Day 5 – San Juan Del Sur – Playa Maderas

The power went out for a while in the middle of the night – no fan and no a/c = HOT and difficult to sleep. As soon as the sun rose the birds started making lots of noise so I got up and took a nice hot shower and took a walk around town. Wanting some coffee, I went to El Gato Negro – an American owned bookstore and café (they roast their own coffee) where I had some really good coffee and talked with some other travelers who told me about the beaches north of town. I then walked back to the hotel to wake up the wife. Breakfast was included at the hotel but it only consisted of coffee, juice, and toast.

I had heard about the Stones and Waves wildlife sanctuary and veterinary clinic that is located at the Piedras y Olas Hotel (I am a registered veterinary technician) so we took a walk up the hill and saw their rescue facility. They have about a dozen monkeys living in a partial enclosure. Since it is not entirely enclosed they needed to wear harnesses which were attached to chains on ropes so they couldn’t escape. We met with the director who explained that they are trying to raise funds to build a complete enclosure. They also occasionaly have veteriarians come and provide free spay and neutering for dogs and cats in the community.

We wanted to check out the beaches north of town so we grabbed some beers and bottles of water at the Pali supermarket and headed down the rough road towards Playa Marsella. After driving for a while I began to think we had missed the turn off to road that goes to the beaches. I turned the car around and saw some people on the side of the road who pointed us in the right direction. We got to Playa Marsella and it was gorgeous but completely deserted. There was a restaurant right on the beach but it was closed. We decided to head a bit further to Playa Maderas which was also gorgeous and with about a dozen other people on the beach along with a restaurant and surf board rental place.



We swam and laid out on the beach, met a nice kid selling hand made jewelry – nothing he had was my wife’s style but since it was really nice we bought a bracelet for $5. At about 2pm we started to see some black clouds threatening rain so we packed up and drove back to town. When we arrived at the hotel the maids were still making up our room so we walked across the street and checked our e-mail at the internet café ($1/hour with a fast connection). Kat wasn’t feeling well (too much sun) and decided to lay down for a while. I needed a snack so I walked around town and got some cheese croissants ($.20 each) at a bakery, took a walk on the beach, and had a drink at Iguana’s and watched the sky turn into purple fire as the sun set.



By this time Kat was awake and feeling better (and hungry) so we went looking for a place to eat dinner. Someone had highly recommended El Colibri restaurant but it was closed so we settled on Pizza San Juan. We had the Diablo pizza ($8) which was pretty damn good. Feeling tired was went back to the hotel, watched some TV and were asleep by 9pm