Playa Gigante, Nicaragua

Right now I am living in Playa Gigante, It is a very villagey kind of beach town, in Nicaragua. Their are about 50 families that live in Gigante, but in reality it is only 4 big extended families, in 50 different houses.

We are running a surf shop in a building owned by Orlando. We share a bathroom with the next door neighbours, who are Orlandos relations (we still have not worked out how) and they share a kitchen with the restaurant across the street, but not how you would think. The restaurant has no kitchen, Carlos, Orlando's son, still gets his mum to cook for him, and all his customers, but in her own kitchen. This sort of neighbourly relations are normal in Gigante.

I have added Gigante to the HostelTrail map.

Outside The Hostel Door

A sea of voices fill the air, chatter and clatter, fruit and dreams. Hay piña, Hay piña, Hay piña y sal, nasal and piercing.

Bananas piled high sandbag their sellers in, creating, an oasis of yellow and brown blotchiness; separation from the mess and chaos on the street.

Pink lace-frilled apron, faded and dulled by yesterday’s dirt, hold coins exchanged for oranges, onions and limes. Maybe pink-lace frilled apron does not have any lime trees. Maybe all she has is 3 children and worries. She need not worry, humans are resourceful, kids especially. The fruit that appears in their pockets at the end of each day playing helps them grow and lets her earn some dough.

A grey neatly trimmed moustache sits atop firmly pressed, down-turned lips, like a gecko on a basalt grey crack in the wall. A gecko, shaded by a New York baseball cap and framed by bare sinewy, brown arms, far stronger than mine.

This is life. This is Nicaragua, outside the hostel door.

Chocolate

A very brief history of chocolate.

The Mayans were the first people in history to figure out the complicated, 5-step process involved in transforming cacao seeds into chocolate. They realised if you remove the seeds from the fruit, ferment, sun dry, roast , winnow, grind and then mix them in hot water you have a delicious, energising drink – the world’s first hot chocolate. The Mayans liked their hot chocolate bitter, with maybe a little cinnamon, but no sweetener.

When the Aztecs came down from the north and took over the Mayan lands they discovered the Mayan’s beloved hot coco. The Aztecs soon demanded their newly conquered subjects pay taxes in the form of cacao beans. Rather like children "I beat you up once, if you don't give me your lollies I will beat you again." Back in the Aztec capital cacao was an expensive imported product and was only consumed by royalty, and the priesthood. The Aztecs preferred their chocolate as a cold, unsweetened drink, sometimes with a dash of chili.

Enter the Spaniards and their quest to bring new lands into the embrace of the church. The conquistadors held the Aztec royalty hostage and demanded all their wealth and treasure, or else a beheading was in order. They were presented with (among other items) sacks of dried cacao beans. The Aztecs were beheaded and the cacao shipped back to Spain. It was the Spanish who were not so fond of the bitter taste and mixed the ground cacao with sugar cane juice, giving birth to chocolate as we know it today.

I learnt all this on a visit to ChocoMuseo, in Granada. Here in Nicaragua they like their hot chocolate as a mix of roast maize, roast cacao and sugar, called Pinolillo.

I would love to write an in-depth article on chocolate if any editor is interested.

Nicaragua

We crossed from Costa Rica into Nicaragua and I have to say I am stoked about the move. It's true!, the wind really does blow off-shore every day in Nicaragua.

First stop San Juan del Sur. It's a little touristy, but chilled enough that I don't mind. One bad point is there is no surf within walking distance from town. One good point is the the sunsets; spellbinding displays of natures ability to paint with more colour than a human can name.

To read my HostelTrail entry about Nicaragua see below .

http://www.hosteltrail.com/ca/nicaragua/sanjuandelsur/

http://www.hosteltrail.com/hostelesperanza/