Playa Gigante, Nicaragua

Somebody's pet bird, and James, a man on the lam from the law

After stopping briefly at Masaya, I drove through to where I was planning to spend Christmas and New Year, Playa Gigante, on the southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

There was a hostel that I read about, where you could park in their parking lot and use their facilities (shower, wifi, toilet, hammock) for $5/night.  Gigante is a surf beach, and there were lots of pretty young people wearing very little and partying all the time.  The downside was there was music playing for 20 hours of the day.  The upside was there was a restaurant on site and I could get a pizza for $4.

I met James, a guy who within the first 5 minutes of meeting him told me that he was in Nicaragua because "it doesn't have an extradition policy with the US".  Apparently he was growing weed when he wasn't supposed to.

I met two guys from Holland who dropped acid for the first time while they were there, and were extolling it's virtues.

I met Laura, from Ottawa, who had been there for 7 months and, along with her boyfriend, had just started a business to do fishing tours for tourists.

The people I met most, though, were the bartenders.  I spent almost two weeks in a hammock reading, with a beer by my side and a smile on my face.

I decided that I would leave on New Year's Day, and try and avoid the rush across the border.  Unfortunately, I slept in a bit, and when I tried to drive down to one road that lead out of the village, I saw this:

You can't really tell here, but the big school bus is blocking the entire road.  Not even motorcycles can get past.  The driver is M.I.A., and there are a number of busses and cargo vans also abandoned in the road.  The two vehicles in front of me took at least 4 hours to get past.  I gave up and went back to the hostel for another night.

Gotta be flexible in Central America!