To my friend who’s flying in to visit me this week from the States: I can’t recall where all you’ve traveled outside of North America (Canada, USA, Mexico), but I’m going to guess that Nicaragua will be the poorest and thus the most exotic destination for you yet. Nicaragua makes the Baja California Sur Mexican town of Loreto, where you last visited us, look nearly as upscale as parts of the United States in comparison. Despite the poverty, you will surprisingly not see beggars or homeless people. But you will see hard working hawkers of sunglasses, ceramics, cashews and woven …

One of my best friends from college is coming to visit us next week from the Northwestern USA. This is the Packing List I made for her. Can you think of anything important I should add? • Swimsuits (I suggest 2 so that you don’t have to put one on that’s wet – you’ll be wearing them that often) sun hats, sunscreen • Sarong or swimsuit cover (and/or a pair of nylon shorts and top which you can wear straight into the ocean over your swimsuit) • Tenny shoes, fanny pack with water bottle (daypack is too sweaty for our …

John jumped up from his chair (affectionately named Chair John) and raced out to our terrace. I followed. There was black-as-night smoke billowing up into the sky in front of us. And no fire engine sirens to be heard. “It’s down on the beach, ” John says. “I bet it’s the boat.” So I check Facebook to see if anyone’s posted anything. Nothing yet. Then I Facebook Messenger my friend Kim Priebe who lives a stone’s throw from the washed-up-and-abandoned boat on the beach. “It’s the boat, ” she confirms. “We’re not home but we’re at El Timon and watching …

I first heard of the to-me-strangely-named Ding Repair Cafe when my friend Debbie Polelli recently posted that it was her new go-to favorite in town. And that our yoga teacher, Delaney Wray, worked there two days a week. The next day while in town I noticed a colorful, graffiti-style mural on the wall of a building across from Dolce Vita with the words Ding Repair on it and I guessed that it must be the new Cafe’s location. Except it looked more like a surf shop, maybe even a closed one at that, than a hip new cafe like Debbie’s …

My view this morning when I first woke up. It didn’t last long but it was there.

We’ve lived in SJDS three years now and I just had the privilege of meeting my personally, first-ever, really ugly Gringo here. And his ugly gringo behavior wasn’t even directed towards locals but rather was directed towards me and my husband when we tried to sit down at an empty table at the back side of Iguanas to watch the upcoming Hipica (horse parade) on the street down below He said he was saving the table for friends – even though he had empty seats at his own table. I typically don’t post negative things for my nuggets – unless …

Today when I walked into town at 9:30 the tide was rising and the panga ferry wasn’t on the river ferrying people across. The water came up to my knees but I had pulled my tights up and made it across without getting my clothes wet. No such luck when I headed back home around 12:30 after my yoga class and the panga ferry still was gone. This time the tide was cresting and the river/sea water came up to my crotch. I was glad I wasn’t heading anywhere but home. So…where was the panga today? Does anyone know?

A twenty-minute walk from my house along the Chocolata Road is one of my new favorite places. Well, not exactly new in that I have always loved Nacascolo Bay, the bay immediately to the north of San Juan del Sur’s bay. But before, it was wild and undeveloped and I loved it for being wild and undeveloped, the green jungle extending all the way to the sea. Whenever we gazed down upon it during our daily hikes to the Cristo statue or John and I hiked along it’s relatively calm, protected shore, we seldom saw another soul. Or if we …

After the stormswe clean up. We dry the wet towels usedto sop up the floor. We look at the black marks on our white ceiling and wonderWill bleach clean that up?Or do I have to find the leak, fix it, replace the drywall and paint?Do I wait until rainy season ends before I even bother? After the storms we rush outside,soak up the sun,set the hammocks back up,resume water aerobics. The garbage gets cleared off the beach.The smaller driftwood is gathered into piles and burned. The larger driftwood, the size of trees, rests on the beach.While the washed up boats …