San Juan del Sur

Last few days in San Juan del Sur have resulted in:


1. painful sunburn on my back and arms

We went to Maderas beach yesterday, which is a cliffs and ocean type of place. I should´ve knwn better than to expose my northeast winter body to the central american sun in high doses, but it just felt so good. What doesn´t feel so good is my skin this morning. I may have to wear long sleeves today. The chafing of fabric against skin is lss painful than more burnin sun on my already burnin body.

2. I met Mormon surfers.

As if that sentence on its own wasn´t interesting enough, the surfers also were rather intelligent. We discussed religion and politics on Friday night, and they answered my questions about the Mormon religion. Based on my 2 hour crash course on "Mormonism and what it´s all about", it seems to be a more modern moderate version of Christianity (no "only christians can go to heaven") with conservative values (no premarital sex and no drinking). Upon questioning on how conservative the community actually is, it doesn´t seem to be conservative in any way besides values. THere´s both Republicans and Democrats numbered among the Mormons, and they´re free to date and marry non'mormons if they say choose.

3. A stolen bag

Luckily, it wasn´t my day pack but just my purse. "Just" my purse, containing my money, credit cards, ATM card, drivers license, day planner, cell phone, and the most tragic of all - my digicam!! No pictures of my trip on the travelog this time =(. Natalie and I were sitting in a restaurant when my bag disappeared off the chair beside me. I suppose I should feel thankful since I didn´t lose my traveler´s cheques, or my passport, or my reserves of U.S. dollars. I felt even more thankful when I ran into a group of people at the police station who´d been robbed on the beach by a group of men wielding machetes. The girls handed their stuff over right away. The boys refused. Until one of the men grabbed a girl and held a machete to her neck. I got lucky as far as Nicaraguan robberies are concerned. Though, the theft of my bag included theft of the dorm key at Hotel Estrella where we were staying. Since we´d already paid for our room, we stayed the night. But we stayed the night in an unlocked room since they had to cut the lock off. They wanted to charge us for the lock, but we snuck out the next morning. Hostel Estrella was noisy as well in the morning since it´s right by the ocean, and has parrots that continually yell, HOLA!! HOLA!! HOLA HOLA! We checked into Casa Oro for last night. Leaving today for San Jose.

Camila is coming in tomorrow and bringing me extra cash. Yay Camila!!