Twilight adventure begins

Lack of studying our surf and lonely planet books we jumped onto this shuttle (large orange army bunker bus) and headed to the beach. Everyone on the shuttle was from Big Foot and 80% of the people were going for the day. The others including us were moving away from the hostel and staying at the beach...well we thought so. 30 minutes down the windy road we ended up at the coast. One road in, one road out. No side roads that potentially would wrap down the coast like we expected. Following the cow herd we took our gear off the monster truck and started to walk toward this island. Through our stuff onto this small paddle boat and some local took us over to the jungle covered island. We get to the other side and start to walk. About 1 mile of trekking next to the ocean we discovered the one and only hostel called "Turtle Lodge" that was smack down on the beach. Bungalows, bar, hammocks you name it. Excellent weather and okay waves. We screwed in our fins and headed to get some surf. While the beach was large and open to the winds, we were the only people in the water. That equals bonus for fun times. We surfed for a few hours and headed in to get some food.

While Turtle lodge tried to promote relaxation we were really bored. They had rules as well. Your not allowed to bring in outside food. You have to eat there. Plus they charge you $2 just to hang out there. This was pretty ridiculous a made us want to leave. Originally we thought this was a good surf spot but the way the beach was set up and the beaches we were looking for were far from here. What a mess. We talked to one of the workers to get more info and how to get out of here. The only way was to go back to Leon and then take a taxi to a town called Puerto Sandino. This is where we were originally tried to find and thought we could go there from here.

In the meantime the winds were picking up and a storm looked like it was rolling in. In the back of the hostel they had all of there boards on racks and I put my board my board back on the ground. While I was out there, I started to attempt to read some spanish flyer. Simultaneously, a gust of wind literally picked up my board about 5 feet straight up and smashed it hard on its tail. Instantly, blew out my tail! Scrambling around while the wind is throwing around my bored I finally grab it and put it on the racks and wrap some bungie cord around it. Pissed off at wind and getting my bored damaged for something I didn't do in the water. At this point, with all of the rules the lodge has plus this incident, I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. The others were on board as well.

Only way out of here was the same shuttle back to Leon at 6. Double dang.

6 pm rolls around we pretty much the whole entire hostel at Turtle lodge leaves. End back up in Leon like a bunch of idiots. This time we had a better understanding of where we wanted to go: Puerto Sandino. We hired a taxi for $25 to take us to this world class surf spot. Little did we know, there were no hostels in the area.

We randomly found some surf lodge in Puerto Sandino but in a very sketchy neighborhood. Not one person was in the hotel except for the body guard. Juan ran out to speak with the locals to figure out where we should go. About 5 minutes later he came back saying there was no where else to go. He ran off again. Meantime the taxi driver is wondering what our plan was. First off we didn't want to stay in this hotel but had no idea where to go. Garrett spoke with the body guard and got the wifi password and started to look up hostels in the region. Nothing. Juan came back saying he found a "interesting" place to stay for the night. haha.

Paid the taxi and he zipped off. We grabbed our gear and followed Juan. haha. We walked into this sketchy local house. A bunch of kids playing pool and this monster of a mom greeting us with gratitude. Meaning her arms were the size of my entire stomach, her hands couldn't touch each other even if she wanted and a smirk on her face like everything she says was sarcastic. Not a good sign.   We said hello and Juan said "follow me". Walked past the counter (kitchen) and went into the back yard where there was a pile full of garbage where our soon to be roommate was eating his food (pig). Walked past the rubbish and headed into this room where there was 3 beds. All full of potential nightmares. It was the classic grandma plastic wrap bed, springs blown out and you knew there were thousands of bed bugs waiting to feed on our rich blood. Fuck this.

We put our bags down in the room, discussed our situation and came to terms that we had no other solution and this lady was going to charge us $5. But a chance that we get robbed at any given point and eaten alive by our roommate. We went back and forth and decided we need to negotiate some terms with the lady...maybe free breakfast, massages, etc. Juan put his charm on and started to negotiate. The main lady listened, and her sidekick of a daughter mean mugged us all. Each time I looked at her she dug deeper into my soul and felt like she was taking a shit on me. It was awful. So, I retaliated and did the same thing back to her. Juan kept digging and digging, trying to crack this lady with information on where we were, where the surf break was, how we get there, cheap room rates, etc. The conversation got louder and worse. Some dude came over to answer questions and the sketchiness went to code red. Me and Garrett were just nodding our heads and smiling while Juan looked as if he was getting defeating in the debate. Finally, Juan stormed off and grabbed his gear. He said lets go guys.

Grabbed our gear once again, trying to figure out what just happened. Juan said the beach is close but we need to hire a boat in the morning to get to the waves. The lady offered to take us to another surf lodge down the road for $20. Thats why Juan was so pissed. We paid $25 for a hour taxi and this surf lodge was 2 minutes away. Fuck this lady. The whole time she was talking, you could tell she was ripping us off. We went back to the original surf hotel and posted up outside and poached the internet. Garrett found some surf lodge called Miramar Surf Lodge about 5 minutes away. $20 a night. Juan jetted off to some other locals and asked for a taxi. Anytime this guy talks he instantly makes friends with everyone. Within a couple of minutes a tuk tuk pulls up and we once again jet off into the unknown looking for some random surf lodge. Off we went. Dipping in and out of gravel roads and sort of waiting to get taking into some alley way to get jacked. But it didn't happen. We pulled up to some gnarly walled up gate with the sign saying "Miramar Surf Lodge". We knocked on the door and some Brazilian guys came out and greeted us in. Within seconds we realized we just fell into a golden garden. Incredible building overlooking some point break we didn't yet realize what it was. The outdoor living room filled with any type of surfboard you could think of and a kitchen that people dream of having. We instantly booked it.

At this point, it was around midnight and we have yet to eat all day from the travels. We asked them if they could make us some dinner but the kitchen was closed. They came out with cereal and yogurt. Again...we were in heaven and still didn't realize where we were. They asked us if we wanted to join the surf boat tomorrow. When? 5 am. haha. YES!

Woke up at 5 am and ran down to the living room. About 15 people all gearing up. Right in front of us was a serious left point break called Punta Miramar! Look that up. Waxed my used board (since my board was fucked) up and ran down to the beach to paddle out to the boat. The sunrise was starting to come up while we were driving into the abyss. Boat stopped at Puerto Sandino and just watched these sets come in from behind. Never have I seen a wave from behind like this. No idea how big the wave is or any sense of what your getting into. Everyone jumped out and started to paddle into the beast. Perfect head high waves were pealing past us. One after another people were grabbing waves. Even though 15 people were out there, seven of them were brazilian girls watching there boyfriends and getting a sweet tan, while the rest of us were enjoying both the eye candy and of course the waves. A three hours in, the boat picked us up and we headed back to the lodge. Breakfast waiting and an unreal view of Punta Miramar. A swimming pool overlooked the point so you could chill in the water while watching everyone surf. Best part is, you would go in a unspoken lineup of about 3-4 people max in the water. So, it was just me, Garrett and Juan each time we were surfing. That session was about 4-5 hours. Came back in, ate, rested and went back out for sunset. Jeez what a day!

Slept like a dog that night. No problem. Heat or bugs couldn't wake me that night.

Woke up at sunrise and headed back out. Due to time crunch, Garrett and Juan had to leave today. I decided to go with them. In the meantime the guys were fixing my surfboard and didn't want to rent again. Juan was busy emails so he lent me his. Now I think of it, I wish he didn't.

Me and Garrett paddled out. It was low tide and lots of dry rock was showing in the waves. It was really shallow, about 2 ft but the waves looked really fun. You can still catch the wave and pop out before the rocks if you were paying attention. About 1/2 hour in the waves were fun. I caught a good and got about 4-5 turns on it...Not paying attention to what was ahead of me. I got to the top of the lip and looked down. A huge rigged rock bed was exposed and I was about to land on all of it. I kicked my board out and dove into the dry rock. It was like diving head first 5 ft off the ground straight to your face. I dove, hit the rocks hands first. Instantly, got pounded by the wave, which ricocheted me further down more bed rock. All in shock I got up and grabbed my board. Looking to see how messed up the board was. Luckily it was perfect. But didn't realize how unperfected and jacked up I was. I looked at my arm, pouring blood, my wrist could barely move and was getting hit by the set coming in. I waiting for the timing and paddled back into the sets to get out of the rocks. Go through it and paddled around and into the beach. Two people from the hostel cam over to check in on me. My arm was pretty red mixing with the water so it looked way worse. If anyone knows me, they know I don't like blood. I kept walking back to the lodge. Walked up the path, past the pool and to the shower to rinse off. I was fine at this point until I finally realized what happened. Both of my arms were shocking and radiating while more blood was coming out of my arm. The whole hostel knew at this point and started to come closer to me. I turned the shower off and started to walk and soon realized I couldn't see 2 feet in front of me and passed out for a few seconds. They kept telling me to get up out of the sun and into the shade. Of course they helped me. Again, both hands fucked and couldn't see who was in front of me for about 20 minutes. All in shock. One of the brazilian girls came over and started to spray Iodine to fix infection. Finally snapped out of it but my arms were radiating for the next few hours. Overall, was actually fine. My right arms is all bruised up but it was the classic blood case where I just can't hang with the crowd. I wrapped it up and a few hours later we paid our bill and got out there towards Managua.

Photos couldn't capture this gem of a place so I decided to get some battle scars to remember forever. Next stop the main city before we all part ways.