San Juan del Sur (San Juan) is a small beachside town on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

Myself and an American girl called Hannah got a lift there from a nice American guy at our Spanish school. I had met a really nice Swiss couple in Leon (Robin and Stephanie), who I also bumped into in Granada and they kindly reserved a room for me at Casa el Oro, which was a popular hostel not far from the beach as they got there a day before me. When I entered the hostel I was greeted by the world's most miserable hostel receptionist (turns out I wasn't the only one, she had the nickname 'Angrybird' around the hostel).

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the hostel and having a few drinks at the bar, making plans for the music festival the next day.

Saturday morning was very chilled. San Juan had a very relaxed vibe to it. The beach at the town was not so great - dark compacted sand and cold water, so people tended to chill at the hostel which had a nice communal area. I went to a launderette which turned out to be someone's house. As I walked in I realised thatbI was walking into someone's living room. I went to the place and saw a lady sat on a rocking chair with a child in her hands. I started asking her (in Spanish) where I should put my clothes and as I did so, I realisd she was breast feeding. It looked like I was staring directlyat her boob. I quickly looked away and repeated my question to the nearest wall. Finally her husband showed me through to the laundry room. Later, at the hostel, Anton, being a good guitar player played some tunes as a bunch of us lazed around in hammocks and sofas. I felt very relaxed and content and could easily have sat there forever. Eventually I got up to join Robin, Stephanie, (an awesome Swiss couple I would later travel with), Elena (a German girl) and Gerrit (a German lad we'd met) for lunch. We ate at a great place that had delicious stone-baked pizzas.

That evening we headed to Hermosa beach to get to Pitaya festival. The things that really stuck out for me were the music and how well organised the festival was. We paid our $5 entry and were able to buy tokens to exchange for drinks, with each token costing $1.25 and getting you a beer, (a strong) rum and coke, fizzy drink or water. I was really surprised at how cheap it was, given my past experience of events in the UK rinsing you for all your cash for just one beer.

Once in the main area, we listened to live local bands, playing some fantastic music (some of their own stuff but also some Bob Marley and really cool reggae). There were a bunch of people in the middle of the crowd with fire sticks, doing all kinds of acrobatics and tricks. The entertainment was amazing - in typical central american fashion, one of the performers let a tourist have a turn with the fire stick and the stick promptly ended up flying into the crowd. I love the lack of health and safety regulation here...... :-)

Myself, Robin, Stephanie and Anton, Caitlin (a Dutch girl we'd met) and Steven (a Dutch guy we'd met) had a fantastic night, dancing (well, trying anyway) to the reggae music on the beach and drinking. I realised that I needed to get to more festivals.

We all spent the next day recovering (I managed to wake up early though to watch the Swans smash Bradford in the league cup final, over a dodgy internet stream in a bar (thanks Dorado's!)). The rest of the day was spent chilling and recovering in the hostel. We planned to head to Ometepe the next day and had accumulated an 8-strong group to travel with.