Nicaragua 1st entry

3-26-10
First I will play like I am on twitter!! drive to rdu smooth -board checkin smooth until they pulled out out of the security line because we had more than one board per bag !! I thought we had made it !! but no way!! - flight to miami quick! - 45 min late leaving Mia but in rental car by 2:30 pm and on the road. 30 minute drive through Managua to get to the outskirts of town for our hwy “La Nueva Carretera Norte” where we quickly found a “Tip Top” and pulled in. This is the Nica version of Chick Filet except complete with parking lot attendant that happily watches your car and a rent a cop that opens the door for you to enter. Now being gringos we bellied up to place our order only to find out it is sit down service complete with a waitress!! All the above received a “propina” (tip) BTY. Just the regular chicken, fries,and a drink but it hit the spot and we were on the road again. Very interesting driving down here. To begin with the scenery is totally different than going south to the other place we had been before. A good road and not too much traffic but for the traffic that was there it consisted of everything you could think of including: big ass trucks and small ones, lots of bicycles, fast cars, slow cars, horse drawn carts, pedestrians , and the occasional loose horse or cow!! A fair number of cops. I like seeing these guys as it makes me feel safe as long as they do not stop me!! No we did not need to “offer cash “ to any of them like we did going south. I think the only reason we got stopped going south is because we had surfboards on the car. Maybe that means not many surfers go north! Stopped at a good grocery store again complete with armed personal in the parking lot (this is normal for countries like this BTY) and is expected. Stocked up on snacks, fruit, water, and peanut butter and jelly. We do not have a fridg! Made it to La Chancletas by dark and the cold beer tasted great. Dinner of stir fry chicken wasn’t bad either. The room has two queen beds and a single, AC, a nice bath, and very clean..We put Dillon and Jack in a queen together so we could sleep. Bed was even better by 9pm. It gets dark about 6:30.
Had coffee at 5:30am. We had arranged for a boat to pick us up at 6:30 am to carry us about 5-10 minutes offshore to a fun left point break while the tide was low. We surfed for 15 minutes before the boat (panga) arrived at the beach break just outside the peak. We just paddled out and climbed on board. Now the gas tank on this fine craft was a gallon plastic jug sitting on the back seat with a hose stuck in the top wedged tight with some rubber!! We felt like we had a good captain ! USCG approved I doubt it!! He surfed with us , he had (not with us bty) a 1.5 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. A fisherman when he has no surf charters. He knew how to make a buck. It was a good call to skip the beach at low tide. Surfed the point head high for an hour and a half then got dropped off at the beach break which is right out front of our place. The waves had improved and we found out why they call this beach break “BOOMS” !! Only about 10 of us surfing along this section of beach too! Brunch was good at the little Palapa restaurant here at Chancletas. Pronounced chan-klet-aas. Hotter than hell at the moment 2pm. Dillon and Jack just went swimming. Last time we were here down south we needed wetsuits. This am Dillon described the initial plunge into the waves as “there wasn’t even a slight chill, just warm” . Maybe a nap is in order? Thanks for reading! Jim, Jonathan, Dillon , and Jack