Surf's up at Playa Maderas

Believe it or not, we haven't spent a lot of time on the beach this trip. Which is a shame, because we got pretty good at it in NZ.

To keep our new found love of surf, sea and sand alive we booked ourselves in for a five night stay at Playa Maderas, a beautiful surf beach not far from the border with Costa Rica. Armed with enough food to keep us going for a few days and plenty of reading material we settled in for the duration.

Looking pretty settled

Our accommodation was a little wooden cabin in the woods, about a five minute walk from the beach. With plenty of communal chill out space and 30 cordoba beers in the fridge (US$1) we soon settled in.

Testing out a different kind of hammock

Our home for five nights

It turns out we shared our home, or at least the trees surrounding it, with a troop of howler monkeys. We'd heard (but not seen) these little furry friends in the jungle surrounding Tikal.  This lot were even noisier. At 5am. (Click here to sample their dulcid tones for yourself). Not much else you can do but get out of bed and take some photos:

Guarding their territory

Are we checking him out, or the other way around?

The beach was stunning so we spent most of our time hanging out with belly boards (and a surf board one day for Matt) catching waves and generally being pretty rad(ical).

Heading off to find some foam

What? No waves?

Here's a good one

Time to head back...

Oh wait, this one's even bigger

A bit too big

Running scared?

You get the gist, much fun was had by both of us surfing the old fashioned way (on our bellies!)

We also spent a bit of time admiring the view, reminiscent of NZ's best surf beaches (think a mash-up of Raglan and Piha kiwi readers!)

Lion rock (with tail)

All too soon it was our last night. What better way to spend it than on the beach with a couple of cold ones for company...

Nicaragua's finest brews (and an even better view)

Nearly set

Big skies

Evening pink

Waiting for the day to end

Before bed, just time for more night time wildlife spotting - this time it was crabs. There were millions trooping about the beach, all armed with shells procured from goodness knows what shellfish. Some were a bit of a squeeze!

This one didn't like being on Matt's jandal much

Yuck

All in all a VERY successful few days, even if it did make us miss our second home a little bit. Time to move on - our final new country awaits...