Up at 6am, met the owner of the hotel, Mike, former Army, been in Nicaragua 10 years. Very, very nice guy. His hotel is really, really nice. They serve a fantastic breakfast and then Tom showed up at 7am. Tom drove to the marina where we were met by Cesar and Tony in the boat. We transferred the boards from Tom’s truck to the boat and headed out of the harbor into the Pacific where we headed south to Playa Hermosa.
About 30 minutes south, Cesar anchored just outside the swells coming into Hermosa and we went in. The most immediate thing you notice is the incredible wind coming offshore powered by Lake Nicaragua! I am used to seeing whitecaps typically blowing toward shore. The off shore wind creates white caps blowing backwards. The wind not only stands the waves up, it rips the top off of them. When you are behind one you get hit with the spray coming off the top – it’s like an incredible, drenching shower – amazing.
As I am typing this the power just went out in town. Hotel generator is providing power now.
We were in the water at 8am. After a couple of long rides, I went ashore while Alan and Austin stayed out. The beach is absolutely deserted. If you were ever on “America’s Most Wanted”, this might be the place to go (just saying). Only five boats went by all morning and nobody else in the surf!
I have this thing about the beach and walking on the beach. I swear, the ocean leaves something, something special for you, something for only you to find. Today? It was a beautiful pink shell sitting on a dark beach. It looked like a pink butterfly on the sand. Also found a sand dollar that was at least eight inches in diameter – never seen one that large.
The waves were incredible ranging from 6-8 feet. About every 15 minutes, a huge set would roll in. In between, the large sets, you would find yourself being lured closer to shore to ride the “regular” set. Then you would turn and see the big guys rolling in and, if you were in too far, got hammered. Alan’s fin cut his foot (the blood kept the sharks away from me and Austin!) and I got “wash-machined” and somewhere in there, my board hit me in the forehead (clod).
We surfed there for about 3-4 hours, had lunch on the boat, surfed a couple more hours. We were spent. We packed up and headed further south to Playa Yankee where the waves were faster and steeper. One look and we declared “finito” for the day. No sense killing ourselves the first day.
Came back to the hotel, de-salted and explored the town. Now ready to go eat dinner, but, alas, the town is without power, so who knows…
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