Over dinner with two girlfriends and my partner of 12 years Mat by my side…

Joelene “Yeah, I’ve been thinking of taking a break from work, might head to Central America to learn Spanish and do some volunteering for four months.”

Jane “Wow, that sounds awesome, will you go too Mat?”

Mat “First I’ve heard about it actually.”

Awkward silence.

Mat “And how long have you been thinking that you might do this?”

Joelene “A while now.”

Mat “Umm, OK. Where will you go?”

Joelene “Well initially I was thinking about Costa Rica but I met a couple in Chile that told me that Costa was really Americanised and had lost it’s charm and in Nicaragua I would have a more authentic Central American experience and that the people are really lovely.”

So, that’s how it all started. After a couple of conversations I now had a loose plan to travel to Nicaragua for my Long Service Leave (an Australian thing….where, if you’ve been working for a company for ten years, you’re awarded three months full paid vacation). I knew nothing about the country because, being from the other side of the world, Central American countries don’t generally get a hearing in conversation (except for maybe Costa, Mexico and Guatemala) and it’s really expensive to travel to that part of the world. So, I had no preconceived ideas about Nicaragua…..little did I know it was a surfer’s paradise.

It was Mat who found Chica Brava. I was like, I don’t think I want to spend that much money on one week of holidays but Mat convinced me that it would be great to build up my dodgy surfing capabilities and that I might meet friends that I can surf with after camp, as I planned to be in Nicaragua for a while. It was a decision I would not regret. I met some really awesome chicas, had supa fun times and left the camp feeling confident that I could paddle out to breaks on my own. Apart from teaching me how to surf, I got great advice from the chicas from Chica Brava about other breaks in Nica and anything else I needed to know about the country.

I ended up spending about 3.5 months in Nicaragua in the end, taking each day as it comes, doing whatever the universe told me I should do each day, essentially having no plans….try it some day, totally liberating way to live.

After camp, I headed to Playa Hermosa for a few days of recovery where I hooked up with some cool chicas from Colorado and we headed north to Mag Rock. I so loved the little Mag Rock sweet and soft left hander, ended up staying for about a month, living down the road near Playa Santana, Far enough away from the Mag Rock, fun times to get away from it all but close enough to join in the party and have a ‘dance off’ with the locals if I wanted. I also helped out at FunLimon (a not-for-profit foundation) assisting and teaching kids English and helping them with their end of term graduation production. I visited Ometepe and ended up volunteering on a farm and in another classroom in Balque, living on the side of Volcan Maderas. Every night, the sun settled over Volcan Concepcion, a beautifully symmetrical active volcano, it was absolutely breathtaking!

But the pull of the waves lured me back to San Juan Del Sur for another two weeks of surfing. San Juan is so well set up to get to the breaks without a car and you don’t have to imbibe in the party scene all the time if you choose the right place to stay…well occasionally for a bit of fun….but it’s all about balance isn’t it?

Visa run to Costa for three weeks; Santa Teresa and the southern tip of the Nicoya, Manuel Antonio NP (had a surf there that was so viscerally amazing, I’ll never forget the moment), Oso Peninsula, San Jose, La Fortuna (all the time lugging my board around). Back to SJDS for two more weeks of surfing and hanging out with Anna from Chica Brava, Rob and other mates I met along the way. Then to the north of Nicaragua, then the Corn Islands (hanging with my homie who came half way across the world to visit), then finally hooked up with Mat in Mexico, and travelled to Cuba and California. My beautiful man happily travelled by my side in spirit throughout my Central American odyssey, only occasionally expressing dissatisfaction while he endured one of the coldest Melbourne winters in something like three decades. But you’ve gotta love a man who supports you to travel solo to the other side of the world to explore your dreams.

No surfing experience in my part of the world will ever match Nicaragua…I’ve been home 2.5 months now, surfing in a wetsuit, grappling with inconsistent conditions, staunch Australian blokes in the waves, all the time thinking “I wish I was back in Nicaragua!”