Wandering Publicist

On October 2, I nervously boarded a plane to Nicaragua, the first destination in my journey traveling as a digital nomad. After arriving in the capital city Managua (you don’t want to spend a lot of time here, it is the only unsafe city in the country) I headed to the surf town San Juan Del Sur. It would have made more sense geographically to go to Granada first, but I wanted sun and beach and that’s what San Juan promises.

It was really cold on my plane so I stepped out of the airport wearing leggings, a hoodie and my puffer coat wrapped around my waist. As I exited, I was greeted by a hot gush of humid air and immediately knew I would not need layers here :p

I used Iskra travel for my shuttle to San Juan. They are very professional. It cost $40 for the 3-hour trip I shared with one other passenger. Yes, there are cheaper options like taking the local “chicken” bus, but it would take considerably more time and after 7 hours on planes, ain’t nobody got time for that.

While October is rainy season in Nicaragua, I only encountered four days of rain in the two weeks I was in the country.  However, this did include hurricane Nate.

Finally arriving in San Juan, I was dropped off at Hola Ola. I was booked for a week at this hostel.  The male share rider told me I should find a hostel that is located closer to town. I’m so glad I didn’t listen to him because Hola Ola was great.

While it is not in the center of town, it is about an 8-minute walk. At night the hostel provides free shuttles. The vibe is very relaxed and chill, a perfect place to get work done. Although once I made friends it was a bit harder to focus. Dedicating the morning to work is the best strategy for me. Once that is done, I have the rest of the day free which is usually when people do activities.

Traveling solo for the first time is filled with uncertainty, but I am here to assure you the feeling doesn’t last long. Within 2 days of arriving, I had myself an awesome crew consisting of two guys who DROVE here from Canada, two sweet girls from Toronto who took me under their wing (and I am now traveling with one of them in Panama!) a cute couple from New Zealand, and a scuba instructor from New Jersey who has been traveling for 3 years! Majority of the people I have met are traveling alone.

The hostel has two great pools, which is a necessity when traveling in warm places. It is also a great place to meet people. The staff at the hostel are incredible (hey Eduardo, Dennis, and Lucy), they definitely made the experience better. They drank and hung out with the guests, sometimes you couldn’t differentiate the difference.

One of my favorite places to eat was Taco Stop (you can find locations all over the country). For about 3 dollars you can get 3 delicious tacos or a quesadilla. Count me in! The ceiling is made from mirrors which gives it a cool vibe.

The shuttles into town drop off at a bar/restaurant called the Parlor. You get a discount if you are staying at Hola Ola. We went for lunch one day and they have two for one cocktail happy hour. You can either order wings or make your own stirfry. Really good price and portion.

San Juan is known for the image of its pristine beach being watched over by a Jesus statue high in the hills. You can hike up to see it for $2 entrance fee. The “hike” is on a paved road, but it is very steep so gym shoes and water are a must. The walk takes about 30 minutes. It was a rainy day when I went so the view wasn’t as great as it could have been. Still very nice to see until Nate arrived!

Tropical storm Nate hit on Wednesday night, two days after I first arrived.  The location of Hola Ola was actually ideal since we were higher up than the rest of the town. Some of the rooms flooded and my bed got a little wet and we lost power, but the staff moved people to dry rooms and they had a generator on at times during the day and night. On Thursday, everyone sat around drinking and playing games because there was nothing else to do! By Saturday, everything was back to normal.

Which brings me to what I did on Saturday: attempted surfing for the first time. It did not go well. This shit is really hard. I have a newfound respect for surfers. To be fair, the beach was still pretty rough from the storm, so it wasn’t an ideal first lesson. I ate sand more than I would like to admit, but hey, ya gotta try, right?!

One of the major draws to San Juan del Sur is Sunday Funday, a weekly hostel hopping party. It starts at around 2pm and goes until whenever you decide to stop partying! You go to three hostels, my favorite being the last one, Naked Tiger, where you can watch the sunset from up in the hills.

After the storm, the party was canceled and instead, they did volunteering during the day and then had a BBQ at Naked Tiger. So many volunteers showed up, they didn’t have enough room for everyone in the trucks and I was one of the 50 volunteers they couldn’t take.  Instead, we grabbed some bags and picked up trash on the beach here and then treated ourselves to bottles of rum and coke, naturally. Many boats washed up on shore from the storm so we found a nice one to set up our “Shipwreck” bar. Free to enter, BYOB, we only charged an exit fee :p

Even though it wasn’t the real Sunday Funday, I still had a great time. I wasn’t planning on coming back to San Juan, but I made a friend in Granada and she convinced me to go back with her for Sunday Funday the following week. That is the beauty of traveling solo, you meet so many people and end up changing your plans to go on an adventure with them. Sadly, I couldn’t stay at Hola Ola the second time around, so I stayed with her at Casa De Olas, which is right next to Naked Tiger. The hostel is further from town than Hola Ola, so I don’t recommend staying there for more than a night or two. They have a nice pool, great views and adorable monkeys in the back!

After completing a true Sunday Funday, I packed my bags and headed to the airport for my flight to Costa Rica. Stay tuned for my next blog on Granada, one of the Nicaragua’s most popular cities.

XO,

Sarah