#35 Coffee Farms and My First Night in San Juan del Sur

The other day, one of my sitemates, Noelle, and I went for an excursion to a local coffee farm and had a delicious cup of coffee. You would think this would be common as Nicaragua is known for their coffee, but unfortunately (for me), all the good coffee is exported and instant “Presto” coffee is hands down the preferred coffee in the country. It is enjoyed so much that I have heard of families giving their volunteers Presto as gifts to bring back to home because it is just that good. I’m not a fan and one of my first purchases was buying a coffee machine and some fresh coffee as well.

While at this farm, we met two men filming a travel show for China where they start in Alaska and finish at the southern most point in Argentina. One guy from New Zealand and the other was a Chinese man born in America. Strangely enough, the Chinese man had lived in my home state of Connecticut for a few years and worked with my Dad at GE for those years and was shocked when he heard my Dad’s name. I used to think wow what a small world, but really after traveling so much I’ve realized that the world is actually enormous and coincidences like this are that much more wild.

After a remarkable cup of coffee, Noelle and I went for a hike from the farm into the depths of the forest of the southern volcano. This area is famed for its petroglyphs and every now and then we’d stumble across a petroglyph or 10. I don’t know really anything about these pre-Columbian pieces except for that they are before Columbus’ time… that narrows it down to a few hundred thousand years.

One of the other very popular tourist destinations, San Juan del Sur, is about 30 minutes from the port on the mainland.  The other weekend, Chalin, Sam, and I took a little 24 hour vacation there. The place is absolute mayhem. It is the quintessential backpackers bar scene with backpackers from all around the world partying, enjoying the cheap drinks, getting quite sloppy, and taking advantage of the lack of drinking laws most developing nations possess. Imagine your wild college tailgate without law enforcement. After going to bed routinely at 9:00pm, this was a very different change of pace for the three of us and a much appreciated break from the past 3 or 4 months.

The next morning, we went to the beach for a little then Chalin and Sam ended up buying surfboards because their sites are only a few minutes from surfing spots on the west coast. This same day about 30 minutes away, Nicaragua was hosting one of its first international surfing competitions, so most of the tourists left San Juan del Sur. This country has a lot to offer and are just beginning to take advantage of its resources. You’ll see this country becoming a stronger and more popular tourist destination over the next 10 years – I promise. In fact I just read an article in a travel magazine about tourism in Nicaragua including all there is to do, and promoting how incredibly safe it is (safest country in Central America by the way).