I left Granada last Monday (I think) and caught the good old chicken bus to San Juan Del Sur which is on the pacific coast. Those chicken buses are something else...always highly entertaining. All the way to Rivas, we had to listen to various love songs eg Piano Man, Love Hurts, Total Eclipse of the Heart...in Spanish of course. I was only in the bus about half an hour then told to get off...not too sure where the hell I was but luckily there were some other travellers on the bus and we figured we were meant to change buses here. Anyway from Rivas I caught a cab with an American guy to San Juan.

In San Juan I stayed in a backpackers which was full of young American and Canadian surfers...not really my scene...but it was okay. In the afternoon I went for a swim on the main beach in town (not that nice really) but bumped into 2 of the guys I met in Granada. That night I went on a tour to see what they call the Big Arrival of Olive Ridley Turtles, where thousands of them come up to the beach to lay their eggs. After a long bumpy ride we eventually arrived at the Sanctuary and it was a beautiful night with a full moon. The turtles had started to lay their eggs on about the Thursday or Friday before, and they usually take about a week. The night I went there were literally 100´s and 100´s of them. When we 1st got to the beach all you could hear was this weird thumping in the sand...it was the turtles patting the sand down where they had laid their eggs. It was the most amazing experience to see these beautiful creatures make their way out of the water, up the beach, dig their holes, lay their eggs and bury them again before making their way back to the water. There were so many you had to constantly watch your feet to see who was making their way towards you. Some of the guides where a little inappropriate I thought when they were shining touch (albeit red light which is not meant to harm them) in their eyes and digging the sand up behind them so we could see the eggs being laid. Despite this, it was still an incredible experience.

The next 2 days in San Juan Del Sur, I would catch the 4x4 each morning to the surf beach....a really rough ride as the roads are awful...and spend the morning on the beach, swimming and soaking up the sun....it was great. The 2nd day I did this, 4 of us where left behind and missed the bus going back at 1pm (not through our own fault...the guy left us behind and would not come back). Luckily we got a short ride on the back of some other guys truck to a nearby resort. Well, in the end we did not mind being left behind as we found a nice restaurant, bar and swimming pool! So we spent the afternoon there drinking, eating and swimming and caught the bus back at 5pm.