Nicaragua Surf Trip in San Juan Del Sur

This trip to Nicaragua came to be because a close friend of mine was moving from an adjacent San Diego north county suburb to the further, but still nearby, Orange county. I knew I had to operationalize our together time, so I decided that we should meet halfway between our two locations by going surfing once a week at San Onofre beach. I do best when I build my skills in anticipation for a goal, so we conceived of this trip to Nicaragua to celebrate our relationship and the culmination of many laborious hours working on our surfing skills among the crashing waves in one of the most idyllic beaches in the united states (poor us). My husband and my old friend Jamie decided to come too.

Unfortunately, I learned I was pregnant about two weeks after we pulled the trigger on a mostly-inclusive surf retreat in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. For the sake of our friendship, (and frankly, and perhaps due to poor adjustment on my part), I elected to go anyway despite being 14 weeks pregnant by the time we landed in the most dangerous capital in central America (Managua).

My doctor gave me the green light to go. At 14 weeks, the baby is still hiding behind my pelvic bone. There was some concern about Zika Virus but my doctor advised that the chance of catching Zika Virus was low, (about as low as back home). The doctor even told me that I could surf as long as I had the energy for it. Everyone seemed to want to empower me, telling me that pregnant women could do so much. I did not feel empowered. I felt like my trip objectives were now made moot. I was not going to make any breakthroughs surfing. I was, at best, going to “still” be able to surf “despite” my condition.

If you can’t tell, I had many mixed feelings about going. To some extent I just want to do things that I am presently excited about, even if that means shelving plans I made when my fleeting attention was on something else. On the other hand, my decision making skills were stymied because I didn’t have the space I needed to mentally adjust to this life change. I felt mentally foggy. The first three months of my pregnancy were plagued by extreme tiredness. Unfortunately, due to my previous lifestyle choices, I found this period of low activity to be extremely isolating. I needed to slow down, not keep up. But still I went. I went because I thought I could still keep my friendships and be surrounded with people that loved me despite living a slower life.

We found an excellent value hotel that included surfing and daily surf lessons. The resort was about a 30 minute walk to the beach and 3 hour drive to the airport. It was refreshing to see when we got there that it was everything it looked to be online and more. We had a deluxe room which meant that it had an attached bathroom and the bedrooms themselves were actually thatched huts in a jungle with wire mesh for windows. Bugs would fall from the ceiling at night. I did not mind it. Cool wind rushed through the humid air at night enough to require thin sheets. It was a nice respite from the dry atmosphere we were used to. One evening a monkey chirped so loudly and aggressively in the canopy over the path to my hut that I turned back around to the food hall and asked someone to walk with me. I found myself quite charmed by the accommodations. Others were not so charmed. A German couple we met on their honeymoon spent an evening in the deluxe rooms and ultimately left, eating the cost of the other 6 nights they booked.

Dragonfruit smoothie was my favorite! There were no plastic straws or boxes anywhere in the resort

The hotel amenities were nice. They offered morning and evening activities, rides into town, a bar with menus, morning yoga lessons, and surf lessons with both a classroom and in-water element. Being pregnant, I did 1 yoga lesson and 3 out of the 4 surf lessons I purchased. I had 4 fresh fruit smoothies a day.

Surfing Hermosa Beach near San Juan Del Sur

We had two big things working against us that week. First off, the waves were a powerful 5-10 feet due to off shore storms. I was used to surfing mushy San Onofre waves in the 2-4 feet range. To combat this issue, the resort chose a mellower protected cove with shorter waves a 1.5 hour drive away instead of the exposed point 15 minutes away. Secondly, there was a resource issue with the instructors. There was a surf competition in Surf City El Salvador drawing their experienced instructors away. There were not enough instructors for the number of guests, and instead of increasing the instructor to guest ratio, they made half of the resort guests wait on the beach until the first half were done. I found this uncomfortable and confining as a pregnant person that needed a steady stream of healthy snacks. I started to grow quite annoyed grappling with the loss of autonomy associated with being confined to the beach waiting for two hours for my chance to do some limited surfing.

I did have fun speaking Spanish. Knowing Spanish was not a prerequisite for this trip, and certainly most of the guests did not speak Spanish. However, I elected to because I had taken up learning Spanish recreationally for the past 6 months. Since I was the pregnant one, the other hotel guests allowed me to sit in the cab with the driver to the beach instead of piling in in the back of the truck. I spent the long hours chatting with the cab driver who felt shy about even speaking a world of English. I felt so proud of myself because our conversations were actually quite good, and got surprisingly deep surprisingly fast. It was the first time that I felt like I connected with another person in another language.

The surfing itself was so-so for me (although excellent for others). I got to the point where I could walk forward on my surf board in the white water. The surf instructors were worried about me. I once exclaimed, “did you see me?!”, only for my instructor to enthusiastically say, “yes!, but you can walk around on your board after the baby comes”. I also could not spend any time past the white water in the line up. I just couldn’t paddle enough to get out there. I found at 14 weeks I could not hyper extend my back, and I had trouble paddling as strong as I once did. My surfing was limited, but I did as much as I could. My husband and other friends had a fantastic time, though. Robin told me that he surfed some of the best waves of his life.

The Beach Bar where we waited before and after our surf lessons.

After a quick 6 day trip we find ourselves back in San Diego, basking in the luxury of hindsight. Like all good travel experiences, I have pictures to reinforce positive memories and nothing that reinforces the discomfort of traveling. I have a few beautiful memories of riding horseback into the beachy sunset and sitting poolside with fruit smoothies in a moist rainforest. I don’t remember the discomfort from the chairs that wouldn’t recline on the redeye flights or the terrible headache that the Nicaraguan bar food gave me. I am happy that I went because I got one last hurrah before the child I am bearing changes my life forever. I am hoping that I can go back some day to central America to catch those next “best waves of my life” without the burden of child bearing. But, I think this is the type of vacation that I can take my brood on in my later years.