verdict: san juan del sur sucks. well, mostly.

So, i´ve finally left estelí (after almost 5 weeks there, which pretty much flew by). I stayed a few days in masaya, a town which we´d heard sucked but actually turned out to be kinda awesome (artisan´s market in a giant, block-long and wide crumbling gothic fortress, gallo pinto, cheese, tortilla, plantain chips, salad and chile all wrapped up in a plantain leaf for 22 fucking cordobas, which equals about a a dollar and ten cents), though it did pour the entire time. I´d been vaguely following the hurricane news and we seemed totally clear; but then i didn´t look at it for like three days and the next time i looked there was a giant fucking tropical storm directly over central america! Guatemala i guess got the brunt of it, but it warned of flooding in honduras, el salvador and nicaragua as well, and fuck, it was right. It´s the rainy season so obviously it´s been raining a lot, but this was pretty extreme. I guess Managua got hit really bad, there are pictures in the paper of cars in the water up to their headlights, and a dozen people or so have even died. fucked.
however! today was the first day of sun, just a brief shower in the afternoon. And it was fucking hot. I´m in San Juan Del Sur now, where i arrived yesterday, and initially i thought it was the craptown of craptowns. Some lovely tidbits i overheard in my first few minutes of being at my (horrible, surfer infested) hostel:
"what do you think, boys? either german or israeli for sure". -a group of shirtless, drunk boys, trying to decide what nationality beth (welsh) and i (american, obvs) were
"i think it might be better if i just puke"-a sick boy in my dorm, at around two (!!) in the afternoon
"i was gonna snort some viagra, but then after we made out we never even hooked up, and i didn´t want to just be sitting around the hostel with a giant boner all night"

so. first impressions were grim.
however, i sucked it up and went out last night, mostly because this dude adam kept vaguely saying he might smoke me out; however, i actually really don´t even like smoking after drinking, and i don´t really like smoking at night because it just keeps me awake. I´d much rather smoke and go to the beach, or smoke and organize my bag, or smoke and study spanish. But i think i´m a bit in the minority there, at least as far as lame western boys who are in this town go.
I lasted till a bit past midnight and then gave up and went to sleep.

Today was better, though: the sun came out and i went to the beach and swam in the pacific which down here is blissfully warm (if perhaps a bit, y´know, dirty). That alone made the trip worth it- having been in portland and vermont and new york and then estelí, it´s been over three months since i´ve seen the sea. I missed it.

the other good thing about san juan: the food. because there are so many fucking americans and brits and australians and etc etc etc here, they serve things BESIDES gallo pinto and eggs and tortillas! I ate a fucking bagel today, i kid you not. With cream cheese and tomato and avocado. It was freaking heavenly. And you can get vegetables, like good organic salads, and fresh juice. Nicaraguans pretty much subsist on protein and carbs and eat very little fruit and veg, which can get a bit old. Whenever i eat a piece of fruit i feel like my cells are suddenly coming back to life with the introduction of vitamins into my system.
the only downside: prices are almost as bad as california. A small salad is 2.50, a large 5; my bagel cost me something like 3.50. I´d gotten to the stage where $2 seemed a bit steep for breakfast, so it is a bit of a shock. But, the diversity is welcome, and i´ll be leaving soon, so.
I´m out of time now and this is getting a bit long so more later- but hopefully i´ll be volunteering on an organic farm before too long (!!) so wish me luck!