I took a four day weekend to go to Nicaragua. I went with the two Canadians from Bagaces and we left early on Thursday morning. The border crossing didn't take too long and we made it to the beach at San Juan del Sur before one. We checked into a hostel that I had stayed before and headed out to explore the town.

We started walking north down the road looking for some nice beaches along the coast. After a lot of walking we decided to hitchhike and quickly picked up a couple of rides that took us closer to the beaches. We weren't exactly sure where the beach was, so we wandered into a group of newly constructed beach houses. The only path that we could see was behind a barbed wire and while we were looking for another way down, a guard carrying a shotgun showed up and asked what we were doing. He showed us a hole in the barbed wire and told us not to come back, emphasizing this by pointing at his shotgun. The beach itself had a few houses around but not a single person to be seen. On the way back we saw a lot of different kinds of new development and even came across a pet spider monkey whose tail was just as useful as any hand. We eventually caught a ride in a big truck that took us all the way back to the town. That evening we ate pizza and ended up crashing early.

The next morning we rented a couple of surfboards and took a taxi to a good surfing beach north of the town. The beach had some big waves and quite a lot of rocks, but there was plenty of space where beginners could practice. It was extremely tiring working my way through the surf to get out to where the waves were breaking, but it was a lot of fun catching the waves. Later in the afternoon the waves started to change and it was harder to catch the waves, but it was still fun. Later that evening, the one Canadian, Greg, ran into his tattoo artist from Canada who was there with his Nicaraguan tattoo artist friend. Greg made plans to get a new tattoo over the next couple of months from him in Managua. I also ran into a girl who had just graduated from Western in genetics and was volunteering in a hospital nearby in Nicaragua. She was born in Argentina and was a big soccer fan. She went to the U20 World Cup Argentina-Czech Republic first round game in Toronto. Those two teams played again in the final which was won by Argentina, so I imagine she was pretty happy about that.

The next day was rainy so we decided to head up to Granada. We decided to stay in the Bearded Monkey hostel which I had stayed before. However it was really full and they only had three spaces left: a mattress on the floor, a hammock and a sofa. We decided to stay regardless and I took the mattress. By a strange coincidence I was not the only Asaph in the hostel. There was another older man from Israel that had the same name as me. I talked with him and he said that my name is relatively common in Israel, but he was the first person that I have ever met with the same name. That evening we went to a very American sports bar and had wings, onion rings and hamburgers, which was a nice change from my normal fare, but seemed out of place in Granada. The whole town is undergoing a very thorough renovation geared to attract tourists and has changed quite a bit since the first time I arrived. There are cobblestoned streets being put in, lanterns and flower pots being put up, and the cathedrals have been repainted. There were even large changes since the last time I had been there in Easter.

The next day was Sunday and we had to head back to Costa Rica. The return trip was relatively uneventful except for the fact that Greg had not had a full night sleep on the sofa and fell into such a deep sleep on every bus that it was hard to wake him up.

This last picture is one of my new house in the woods. I woke up last night with a large scorpion crawling on my face. Apparently I have a new pet.