Goodbye Popoyo

The Popoyo Crew:  JJ, Renato, Eddie, Freddie, Dave C., Pletch, Mike D. Chris, Dave R. (kneeling)

It was a bitter sweet feeling departing Popoyo.  Like leaving a family reunion, although happy to be going home, it was sad to leave our beloved friends and surf paradise.  This is our parting shot, as we loaded up the vehicles for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Managua.  We are still all smiles, as we hit the Popoyo surf break at sun up for our 8th day of surfing.  We all scored some fun finale waves, and have pegged the Drazich meter,  strained our paddling arms, rubbed our skin raw, and fatigued our physical beings to the bone.  Still, all smiles......................Meanwhile, on the day before departure:

Friday in Popoyo was our last full day of surfing.  It has been a great week, but now reality looms in our future, of our eventual return to Norte America.  As usual, we are awakened pre-sunrise, and load up the Landcruiser and the Hilux truck to bounce our way to Chacocente. Chaco's is a turtle preserve, and a biological station.  First, we took the dusty, "dry season" dirt road through the sleepy ville of Asterillo, past huts of corrugated tin,  rough cut planks, or even plastic sheeting.  All of these shanties are outfitted with dilapidated roofs, usually weighted down with bricks to hold the roof in place.  Many of the homes along the way have kilns in their yard for creating the adobe bricks used in some of the "finer" structures.  Chris told us that the bricks are manufactured of mud and horse manure, creating an adobe type brick.  Curiously, the houses with the kilns are all wooden houses.

On the way to Chaco's, all the trees are thirsty.  Passing through town we chunk along on roads with pedestrians, buses, bicycles, trucks, pigs, cattle, oxen carts, and horse traffic.  After this town, we pull onto a dirt road which is yet a little more than a path through a nearly parched forest, the remaining leaves dust covered from the road haze.  This road snakes through the forest, across a creek, and up and down a small mountain to the other side, where we park along the road. 

To get to the beach, we duck under a barbed wire fence to join a well worn cattle trail to the beach.  As we turn North, the water line is littered with hatched turtle egg shells, resembling a giant game of beer pong gone awry.  Or, small white balloons. 

We deposit our packs under a huge thorn tree, needle length thorns which can pierce the foot handily.  At this surf session, we are accompanied by the "MalPaisians", a great bunch of gringos who live in Mal Pais, CR. Richard, the founder of Global Visions Int'l, Trent, from CA who now is the proprieter of a hotel in Mal Pais, Stephan an excursion guide for Global Visions Int'l, and Aaron, call sign Mr. Myogi, computer dude with an Oriental heritage. 

We have some true fun on these head high waves, which were a top to bottom shackable verty wave.  Lots of photos and fun on this sesh, and trip.  Great guys to travel with.