Day 4: San Juan Del Surf Studs

Today we had to wake up a little earlier than usual, because we had Mark Twain class with our professor here, KJ Peters!! Wooo summer class! For part of the curriculum, we are reading Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Twain actually traveled through Nicaragua on his way to Europe and wrote all about it. And when I say all about it, I mean ALL ABOUT IT. That dude loves to write... Anyway, it's pretty amazing to read about things he saw, and experience them 150 years later.

After breakfast, it was time to zip line. The girls, coaches, and even some administrators geared up and headed to the top of a mountain outside of town. We completed 16 different zip lines overlooking beautiful scenery of San Juan Del Sur and its surrounding towns. It was so much fun to see all of our chaperones letting loose and being adventurous alongside us. If I had to pick, I would definitely say KJ had the best zip line techniques.

After zip lining, we headed to Playa Hermosa (not to be confused with Playa Del Rey or Hermosa Beach), and we had lunch on an incredibly beautiful beach.

This beach is known for being the location of a season of Survivor as well as being one of the best surf spots in the country. I would LOVE to write about how we totally shredded some gnar, but the truth is, we were in dire need of some help. So we took lessons from two local surf teachers and hit the waves in shifts of six, to ensure ample instruction-giving. Our coaches, professor, and academic advisor joined us as they embraced the surf (and hitting the water) with open arms.

First place for surfing has to go to Kekai, who we could not get out of the water. We stayed at that beach for the entirety of the day relaxing in hammocks, drinking smoothies, and playing in the sting-ray filled waves until it was time to go.

On the way back in our luxurious transportation (truck bed), we spotted lots of monkeys on branches of trees. We even made monkey noises to try to lure them out (which is absolutely foolproof), but soon, we learned the actual noise these tiny monkeys make is a deep roar. We were yelling completely irrelevant monkey noises for all of Nicaragua to hear...

When we got back to the hotel after our beach endeavors, we had some free time to shop, hang out, and watch the sunset. We met back up for dinner at another beautiful restaurant right on the water. During our meal, a torrential downpour took over the town as we watched our ocean view light up of lighting and thunder.

It is just past 9:00pm local time, and most of the group is already fast asleep. I'm going to have to catch up, because tomorrow will be another full day, including match #3 against Team Nicaragua!

Stay tuned,
Tess :)


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