Monday 29 November 2010

Jiquilillo: Books Beach & Pink Bodyboards

With a name most gringos can't pronounce, a location off the main tourist trail and the chance of bagging some empty surf, Jiquilillo was definitely high on my list of places to visit.

After some fun and games with taxi's and buses from Leon, I finally arrived mid afternoon at the remote fishing village of Jiquilillo (pronounced Hick-ill-e-yo) in the far north of Nicaragua. I strolled into Rancho Esperanza and realised my previous thought, "I'll be here just a couple of days", was not going to work.

The rancho is run by a US ex-pat from Maine but it's far from being the typical Gringo-owned operation, with Nate the owner employing the local villagers, promoting (without the typical cut) all the local tours and restaurants. Beyond this the ranch even plays a pivotal part in the local community helping to educate the communities in many things including health and hygiene and even running a highly successful kids club. There a lot of local people of who depend on the rancho, but it's not hard to persuade tourists that they need to go there either.

For most people like me, its the books. You step into the main hut and see Nate's collection of books and immediately realise you need to stay at least a few days longer than you'd planned. Central America has book shops in the big towns to cater for the tourist trade, but it seems the early travellers who passed through years before me populating these bookshops, were not quite the pioneers or revolutionary thinkers I had them made out to be, as all the book shops are simply full of bad romance novels or fantasy adventure books (for the latter think of a book, you usually need a dice to play with). Nate's place is bursting with classics, and his library makes the flow of the place absolutely perfect.

The typical routine I slipped into consisted of waking up around 5-6am (an evil combo of a noisy rooster and parrot competing for superiority) for a surf check. This would be followed by breakfast or a surf depending on the tide, but either way by 12pm, I'd be relaxing in a hammock out the back on the edge of the Pacific with one of the books from Nate's library. This started well with Ernest Hemmingway's The Old Man and The Sea, but went quickly down hill with a re read of the last installment of Harry Potter (well the film is out and I had to revise!). A quick dip back in the sea at sunset, before coming in for dinner, the recipes for which, I'm determined to dog Nate for and a few beers later the day would be complete, to merely begin in a similar fashion 8 hours later...

The village is by no means quiet all the time. The beach seems to be the main through-fare, with returning fisherman unloading and selling their catch at 6-7 in the morning, the local herd of cows walk through a few hours later (seriously, cows on the beach, very bizarre), and then tourists sporadically fill the rest of the time but in a very slow fashion.

The surf is not quite what I'd hoped, but it's more the timing of the tide that is the problem. From low to mid and it's too shallow and it's best from mid to high and back. Low tide was typically between 8-9 when I was, there making the window for surf short as the on-shore winds would kick in around 11.30. that said some of the banks were really firing, but it's not a place you go for consistency of high class waves. Lots of waves, mostly breaking quickly and in sections in the waist to head high range were the typical order of the morning and with strong currents, it was not a place that's easy to stay in one place. Occasionally we'd see a left hander simply flying down the line, like a freight train, possibly barrelling, but I never got in the right spot for it!

The surf at Jiquilillo isn't what makes it worth the visit. The combination of the ok-surf, great books, friendly people and relaxed environment devoid of hassling touts makes it a place I'd definitely consider returning to. Although I think a return trip will be a must as I don't think Nate will hand over his recipes over email quite so easily.

Photos in the usual place.

P.S. Those sharp-eyed surfers will have noticed that I surfed in the morning when it was possible but also went in for the low tide before dusk when it was too shallow. I confess, my afternoon jaunts were not with surfboard but typically with a pink boogy board. I hope those in the LSC can forgive me.... I mean pink for Christ´s sake.

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