April 8 – April 12, 2018

We left Lago de Apoyo and headed towards the city of Granada, only 20 or so kilometres away.  We had planned to camp in the parking lot of the Red Cross in Granada, as we had read that they allowed overlanders to stay there for only 100 Cordoba a night (about $4) and it was close to the city centre and had some facilities.

We arrived at the parking lot, got set up, then started having second thoughts.  There seemed to be a mosquito hatch emerging from the smashed up vehicle we were parked next too, and it was hot and dusty.  We decided to take a walk to the waterfront, and then to the central plaza, and on the walk we decided we just really didn’t want to be there.  We had an ice cream cone close to the central plaza, then packed up and headed back to the Pacific coast.

A long gravel road brought us to our next spot, a hostel called Casa Los Cocos that allowed camping in their sandy parking lot.  Again, we had read one review that made us a little concerned about the place, but we arrived and were welcomed by friends of the manager and were quickly set up under a tree, in the sand, and close to the ocean.

The beach here was beautiful; fairly flat, long, wide, almost deserted, and the water was beautiful, if a little rough at times.  As Piper was now a swimming dog, we spent a lot of time down at the water’s edge throwing rocks into the surf for her, and walking along the shore when we were not hiding in our camper from the mid day heat.

This photo does not do justice to the size of waves we saw rolling in here at times.

Derek spent an hour or so one day out in the surf; it was a bit rough for Piper and me.  Some of the waves were breaking 5 or 6 feet about his head, at which time he would have to dive through the wave or risk losing his shorts.

They looked way bigger in person.

Of course, we need a sunset picture.

After a couple of days we had planned to leave, then decided we needed to stay one more day to walk to some tidal pools that we had been told about.

The common area of the hostel we are parked at.  Nice hammocks, nice rocking chairs, nice view.

The tidal pools.

There was a young family at the pools while we were there, and the man and Derek started talking.  He found a small, type of conch that he opened and ate half to show that it was edible, then offered the other half to Derek.  As we were leaving, he found another one and ran after us so that we could both have a taste….great!

Beach ceviche.  The muscle is on the right, the empty shell on the left.

Derek cleaned it.  I asked him what it taste like, he said “Sushi”.  We ate it….it did not taste like sushi.  I won’t be looking too hard for more “conch” in the future.