so when essentially an american suburb with plush surrounds is dropped in the middle of the second poorest country in the americas (behind only haiti).  This place felt more like a golf resort with surfboards than a surf community with golf carts.

We unloaded our boards and hit the pool for some nachos and a sunset drink.  Back at our place we did some inspecting of our boards and realized we had dings that were in need of repair before time in the water.  Knowing absolutely nothing about surfboard repair we spent some time on google and prepped our tools for morning.

With sunrise off the balcony and coffee in hand we tried our hand at it.  Nowhere near professional work I'm certain, but our bards seem watertight, and with our limited surf skills I'm pretty sure that's all that matters.  By afternoon we were ready to hit the water and paddled out for the first time in all too long.  The surf was breaking way too close to shore for nice rides, but we tried our hand nonetheless.  Way paid too much to sit in the room and we weren't about to go play 9 holes.

The waves are ridiculously deceptive here.  We clearly aren't in oregon anymore.  One second I'm standing in waist high water with a 3' wave, the next a monster is breaking over my head with insane force.  The ocean won today, as it does most...but we honestly cant think of a better way to spend time getting exhausted.  We swam in the pool, had another sunset cocktail and retired to our condo.

In the morning we opted for making progress up the highway rather than another round of surf and headed north.  We couldn't help but stop for a while to look out over lake nicaragua.  Construction is set to begin on a canal this month that will supposedly cut across the lake and dwarf even the panama canal.  In this case it wont be foreigners with cash, but the government itself uprooting people from their homes for the sake of development.

We can't help but fear that this might be our last chance to see the lake, at least in its untouched form.