Paradise found ...

Today my host brother Carlos took me to Las Penitas beach. It´s about 20 miles away, but it took us more than an hour to get there, climbing up roads that are worse than Duck Lake extension gets at is absolute most horrid. We did this all in a small Toyota, like a Prelude. He brought two of his friends along, and they all let me ride in the front. We did about 15 MPH for the entire trip, and I had the background music of two drunk Nicaraguans singing along to Mexican Ranchera tunes at full blast and drinking Flor de Cana and Tona beer, crawling past sprawling expanses of ranches and looming in the distance several volcanoes. I have the beginnings of a tan, and since Carlos is EXTREMELY difficult to understand, I think I´m improving my espanol un pico.
Las Penitas is easily one of the most beautiful beaches I´ve ever seen.
There aren´t many people on Las Penitas, just some red gringos and several drunk locals. It has grey and black sand beaches from the lava, and decent size waves. It was the first time in seven years that I´ve gone into the Pacific.
I´m eating ... you guessed it, rice and beans. Lots of fresh fruit and fruit juice though, if I want it.
I spent an hour this morning playing dolls with Isabella, the five year old granddaughter that lives at the house I´m staying at. She is precious, and a very good and patient Spanish teacher.
I was wondering how long it would take me to earn a nickname here. In Cuba, I was La Espanola. Here, at first, I was Miami Ink. But that quickly changed to La Coyota. Sorry, I can´t find the parenthesis or quotes on this foreign machine. I looked up La Coyota in my guidebook upon my return out of curiosity, and it said Illegal Immigrant or Profit-stealing middle man. I suppose it could go either way. Meanwhile, in jest, I nicknamed one of them El Piaso, or the clown for his attention craving jokes. I also got laughs when I pulled out my favorite line, Tengo que Mear Como el Diablo.
Right now, I¨m sitting in an internet cafe full of foreigners. Mostly Dutch I think, except one dude from Seattle sitting next to me who has been in NIcaragua for three months. He´s tan as hell and playing chess on facebook. THis place isn´t very touristy, but it has huge potential. Anyone who wants to make a good buck should take advantage of it quickly and open a beach house or an internet cafe.
I really like it here. It´s not easy to travel here, no luxury or hot water and occasionally no toilet, but it´s muy tranquilo. Muy, muy tranquilo. In other words, ditch the gringo attitude lest you be considered a spaz.
Oh, I was invited to a Pelea de Gallos, or cock fight today, I declined because there is one next weekend and I really wanted to see the beach today.
Hasta luego.