In order to get to Patagonia in time for the summer (December-February), we realized we would have to speed up our pace through Central America. When you travel fast it is very difficult to get a sense of place; we found it takes a while to understand the culture, uncover the best local food and find your place in it all. I felt like we blinked and were through Nicaragua, and it made me sad. It is a really beautiful country with a lot to see, so we sacrificed time here for more time in Colombia and Ecuador, which I know we will not regret when we get there, but now it was hard. Coming to terms with the fact that you can’t see it all is inevitable on any trip, but I keep thinking we will never be back here (insert country) with this rig and the freedom we have now, and I feel a loss for the things we are missing.
When I was dreaming about this trip, I thought we would spend a lot more time on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. In reality we only ended up spending three awesome days there. We did not even scratch the surface of this stunning coast, but at least the time we spent was really fun and we had breathtaking sunsets every night.
Playa Maderas
This is a surf beach, and we came here on a tip from some Dutch overlanders and ended up finding a pretty great place to camp right next to the beach. We swam during the day, cooked fancy meals, watched the surfers and explored the other beaches of the area.
Every night the sunset got better. I felt like it was taunting us with all we were missing.
We backed the XP right up to the beach, not a bad view and we had a nice breeze.
View out the XP window. I drank rum and cokes and thanked the stars for this adventure.
During the day it would get cloudy but it never rained. Rainy season was on the cusp.
Next evenings sunset.
Sam on one of the many deserted beaches of the Pacific coast. We found a bar here that served us frozen beer in a can that turned into a beer slushy in the heat. Why was this my first beer slushy? YUM.
Ok, last one. I obviously had trouble editing the sunset pictures, but all three nights they were this amazing.
On to Costa Rica and our border crossing from hell leaving Nicaragua…..