We hired a taxi on the main calle in SJDS to take us to the surf competiton...he quoted us as $20 total- if more people get in then we split it evenly. Despite warnings in the books about shared cabs, the discounted rates were starting to appeal to us. Unfortunately no one else tried to hail him down :(
The driver, Jose, was young and energetic. Told us he was 25 years old and recently married his novia in enero (January). He showed us his plain gold band. He picked up a little girl on the corner who had her thumb out- hitchhiking is quite common here. He dropped her off not much later to a deserted dirt road and explained that many families live in the more rural outskirts of SJDS and head into town for various necessities. I practiced my Spanish with Jose while he practiced his Ingles and Brian zoned out- guess he was exhausted after the morning's dive.
Jose explained that Survivor was just filmed here in Playa Hermosa and that ' that company has mucho dinero'. He went on to say that they paid $20 per hour to do various tasks and the people liked having them here because it brought them work and paid better than some other jobs which are usually less than $8/hour. He said he did tours for them for 12 hours at a time...sounds like he was quite the hustler. He was driving us in a hyundai sedan but explained he also had a Toyota four runner that he used during that time...
The roads were ridiculous. I felt like we were back on Ometepe. Brown/orange dirt mixed with rocks and huge puddles everywhere made for a very bumpy ride. Jose zipped through them- he knows this road like the back of his hand. He had on a white baseball cap and bright white sunglasses and half the time seemed to be looking at me as he talked in his rear view instead of focusing on the road.
We paid our entrads, 15 cordobas each, to a woman with an armed guard standing behind her (with a machine gun strapped across his chest). A wooden house on stilts was just past the gate on the left, and a mother with a few young children waved to us as we drove through.
The roads got even worse. This is torture for my sore neck! We finally arrived at Playa Hermosa to a parking lot full of cars...which was funny because we didn't seem to pass any on the way down!
Dance music was playing and we could hear the announcer describing the surfing competitors in the distance. We paid Jose and walked down to the beach...
Where did all these Americans come from? We wondered. The only natives were sitting at a Claro booth (one of the 2 cell companies) marketing their product and some construction workers building what would appear to be the first permanent structure on this beach. A generator was set far back in the sand and makeshift bars and tents with rows of plastic chairs sectioned off the spectators. There were even fresh water showers set right in the center of all the action.
The crowd was a bunch of suntanned surfers with stereotypical curly blonde hair. Some looked more like hippies with dreads and still others more like hipsters with their regulatory sleeved arms of tattoos. We found a spot on the sprawling beach and watched as four surfers all ran in together competing for the same waves.
The waves were perfect and enormous. Rolling from one end to the other until they would sometimes collide into each other. It was really cool to watch these surfers ride them, cutting forward and backward the entire length of the wave and then some of them would do a little flip thing when the two waves met in the middle...I found that to be most impressive. I wanted to see las chicas compete but there were only 4 and after an hour or 2 we were ready to head back to SJDS...Not before I had a chance to swim for a minute though...the water here is surprisingly warm and clear for the Pacific...
We showered and hiked past the horse farm which reeked of manure back to the parking lot...hmm. And now how were we going to get back??
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