A Surfboard Encounter

I went to the beach yesterday with Sara, a public health student from Berkeley who is also working on our dengue project for the summer. Sara is working with CIET, an organization that promotes community health by mobilizing community members to educate their neighbors. In this project, CIET is working with various neighborhoods in Managua to help promote the eradication of the dengue vector, the A. aegypti mosquito.

When I arrived at the bus station at 7:30am on Sunday, I asked for the bus to San Juan del Sur. I was then physically pushed onto a bus by a group of four men who work for the bus company. I told them that I was waiting for a friend named Sara and they told me she was already on the bus. However, the problem was: 1) this wasn't the direct bus and 2) Sara wasn't on the bus.

Once this was sorted out, I got off the bus and found Sara. Then we found the correct bus and had a pleasant ride to the town of Rivas. Once the bus was en route, a man came around to collect money from passengers. When he came to my seat I handed him a 100 Cordoba bill, and he then gave me back a ticket and also gave me back my 100 Cordobas. So in the end I got a free bus ride.

From Rivas its a twenty minute drive to the beach. Sara and I planned to take a bus, but while we were waiting for a bus to come, taxi after taxi came by to offer to take us there for 100 Cordoba. We waited a bit and then asked a shopkeeper how much a taxi should cost and he told us 25 Cordoba per person, so after a bit of negotiation, we found a taxista to offer to take the two of us for 50 Cordoba.

However, there were complications with this taxi ride:
1) Sara had brought her surfboard and the taxi did not have a roof rack. Turns out we were able to fit the board diagonally from the backseat to the passenger seat.
2) He had a big dent in the back right corner of the car. When we asked him about the dent he told us that just the day before a group of Gringos had crashed into his taxi from behind.
3) The road was full of some of the worst potholes I've ever seen. It was like navigating an obstacle course at times. We'd periodically slow down and swerve left, right, left, center, left, right, to try to avoid the worst holes.
4) En route, the taxista found a local woman with two kids who wanted a ride to San Juan. So the three of them squeezed in alongside the surfboard that was already taking up most of the back left seat and front right seats.

Nana
We got a ride from San Juan del Sur to the beach with Nana, the Japanese Surfer Girl. Nana works at the Japanese embasy in Managua, and surfs every weekend. First Japanese surfer I've ever met. The beach was at the end of a twisty dirt road, and it was beautiful. There was a simple shack selling food and drinks, but otherwise it was just sand and surf. The waves were big and the water full of surfers, mostly foreigners.

I spent a couple hours just swimming in the warm water, but then this guy Robert offered to let me try his surfboard. However, it was a short board which is really hard to balance on, so I was unable to stand up. Then in the afternoon, a girl who had rented a long board was leaving and she agreed to let me use her board for the rest of the day. I tried my best, and was able to stand up maybe 4 times, but it was exhausting. The hardest part was trying not to get knocked over by the waves that I did not want to ride. Eventually, a wave caught me unawares, and I banged my head on the surfboard. It didn't hurt much, but it left a nice little cut on my forehead. I like to think of it as a war wound. I may not have dominated this battle, but I'll be back on the lines, fighting the board and the sea. It's a fun sport, especially when the water is warm.