So after a relatively expensive week of tasty food but snack-sized surf at involuntary Bible camp, we decided we should hang around Popoyo and hopefully catch some swell now that we'd acquired some knowledge of the breaks in the area. We tossed up between staying in a tiny village (can't remember the name) just north of Popoyo (to surf a big righthand point if the swell picked up) vs staying in Popoyo village itself. The short story is that we chose the latter and scored!
We stayed in a couple of different "hotels" - one budget (see pic of our room) and one a bit more pricey (something like $30 a night) but with AC and a great little cafe/restaurant. Oh and the only internet in town! A couple of different swells came through and we ended up staying about 10 days, scoring awesome waves at Popoyo reef in the 4-5 foot range with the odd bigger bomb some days. The other good thing about hanging around for a longer stint was getting the know the locals and other travellers/surfers so it felt very familiar after a while. It got a bit crowded at times but we'd been there long enough to suss the right times to surf, where to sit, etc in order to get our fill of Nigaraguan juice! And it certainly lived up the the hype...
In between surfing our days were a mix of long breakfasts with fantastic Nico coffee, reading in our hammocks, me applying for consulting jobs in London (starting to face reality!) and the odd rum of an evening. Actually the rum may account for some of my less than clear memories of this stint :)
We met some really awesome (and some random) people too:
- the local girls working in the hotel were really nice and patient while we practised our Spanish with them
- some interesting American surfers who were driving a car all the way from Panama to Florida (after they'd sailed down and sold their boat!)
- Keith (the guy that took the surf pics and was a wanker about how much he charged for them)
- the 2 Kates from Canada
- some funny random German guys
- the pisshead Italian hotel owner who started drinking at 9am every day
- a couple of Aussie boys who absolutely ripped (like Aussie surfers are meant to!)
- another Aussie ripper heading down to Peru for 3 months at Lobitos (need to go there one day)
- last but certainly not least, skinny-dipping Kyla and the other Canadian volunteer girls on the their weekend off at the beach!
I can't say enough how much we enjoyed Popoyo, when I look back through the photos I want to put so many more on this blog! Great random experiences too like waking up early one morning to check the surf and finding a loaded handgun on the table just outside my door (the teenage security guard had left it there while he went to the toilet). Great surf and a proper adventure. It was sad to leave but the surf was dropping off and there wasn't much left to do after a while except hit the drum so we decided to head inland to Granada to do some tourist stuff and hope the surf picks up again...
