Austin wasn’t feeling too well this morning but is fine now. He missed breakfast, but did make it to the truck in time for the ride to the marina. On the boat around 10 this morning and back out to Playa Hermosa, this time to the not yet visited north end. Another good day with “playful” waves as Alan described them. I asked him what he meant by playful. He explained that they were waves when you weren’t thinking “how can I ever get back to the boat” or “when am I going to get to the breathe again”. I get that. Yes, playful described the surf today.
The boys rip on each other so bad – much I can’t write, but they crack me up in the water. The other day, Alan found himself in the “kill zone” when the big set rolled in. Austin said it was like Poseidon was stomping him down every time he came out of the water to get a breathe. Austin spent a lot time stomping his foot last night like he was stomping on an ant – simulating Poseidon stomping on Alan. Very, very funny. You should have seen what they had in store for me as I let, what they thought, was a perfect wave, roll under me (truth is, it was, I just didn’t see it!).
We were in the water for about two hours and I caught a good wave and rode it into the beach. Perfect time to “park” the board and explore the beach. While exploring, I was doing my usual periodic head count – one, two, three (Wieland was in the water with us, our first mate – Cesar is the Captain) and I noticed rooster tails from the boat. Cesar had pulled up anchor and was taking off. I have to admit, it was a little disconcerting to see the boat high tail it out of there over the horizon. Went through a lot of different scenarios and concluded that the worst case wasn’t really that bad. We surfed for an hour more and eventually Cesar came back. No idea where he went.
Chilled on the boat for awhile, surfed a while, came back and ate lunch. During lunch saw what looked to be two fins swimming side-by-side near the boat – like synchronized swimmers. It was actually a ray on the surface with its wingtips turned up and out of the water about 4-6 inches – like the wingtips on a jetliner. I was back in the water and one was swimming about ten feet away from me - I’m guessing about 24 inches across. Later, back on the boat, Alan described the stingrays as the “land mines of the ocean” and “plankton as the mosquitoes”.
I returned to the boat and Cesar was still out surfing. When he came back we packed up the boards and thought we were heading back. Cesar turned south (back would be north). I thought he was taking us to another break and was thinking “no way, we’re spent”. Then he suddenly raced directly west out to sea. We were going toward the end of the shelf for about 10 minutes when we saw the flocks of birds over the ocean. Then I heard “fish on”. Cesar went and checked out the schools of Yellow Fin tuna killing the minnows out at sea while we were surfing. The tuna were getting the minnows from below and the birds from above and Cesar was trolling through the flock of birds. We hooked several tuna and landed two. The tackle he was using made for a great fight! As soon as we were on them, they disappeared.
With two in the box we headed back to SJDS.
We walked town and learned some interesting things about Nicaragua and the cultural history of the country tonight. The Nicaraguans, long before geopolitical boundaries were drawn were part of the Mayans. As the Mayans grew, and grew more focused on warring and hostility, there was a split. One split was a more peaceful faction led by a woman. She had a vision to lead her group south from Mexico until they came upon a great lake with an island in the middle with two mountains. The Lake is Lake Nicaragua (as large as Lake Erie) and the island is Ometepe with two volcanoes on it - one hour from where we are now. The name of the tribe is the Nahuatl. That is why, as it was explained to us, the people of Nicaragua are so friendly and peaceful.
I swear, every day has its treasure for you to discover if you look for it. Very cool story I think.
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