Playa Marsella
Jason took me away this past weekend.
We had been talking around the idea of going somewhere, anywhere, just to get away. The first few weeks of school have been kind of tough for me, and I was having a hard time unwinding and relaxing, so last Thursday I came home to him sitting in a chair, telling me that we’re going to San Juan del Sur on Saturday and spending the night. It was exactly what I needed to hear, and we just decided to make it happen; however, I didn’t really know exactly what I was in store for.
We left on Saturday morning at about 7:30 with a cloudy, drizzly day in front of us. Before leaving Managua, we stopped by Pan Ticomo, a bakery, to pick up breakfast and a few rolls. Jason then proceeded to send me out of the bakery and into the car for a few minutes, telling me not to ask questions. Of course when he came back with a bag in his hands, I started asking questions, but he wouldn’t say a word. And what kind of real surprise involves a few apple fritters or some donuts?
We drove out of Managua and went south, passing through Carazo (you’ll have to forgive any spelling errors – although, I imagine you wouldn’t know anyway). This area is much higher than Managua, making it much cooler. The rain and the mist created massive amounts of fog that just rested in the valleys that we passed so that we couldn’t see much of anything that wasn’t 20 feet away. It was beautiful. We drove through all sorts of small towns and saw landscape unlike any I’ve seen in Nicaragua. It was about 200 km away, so it’s the farthest I’ve been from Managua while living here.
San Juan is a bay/cove area. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but it’s a fairly touristy area that a lot of people come to. The actual San Juan beach is cool to look at; it has dozens of boats and is surrounded by tall hills and rocks. The picture describes it better than I can. However, Jason had been here before and wanted to take me to some of the other beaches that were much more isolated. (Although you can swim in San Juan, it’s fairly dirty because of the boats.) We drove back through the town and took a left onto a dirt road that Mr. The Beast (our 1992 red, two door, am stereo, stickshift, nonpower steering Landcruiser) took in 2nd gear almost the entire way. Thank goodness for Mr. The Beast! He was great on this trip. Anyway, we drove along for quite a ways, stopping to take pictures along the way. We were looking for a beach called Playa Marsella. As we’ve been driving along, I’ve been ooohing and aaahing various sights. Then I see this one AMAZING resort-looking place, and the conversation goes like this:
Jess: Babe! Look at that place over there! Oh my gosh!
Jason: (looks for a moment) Yeah. Why don’t we stay there?
Jess: Yeah, right, ha ha ha.
Jason: No, really. That’s where we’re staying.
Jess: (confused look, believing my husband to be a liar) What?
Jason: And it’s only going to cost us a bag of Pan Ticomo.
Jason’s friend Bob, the one with the private island, has a very good friend building a conference center/hotel at Playa Marsella and arranged for us to go there and stay in their nicest room for free. And the place doesn’t even open up for another month and a half. Our room was on a corner with these huge, arched windows looking out onto the mountains and down to the beach. It was a beautiful place, and the man building it was incredibly nice, invited us back anytime we wanted to stay, and fed us fried red snapper for dinner and a huge breakfast on Sunday morning. I was really overwhelmed, and it was exactly what was needed.
Playa Marsella was beautiful. For almost the entire time we were there, no one else was around. It’s a little half circle with a huge rock island out quite a ways, surrounded by jutting rocks and greenery. We went exploring, swimming, and just enjoyed our time there. Roberto (the man who let us stay there) also gave us use of what I could only describe as a four-wheel golf cart, which Jason drive down to the beach. We ate lunch on the beach – Jason had surreptitiously packed peanut butter and tuna fish to go with our rolls – and just enjoyed ourselves on this isolated beach.
After Playa Marsella we ended up exploring more of the road we were on, going where I think very few gringos have ever been and enjoying the landscape immensely. We also went to another beach, Playa Mantegual, which was possibly even more beautiful than Marsella because when you look back at the beach from the water, all you see is sand, trees, and green.
Overall, it was a wonderful and well-needed trip. Jason is going to be gone for over a week in the Rio Coco – he leaves on Friday – so it was great to have that time to ourselves before he left.
We had been talking around the idea of going somewhere, anywhere, just to get away. The first few weeks of school have been kind of tough for me, and I was having a hard time unwinding and relaxing, so last Thursday I came home to him sitting in a chair, telling me that we’re going to San Juan del Sur on Saturday and spending the night. It was exactly what I needed to hear, and we just decided to make it happen; however, I didn’t really know exactly what I was in store for.
We left on Saturday morning at about 7:30 with a cloudy, drizzly day in front of us. Before leaving Managua, we stopped by Pan Ticomo, a bakery, to pick up breakfast and a few rolls. Jason then proceeded to send me out of the bakery and into the car for a few minutes, telling me not to ask questions. Of course when he came back with a bag in his hands, I started asking questions, but he wouldn’t say a word. And what kind of real surprise involves a few apple fritters or some donuts?
We drove out of Managua and went south, passing through Carazo (you’ll have to forgive any spelling errors – although, I imagine you wouldn’t know anyway). This area is much higher than Managua, making it much cooler. The rain and the mist created massive amounts of fog that just rested in the valleys that we passed so that we couldn’t see much of anything that wasn’t 20 feet away. It was beautiful. We drove through all sorts of small towns and saw landscape unlike any I’ve seen in Nicaragua. It was about 200 km away, so it’s the farthest I’ve been from Managua while living here.
San Juan is a bay/cove area. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but it’s a fairly touristy area that a lot of people come to. The actual San Juan beach is cool to look at; it has dozens of boats and is surrounded by tall hills and rocks. The picture describes it better than I can. However, Jason had been here before and wanted to take me to some of the other beaches that were much more isolated. (Although you can swim in San Juan, it’s fairly dirty because of the boats.) We drove back through the town and took a left onto a dirt road that Mr. The Beast (our 1992 red, two door, am stereo, stickshift, nonpower steering Landcruiser) took in 2nd gear almost the entire way. Thank goodness for Mr. The Beast! He was great on this trip. Anyway, we drove along for quite a ways, stopping to take pictures along the way. We were looking for a beach called Playa Marsella. As we’ve been driving along, I’ve been ooohing and aaahing various sights. Then I see this one AMAZING resort-looking place, and the conversation goes like this:
Jess: Babe! Look at that place over there! Oh my gosh!
Jason: (looks for a moment) Yeah. Why don’t we stay there?
Jess: Yeah, right, ha ha ha.
Jason: No, really. That’s where we’re staying.
Jess: (confused look, believing my husband to be a liar) What?
Jason: And it’s only going to cost us a bag of Pan Ticomo.
Jason’s friend Bob, the one with the private island, has a very good friend building a conference center/hotel at Playa Marsella and arranged for us to go there and stay in their nicest room for free. And the place doesn’t even open up for another month and a half. Our room was on a corner with these huge, arched windows looking out onto the mountains and down to the beach. It was a beautiful place, and the man building it was incredibly nice, invited us back anytime we wanted to stay, and fed us fried red snapper for dinner and a huge breakfast on Sunday morning. I was really overwhelmed, and it was exactly what was needed.
Playa Marsella was beautiful. For almost the entire time we were there, no one else was around. It’s a little half circle with a huge rock island out quite a ways, surrounded by jutting rocks and greenery. We went exploring, swimming, and just enjoyed our time there. Roberto (the man who let us stay there) also gave us use of what I could only describe as a four-wheel golf cart, which Jason drive down to the beach. We ate lunch on the beach – Jason had surreptitiously packed peanut butter and tuna fish to go with our rolls – and just enjoyed ourselves on this isolated beach.
After Playa Marsella we ended up exploring more of the road we were on, going where I think very few gringos have ever been and enjoying the landscape immensely. We also went to another beach, Playa Mantegual, which was possibly even more beautiful than Marsella because when you look back at the beach from the water, all you see is sand, trees, and green.
Overall, it was a wonderful and well-needed trip. Jason is going to be gone for over a week in the Rio Coco – he leaves on Friday – so it was great to have that time to ourselves before he left.
posted by Jess Edgerton at
8:14 am
2 Comments:
ok, where are the pictures, jess old girl! :)
Big deal....I had lunch at Parkers on Thursday......so much for my exciting life. Love you guys
Dad
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