Entering The Country
Crossing the border to Nicaragua via boat was an interesting experience to say the least. As we stepped off the boat onto the beach, men dressed in military gear started yelling instructions at us. My Spanish is horrible, so I followed what everyone was doing. We laid all of our luggage out in the dirt and they started pulling everything apart. They were very thorough; this was when I heard that they were looking for drones. Luckily, I am not a drone owner. They are prohibited in this country.
After security had dumped out all of our stuff, we continued to get our travel visas. The man in charge decided to have a nap in his hammock for half an hour. They do this on purpose to aggravate westerners. I can see why it would amuse them, some of the people from the boat got very mad.
This was when we realised that we were in the middle of nowhere. No buses came to that area. Luckily, we made friends on the boat and were able to squeeze into their car. By squeeze into their car, I mean we had 6 people in the back seat and three in the front. Finally, we were on route to our first Nicaragua destination.
The Boom
The Boom is a surfer’s dream (or nightmare). It is a shore break with consistent and heavy barrelling waves. This beach is called the boom because of the sound the waves make when they break. You can hear it from in town.
My first glimpse of the wave was from the back of a truck (we had to hitch hike the second half of the trip). It felt like a movie scene as we turned a corner and saw the wave break from miles away. We were out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rolling fields. We walked the last stretch to the hostel and prepared for our morning surf.
The night before surfing a wave that scares me, I have trouble sleeping. At this stage I had been surfing for just under a year. This wave is intermediate – advanced. We also arrived when a big swell hit, which in theory is amazing. Although, it was also slightly terrifying. I woke up before sunrise with my heart racing. Hearing the waves breaking from over a kilometre away did not help with my nerves. We headed to the beach just after sunrise.
My boyfriend surfed first while I watched from the beach. Because the wave breaks so close to shore, I had a very good view of the surfing. Then, all too soon it was my turn. I grabbed the board and started the paddle out, didn’t make it and proceeded to get repetitively knocked over and smashed by the waves. It was so shallow that I couldn’t duck dive, my timing was wrong. After 5 minutes of this, I was winded by a wave that slammed into my chest. I panicked and got out.
Driven by determination, I was not going to give up. When I tried again; the same thing happened. This left me feeling embarrassed and angry. “I should be able to surf this. Why do I suck. Literally everyone else made it out the back, there must be something wrong with me.” These thoughts and many others were going through my head. This was over a year ago now, for the amount of time I had been surfing it makes sense that I didn’t make it out the back. The swell was solid with the occasional freak set of waves. It is frustrating when you are looking at an awesome wave and don’t have the skills to surf it.
I felt defeated, my boyfriend picked a bodyboard up from the hostel and I ended up getting out the back with that. While this wasn’t ideal, I ended up having a great time. I got plenty of barrels, although not standing up. Another good option for anyone who is struggling with a board here.
Another great spot to surf while here is the island. You can catch a boat out at sunrise and catch endless long left-hand waves. We heard about this through the owner of the hostel, who was an avid surfer. He mentioned that with the swell this wave would be awesome, he was right. To this day, I would say I caught the best wave of my life there.
Leon
Leaving the boom was hard. We spent over 2 weeks here and made some great friends. We hopped onto a bus and headed to Leon. Leon is a city that is best known for volcano boarding. This sounded made up, but after checking out a few articles we decided to give it a try.
We headed out on a bus with one other person and began our hike up the volcano. Our guide informed us that this was not the only volcano around. What I thought were mountains surrounding us were various other volcanoes. We continued hiking, carrying boards that we would be using to slide down. We had suits and goggles in our bags to protect us from rocks on the way down.
If you have ever done sand boarding, this is very similar. The main difference being that it sounds cooler. In person, it actually looks very dorky. See pictures below:
I don’t remember much else from Leon, apart from my bed being mouldy. It was fun to wander around in for a day or two. This leads me to the next stop, Ometepe.
Ometepe
Ometepe is an island comprised of two volcanoes. You can catch a ferry out to it. My accommodation on the island was $2 per night. More on this later. We were able to rent a motorbike for $25 per day, as there isn’t any public transport on the island. Because we only had the one bike, we both had to squeeze onto it with our backpacks, this was hilarious. I was relieved that I didn’t have to drive. We rode the bright red motorbike through a pack of bulls, I thought they would chase us. They did not.
Our hostel was in the middle of nowhere. The people running it were lovely. My bed here was also mouldy, with the addition of MEGA spiders. I am not a spider person; I could not use the shower because there was so many. They would slowly start to lower down from the ceiling when you got in. No thank you. There was a cane toad next to the toilet (poisonous). I left my door open one evening and returned to find a chicken on my bed. The whole time I was here, I treated swimming in the lake as a shower and peed outside.
The island was a big highlight for me, it has not been too westernized yet and still feels undiscovered. The locals were lovely. There are beautiful waterfall hikes, you can hike the volcanoes as well. Not to mention a big hippy community. There was plenty of free yoga around. We could be found hanging out and reading by the lake.
Nicaragua is one of the best countries I have been to. It still feels relatively untouched by tourists, with the upside of being cheap. It has plenty of adventurous things to do. I might have to do a part 2 where I discuss Magnific Rock, Granada and San Juan Del Sur.
