42 Days in Central America

[cmor]

I booked tickets into San Salvador Sept 15th, and out of Managua, Nicaragua on Oct 28th. I plan on surfing everyday. I do not know how to surf. Yet. Advice?

[BS720]

Bring lots of money, and start on your Spanish. I cannot imagine being down here and not having a clue how to surf. I would book a week, or two if you can afford it, at a surf camp. Let them pick you up, and let them drop you off. I would meet up with any mags down here, but I'm leaving the day before you arrive. Good luck.

[iscariot]

Looking forward to a sick TR.

[cmor]

Bring lots of money, and start on your Spanish. I cannot imagine being down here and not having a clue how to surf. I would book a week, or two if you can afford it, at a surf camp. Let them pick you up, and let them drop you off. I would meet up with any mags down here, but I'm leaving the day before you arrive. Good luck.

^ This is some of the worst advice ever posted online. Mostly the bring lots of money part. Headed back a week early tomorrow due to some work obligations, and a bit of poor conditions near the end of the trip, but other than that not a bad place to learn.

[Piggity]

Why was it the worst ever? I'm just curious, not jumping on ya

Traveling to places like Mex and Nica, I can think of plenty reasons to have money.

in order
#1 Beer money
#2 Bribe $$$ (Interchangeable with #1 based on severity of problem)
#3 very few ATM's outside the main cities, Cash means no problemo

Obviously keeping a $20 in your front pocket and $80 in your shoe and the rest in your secret stash spot where you are staying

[BS720]

Worst advice online, or your interpretation of it? I never said Carry the money on you at all times, jackass. Yet, obviously, if you are staying someplace out of the country for 42 days, you're going to need some serious funds. As for it not being a place to learn, your opinion is completely worthless, given your ignorance of the dangers of surfing, because you WENT TO LEARN HOW TO SURF.

[cmor]

Perhaps that was a little harsh. BS720's original post was not very positive, I didn't want other people to get discouraged if they were interested in something similar.

There is no reason you cannot live on $20 / day down there. For $40 / day you can live really nice. Anything above that and it starts getting swank. If you only have a week, might as well live large I guess. To live decently well for a month I would budget around $1000. More or less depending on what you're looking for. If you want to surf camp it, I think a week starts at $1000 and the highest end ones are above $2k. Two decent boards were $150 and $250. We bought beginner boards, 7' 4", they seemed nice enough. The cheaper one was a little janky.

Most people were nice even to a beginner down there. I got in over my head a couple times, but nothing ridiculous. The larger sets were consistently double overhead for most of the time. The biggest issue is really the number of people in the water, as a beginner you can't really hang out in the prime spot during bigger sets, because you would just be getting in the way. However there is always something further down the line. I don't pretend to know much about surfing, but I'm hopefully looking forward to another trip next year, maybe SE Asia. If anyone is interested in specifics, shoot me a pm.

[BS720]

You've got bigger balls than I do, man. The first thing in my mind was the fact that I was probably two hours from the nearest hospital, so anything life threatening was up to me and my buddies to fix. I know a guy at one of my local shops that took a fin up the ass and almost bled to death. This guy is a really good surfer, too. Last day in the country, I was driving back north to fly out of Managua. There was a bus stopped, people crowded around the front of it, and I got a glimpse of blood. I stopped to see if I could help, the guy's head was split open and blood was gushing out. I turned and walked away. The nearest hospital was an hour away, and didn't have the ability to handle that level of neuro trauma. I doubt a trauma OR would have been capable of doing shit had it been right next to the accident. Keep your head up, man. This kind of remoteness can really fuck you. I didn't mean to sound negative. I had a really great trip. My buddy went for two months and lost almost everything.

[Tunco]

Tom Curren at Punta Roca right now.

[Hugh Conway]

consistently DOH and a shitty 7'4" is an interesting definition of beginner friendly.

[Piggity]

#4 boat rides in the Tola region, local fisherman charging $200+ per boat ride to Colorados.


Fortunately, we had the local grom hookup and they rode in back. The farmer carrying his rifle, would let us drive on his property for under $5, $195+ discount

[BS720]

Yeah, the landowner I stayed with had a membership to the golf club at Colorado's. Pretty swanky pool there, if you ask me. the last boat trip we took, Manzanillo looked pretty crappy. He insisted on Colorado's. Surfed there for maybe 30 minutes. I whistled for the boat and told him to take us back to Manzanillo. He was arguing with me, saying Manzanillo was flat. I told him I could surf shitty beachbreak closeout in front of my apartment. Sure enough, after twenty minutes at Manzanillo, a monster set came through. The boat owner almost drowned during a big six wave sneaker set.

Hugh, don't forget, that's DOH from a beginner.

[Tunco]

Hey, its over my head.



Over the head of my kids surf instructor, but the fuckers dropped in on me.

[Piggity]

Good idea Tief, let's get this thread back onto some stoke.

Cmor, post up a TR and some stoke pics. I'm sure you had a blast, Photos por favor, amigo!

[BS720]

Cmor, sorry, bro, I was just trying to give you a heads up as to the dangers down there. Glad you had a great trip! Post up the stoke, and if it's ok with you, I'll put my pics up here too!

[BS720]

Well, yeah, and it may change with the season you go, and how much comfort you want. In peak surf season, it's hard for a gringo from SF to get by without a/c at night. Try finding a room in SJ, or anywhere in Nicaragua, with a/c, for $20/night. Fans make it doable, but I just reserved a room in Managua for next week for $70/night. That's cheap by US standards, expensive by Nica standards, but worth every penny for safety and peace of mind. We aren't staying at a luxurious place. My friends were down there two months, and they budgeted $30/day. Their passports were taken, they were robbed four times, and they did one boat trip in two months. I spent probably between $60-80 a day($40/day for my room), plus $22/day for car rental. I rented an entire boat twice, and we partied a WHOLE BUNCH. If I were going back to surf for one week, you're going to get waves from a surf camp, you wot get robbed, and you won't get hassled by cops. It's just the safe option.

Can't wait for that first cold Victoria Classico with the honey.

[Tunco]

Wow, sucks for your friends. During my 2 year stint in ES and MX I got mugged once. But was walking alone at 2am. Fuck, in ES I would let my 6 year old go off on his own to play and the whole town would keep an eye on him.

[BS720]

Some people are smarter than others in third world countries. My friends were walking in the middle of the streets, unmeaningly speaking condescendingly about the locals, and just too free love about the whole thing. I think if you walk into a restaurant and speak shit in English about the locals, you're really asking for it.

[iski123]

I was going to start my own thread but this is just too perfect.
Fly into San Salvador Jan 1st and out of Managua Feb 12th. I've got maybe 5 days surfing experience and the girl friend has 0. Not set on surfing every day especially considering how flat it may be then... If surfing is the goal are we better off in El Salvador or Nicaragua at that time of year?

Pretty sure surf camp is out of the budget range for this one, maybe just pick up some lessons if needed.

Arrive at SAL 13:00 thinking we should have enough time to get to La Libertad and checked in well before dark.... found this from Central America on a Shoestring on how to get from SAL to La Libertad the cheap way. "Take bus 133 to the puente a Comalapa (Comalapa overpass) a few minutes away. A path leads up onto the intersecting road; from there it's a 100m to the town of Comalapa, where bus 187 or 495 goes every 20 minutes to La Libertad (US$.35)"

One decision that needs to be made is to buy or not to buy the boards, will there be enough surf days to justify the purchase? what other factors should be considered when buying a board down there?

Thinking of just keeping it simple in Nicaragua and sticking near San Juan Del Sur

Also looking for basic advice like sun protection, I picked up a rash guard and am thinking a dorky surf hat with a nice back flap would be sweet.... or maybe just an independant hood if that's available. What can be purchased down there for a reasonable cost and what should I buy up here and take with me?

[P_McPoser]

You've got bigger balls than I do, man. The first thing in my mind was the fact that I was probably two hours from the nearest hospital, so anything life threatening was up to me and my buddies to fix. I know a guy at one of my local shops that took a fin up the ass and almost bled to death. This guy is a really good surfer, too. Last day in the country, I was driving back north to fly out of Managua. There was a bus stopped, people crowded around the front of it, and I got a glimpse of blood. I stopped to see if I could help, the guy's head was split open and blood was gushing out. I turned and walked away. The nearest hospital was an hour away, and didn't have the ability to handle that level of neuro trauma. I doubt a trauma OR would have been capable of doing shit had it been right next to the accident. Keep your head up, man. This kind of remoteness can really fuck you. I didn't mean to sound negative. I had a really great trip. My buddy went for two months and lost almost everything.

Your definition of isolated is cute.