Playa Hermosa… It’s pretty hard to find a place to stay

We left Granada with the idea of going to Omptepe an island in Lake Nicaragua, but after consulting our map and realizing how close it is to Coasta Rica we decided to head up to a beach that was recommended by our friend Harry O’Rourke from El Salvador.  He had mentioned a place called Playa Hermosa a very quiet “tranquillo” beach a bitown south of Leon so we headed off to check it out. 

We hit a dirt road (which on our map was a “major road”) that finally took us to the beach in a small little port town just north of Playa Hermosa, we found a hotel but the beach wasn’t very nice so we decided to push on.  We saw a sign for a “Surf Camp” and Hostal so off we went, only to find it closed.  We continued on and asked some locals if there was another hotel and they said the only other place that would have a hotel was El Transito, which was about 15 kilometers away on a very bumpy dirt road, on the way we passed a beautiful resort with condos for sale that made us wonder when they were going to fix the road.  We arrived in El Trasito around 2 PM and saw signs for a hotel with $15 rooms, when we arrived the woman there showed me the room, a bed, no windows, no fan, no air and a bathroom across the parking lot.  I wasn’t impressed but thought that it would do for a night, and then she told me it was $60 dollars a night.  I couldn’t believe it, this dumpy room was $60 a night?  Talk about gouging the tourist, I told her she was CRAZY and that I would find another hotel.

Two hours later we realized the reason for the excessive pricing, all the other hotels were closed for the season, so with little hope of finding better accommodations we headed back to the resort, and if they wouldn’t take us we would return to the first hotel (about an hour away).  We went to the resort but were informed that they were also closed, but there was a place right next door with cabanas and that we should try there.  I knocked on the gate and the workers there went to find Aaron the owner to see if he could but us up for the night. 

Aaron moved to Nicaragua from Canada 7 months ago and during that time he has built a house, restaurant and two very charming cabanas.  His goal is to open a small surf hotel and he is well on his way to making it come true.  The cost for this was only $35 a night!  And he is very dog friendly, once again a great find! 

That night for dinner we were joined by an interesting group of extrajeros, one couple who run a travel/tour/surf/volunteer operation called Solid Surf, and another couple who are building a condo in the area.  The dinner was excellent, and the conversation very interesting.  We had thought about staying a couple of nights but unfortunately the neighbors had chickens, and Haole decided they looked like toys, so instead of risking damage to the chicken population, we decided to move south yet again, still trying to find a place we enjoy as much as El Salvador.