Beach Dogs in Salinas Grandes

There is no shortage of skinny stray dogs in Nicaragua.  When we arrived at the beach in Salinas Grandes to check on our build the first thing to take our hearts were these gorgeous little puppies!  I  hadn't even seen the beach or our lot yet, you would think I'd be running to look, but no, I got all caught up in puppies!  Who can resist a puppy in paradise especially with a three year old girl's sheer delight at her discovery of them?   

There were two pups with a gentle mama and another female pup about a year old from her litter last fall.  Papa dog was floating around, although, he was not nearly as social as the ladies. Ha-ha!  Sounds familiar.

Finley is absolutely smitten with the puppy.

Fin petting / trying to pick up a pup.

The next day when we returned to the site we were with our friends Sasha and Shamus.  They brought along a big bag of dog food for those puppies and their family.  The dogs wasted no time plowing into the kibble.  I swear when we came back again the following day we could see the puppies had filled out, we could see a few less ribs.  Of course the workmen building the three houses are caring somewhat for the dogs. They do get the odd scrap and we fed  beach dogs some pieces of fish from a delicious dinner put on by our builder. Check the next post for that spread!

We can't wait to get down to Nicaragua and have some beach dogs to love.  It's been a long year here in our house since we lost our dog Cecil last January.  A home is just not complete without a dog to love!

Playa Hermosa Nicaragua

This is Playa Hermosa, one of the most beautiful beaches we visited on this trip.  It has a gentle beach break good for beginners, occasional surfers and as my hubs Big Daddy P calls it, fat guy long board waves. We headed here so the guys could surf some small waves and get ready for the bigger break out front our house...   The weather was cool...I say that and it was about 77 degrees and overcast, which was good for us coming out of NC, we didn't get baked day one out on the beach.  

There are hammocks and chairs amongst all the trees. 

There is a small surf hotel here and a restaurant serving local fare; fish, rice and salad, cold beer  and cocktails.  Coconuts were chopped open for us to drink from with a straw which Fin thought was pretty neat. It looks quiet in the photos but there were more than a handful of people around lounging in hammocks slung from trees.

That is Costa Rica in the back ground.

Playa Hermosa is located about 8 miles outside of San Juan Del Sur down a private road.  There is a gate house and a cover charge of approximately three dollars a person to use the road.   We were told by local gringos the cover charge is to pay for the security of being on a policed road with secure parking upon arrival at the beach.  It was rumoured that cars would get robbed on route to this beach before the gate, cover charge and security were implemented. That information only wigged me out half the drive and then all was forgotten when I saw the beach!  Really dudes, the truck was full of our bags and boards and was completely safe in the lot.  You can't do that in other parts of Central America any more. 

The road itself was pretty good largely due to the the production of Survivor Nicaragua being filmed on this very beach in 2010. Obviously they build up the road to get their crew and equipment in.  Free passable roads leading to awesome surf breaks are one of the perks of TV in the after math of big budget production.   Wait - you didn't really think the survivor contestants were on a beach alone did you? 

Little hermit crabs were all over the beach!

While the guys waited for the swell to fill in, Fin and I explored the beach finding hermit crabs. Sasha showed us how you can hold the shell and softly blow on the crabs under side to get the crab to pop out of the shell.  Pretty cool!

Sasha, Shamus and Steve

Fin writes her name for the FIRST time EVER!

Fin waxing the board with Big Daddy P

Steve was happy for a small swell to fill in.

Steve on left and Shamus on right

Rock snow man found on the beach & brought home with us to NC.

Settling into our first days in Nicaragua experiencing this beach made me feel like I could fully exhale, which is a really neat feeling when you can be so far from the familiar and feel like you are finally home.