San Juan Del Sur: Cave Exploring

After our beach day we were pretty much pooped, I wasn't feeling like getting my hair wet (insert, prissy girl emoji) and surfing takes a lot out of ya, I hear. I tried it but then Jeff left me out in the middle of the ocean and I started freakin'. Am I the only one that thinks that if my legs are just dangling somethings gonna come up and bite them off? Maybe i've watched Jaws one to many times... literally I've watched it once and that was too many. I love the ocean but please don't leave me out there alone. 

So off we went to go and explore the rocks and cliffs just to the right of San Juan Del Sur's main beach.

Look out spots from one of our hikes!

We did quite a bit of "rock climbing/jumping" to get to this spot, there were big boulders and in between the tide was coming up. and we did it with hardly any casualties! nobody fell or got hurt. Sometimes we Ingersolls can be accident prone, and by we I mean Jeffrey. the little dare devil.

our very own private beach! ^^ that really was someone else's very own private beach.

 This was a man made pool. I thought it was brilliant! You get to swim in the "ocean" with out major waves. It fills up with the tide every day so the water is always fresh with little fishes! and that would freak out my sister Delaney. 

This cave rocked. Though it would have been cooler if we found some treasure in it..

Being with my guy these past three months, just us, has been so much fun. He's always making me laugh and keeping me on my toes. But we can't wait to see our families for Christmas!! We leave in 3 days!!

San Juan Del Sur: Playa Maderas

Friday morning we woke up and did our workout on the beach. First of all, if I could work out on the beach everyday, I might actually want to workout. It is soo beautiful! and second of all can we please live on the beach when we grow up! After our workout we grabbed some breakfast and took a shuttle to a nearby surfing beach. Can you just feel how excited Jeffrey was? Off the walls, I'm telling ya. It was the most perfect day for beach going, and surfing.  But I wanna kick my self because I didn't get any pictures of Jeffrey surfing. He spent a good 3 hours out on his board, pure bliss. After he hit three hours he realized just how sore he was! It's a good workout I hear. 

One thing you may not know about me is that tide pools are my jam. I remember the first time I met Jeff's family we all went out to Lopez Island, Washington. We had a house right on the beach and there were so many tide pools, I went crazy! The starfish, I tell ya. How can I get one as a pet?

No starfish during this trip but tons of urchins and anemones! And I couldn't get over the pink rocks... 

And how amazing is this sand! (gosh you must think i've never spent time on a beach! this earth though, it's pretty spectacular)

And now a local beach dog, trying to catch some minnows. I'm also obsessed with dogs.

 Like I said before. The freaking sunsets! This day they were extra beautiful. Jeffrey and I kept saying how much this trip reminded us of our honeymoon!  Perfect timing, I would say since it's the Ingersoll Holidays. My birthday and Jeffrey's birthday are exactly 2 months apart and then we've got Christmas and our 2 YEAR anniversary (and valentines if you count that)  in between. Who thought that out? yikes.  But it is my favorite time of the year, cause the celebrations just keep coming!

Happybirthamerrychristmasversarybirthday or something like that!

San Juan Del Sur: Day 1

This past weekend Jeffrey and I took a 2.5 hour chicken bus ride to the coast. Jeffrey grew up on the beach and is part fish I swear. He could hardly contain his excitement to get into that crisp Pacific ocean. I couldn't wait for the sea breeze and for a little corrective tanning (for the first two months we rode bikes every where right, and so my thighs got reallllly tan but my shins/calfs stayed in their pristine pale complexion).

San Juan is the cutest of cute towns and we were totally charmed by it. It's known for its beautiful beaches and relaxed atmosphere by day, and wild parties by night that we as 60 year olds didn't go to.  I always joke that were like 60 year olds because, though we love adventure, traveling and going out as much as the next person, but we usually are home by 9 and I'm out like a light by 10 pm. Plus we drink Ginger Ale. My grandparents are the only other people that drink Ginger Ale on the reg besides us. So yeah..

Once we got into town we checked into our hostel (another really awesome one, we definitely recommend!!) and then headed down to the beach. Well that's a little bit of a lie because you know me, had to get something to eat. We found this really good taco place. I've been missing breakfast taco's something fierce lately and this definitely hit the spot.

Finally (Jeff's words) we went to the beach and Jeffrey jumped right in. One of the reasons we loved the hostel we stayed in so much was because it was right on the beach. And we were able to go anytime we wanted!

The tree covered hills and open ocean views really did it for us. It was so beautiful!

 Sunset pics after our swim. The water was surprisingly chilly and there was always a constant breeze, so swimming wasn't my favorite thing but the beach and the scenery was so pretty! I swear every single night there was the most breath taking sunset.

This pic ^ was taken right from the front gate of our hostel. So yeah we scored and never wanted to leave!

Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion

So for the past week and half the grand people of Granada have been waking up and participating in a very loud parade complete with fireworks (i thought we were being shot at when it first started) at 4:30 in the morning, every morning.... Jeffrey and I were annoyed, to say the least. We had no idea why they were doing this and how could you be so inconsiderate (not considerate at all shoot). It had to be for some holiday but the only holiday was for today, December 8th and the parades every morning just didn't make since to me I tell you!  I'm all for decorating for different holidays and having parities in honor of that holiday, but a parade at 4:30. please make it stop! After talking to some locals, sure enough the  celebration was in honor of the holiday on December 8th. The day of immaculate conception.  Basically they celebrate the fact that Mary was conceived and born with out original sin. They don't believe that she was born on December 8th they just picked that day (week) to celebrate it.

Really loud parades and constant fireworks aside, it has been really cool to see a different country celebrate a native holiday. Surprisingly, nothing much happened yesterday, the 8th (the actually holiday) We were told that everyone would have off, but grocery stores and a lot of little shops were still open. It was the week leading up to the 8th that was madness.

You already know about the 4am parades, add in constant fireworks, shrines to Mary outside your door, individual serenades at your front door and an all night festival and you have experienced Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion.

December 7th the day before the holiday

                        During the day you had your local door stop worshiping and serenading^^

but at night was when the real celebration began

This is the street a few houses down from ours, it was packed with people hanging out, selling food and waiting for the parade to come by.  it was packed!

Once the parade started getting closer, the street started to get so congested! It was like the buses, i don't know how you can fit 70 people on one little bus and stop for more but you can!

All of these people were waiting for this shrine of Mary. There wasn't a car pulling it but tons of people pushing and pulling it and walking beside it.

After this shrine went by, everyone cleared out. People raced to Parque Central, where there were even more people packed together and even more food carts! 

Even though they were tons of food carts, they were all selling the same types but we figured we should try a little bit of everything. 

Fried chicken and fries-- what more do you need! they loaded it up with sour cream, ketchup and sometime of dried cheese. And boy was it goooood! Hit the spot I'll tell ya.

Everyone was selling these candied apples. They looked amazing and  I wish I could say the same about how they tasted. No good. Don't try them. They were super mushy and the candy coating wasn't very good either. 

Also this picture was pre wind blown hair into sticky candy apple.  Of course after the apple incident we got cotton candy to make up for it! After an hour or so the party wasn't really ending, but we decided to head home. 

December  8th- The actual holiday

The streets were deserted yesterday (the 8th) It was so bizarre, I'd never seen Granada so quiet!

Also there was no parade at 4am so hashtag blessed.

Aren't these houses just to die!?

We walked back to Parque Central later in the day and it was pretty deserted too.

Except for the cutest of cutest naughty boys trying to light fireworks.

We've hit the two week mark till we go home!! (hallelujah!!) We are so excited to be back in the states and eat some corn dogs and twizlers - actually that's just me- but we are gonna do as many things as we can here before we leave! This weekend were head off to the beach so stay tuned!!