San Juan Festival and Playa Ostional

We've officially been out of the country for over a month! It's so strange yet awesome that this is really our life now. It's past the point of feeling like a long vacation and we have gotten used to the geckos chirping, speaking Spanish often, and are less shocked when the incredibly LOUD firecrackers occasionally go off from the church in the town square. After looking at a few options, taking to property managers and doing some exploring, we decided we'll be staying in our two-bedroom casa through October 15th. It is quickly becoming home :)

A couple of weeks ago, the town is held its annual San Juan Bautista Festival; a religious ceremony followed by days of partying in the streets, live music, tons of food and, of course, fireworks til 2 a.m.! We had the pleasure of people watching and tasting incredibly delicious street BBQ and listening to live Latin music energizing the nighttime fiesta. It was so much fun to observe!

The highlights since our last post have been taking some awesome self-guided tours on the moto, which we still have and really like! It's about $8 a week to fill up.

We found the sweetest beach ever. Playa Ostional is the second-to-last beach on the south-pacific side of Nica, and minutes from the Costa Rico border. It's a long, secluded beach, best for finding shells, jumping from rock to rock amidst calm, warm waves to watch swimming tropical fish (some are huge!) and beach-hiking; climbing wave covered cliffs and looking into caves.

We could only make it so far because the tide was much too high that day. Luckily, we packed a couple of cans of Tona (the local beer) and snacks and hiked our way to a stunning chill spot. We were there until the tide was high enough to surprise splash us! We'll be back to try and conquer it sometime soon...