My day started at 4am when I woke up feeling the urge to check out the full moon outside. The image below is an unfiltered look at our view. I sat on the balcony for about an hour just pinching myself for being in the presence of such simplicity and natural beauty. I felt like I truly had the world to myself until I spotted a man walking slowly below our balcony across hotel grounds. He didn’t see me and I was careful not to draw any attention to myself. My first instinct was to be wary of him and to want to hide. I learned later that the hotel has hired a local man to walk the grounds of the hotel every single night to keep the guests safe. So much for my instincts. I can’t think of a place where I’ve felt any safer than I do here.

After breakfast, I enjoyed yoga on the beach. Katie is a lovely Londoner who travels the world teaching yoga for brief stints. She has a gift for teaching and I look forward to going back every day until we leave. It’s $6 per class and it’s probably one of the best yoga experiences I’ve ever had. It’s never about the workout. It’s about the ability to be present, grateful and comfortable in your mind, body and spirit. Katie is a master at facilitating this experience.

After yoga, Fran from Craft for Community taught us how to make nacatamales which are the Nicaraguan variation of traditional tamales. We enjoyed getting our hands dirty in the masa and learned that we each had our own unique way of folding and sealing our little nacatamale packages. We then sampled them together. They were a little salty for my taste, but Kevin enjoyed them very much!

For lunch, we stopped at El Oso which is a small surfside cafe next door to the hotel. If you don’t know it’s there you will walk right past it. Most places aren’t marked here in El Tránsito. Everyone just knows where they are. You will hear things like, “it’s that hut over there by the broken down red ladder next to the yellow dog house.” I enjoyed freshly made sourdough bread with hummus while my companions enjoyed paninis. They are big fans of the panini around here.

A nice quiet afternoon was spent reading and getting to know our travel companions in the pool. In the late afternoon, we decided to take advantage of a short guided hike up the mountain side. I learned that the word “hike” was a little generous. This was in fact a trek straight up a vertical mountainside with no ledges, steps or handrails. The ground was soft sand with very few places to actually find solid footing. Thankfully, it was short because I was NOT prepared to exert myself that much in the 90 degree afternoon heat. The views were worth it though! We were able to see all three beaches and areas of El Tránsito plus the volcanos in the distance. It was hot, hard, but lovely. Going down the hill was harder than the ascent, but we all made it without any falls or injuries. We are all anticipating sore legs and calves tomorrow.

Breakfast today (no photo) was a simple veggie omelet with very crunchy hard toast and pineapple jam. Dinner was a chicken quesadilla with cole slaw, a rice and pineapple smoothie and a couple of Victorias (local beer).

Tomorrow, we learn more about the fishing industry here in El Tránsito. I’m told that we will have the opportunity to filet some fish. We have the option to go out on a fishing excursion with a local fisherman in the afternoon. I’ll just wait and see how the morning goes! Until then…