The Pacific

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On Tuesday morning we got a bus to Rivas then after a bit of confusion we got a taxi to San Juan. The driver kept saying we had space for one more in the car, but luckily in the end we had the driver, us, a granny, her daughter, her daughter's daughter, some sticks, a travelling farmhand (that was possibly lost in translation) and of course all our baggage tightly packed in a clapped out Nissan Sunny. Cosy.

We said at Hostel Casa Oro, which was okay, there was a good mix of backpackers and surfers, but the landlord was a miserable, tight and sometimes totally unhelpful bastard (lights out at 10, absolutely no noise allowed although we will be waking you up nice and early with our construction next door, and corkage on everything, but we're not bitter).

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We did have the great pleasure of meeting up with Chris and Caroline, the English medic students we met in San Pedro, who are really good fun and it's good to be able to speak proper english and play a good game of shit head. We also met a couple from Australia Yok and Base. There is an excellent bar/restaurant in San Juan called Wavy Davey's so obviously we felt drawn to it and after a few cocktails there we all spent an evening talking absolute bollocks (fanta-pants, squirrels in your fanny pack etc.). Chesta has a new favourite cocktail called a Rusty Nica - Rum, Whiskey and a splash of triple sec.

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On the friday we all went deep sea fishing together on a rowing boat with a motor, a canopy, two rods and two crew - not quite what we had expected for our $25 each. We skillfully avoided catching tuna, marlin and sailfish because obviously there wasn't room in the boat for them, but we did catch 25 red snapper which Chesta cooked that evening, fried in butter and eaten with lime and salt (Pag would like it). It turned out to be a really good laugh although Charlie would have enjoyed it more had she not needed the loo one hour into the five hour trip.

We also spent some time on a beach hiding from the sun. To get to Medera beach you do have to endure a 45 minute bump fest on the back of a big 4x4 truck, but it's worth it. The beaches round this area are really nice, pretty much deserted and unspoilt. This was our first encounter with the Pacific and it ticked all the right boxes for an ocean. Very impressed, 10 out of 10.

On Saturday we left for San Jose hungover but triumphant - the hostel had undercharged us by one night. Karma. We had to stay in San Jose for one night, which is one more than we would have liked, before we caught an express bus to the South.