Wow…just wow. So happy to finally be here. 

A little tricky getting here. My bags were inspected at customs in Nica, but they were friendly. They’re a little picky about a bunch of camera gear and electronics. 
It went quick and no real issues. 
In fact Arlene forgot her purse back at the scanner and an agent was nice enough to bring it to her while she was waiting for my inspection to be done.

We really feel they’ve made an effort to have more English speaking personal at the airport to handle more North Americans coming to visit.

We headed for the street looking for the driver taking us to the resort. Typically they stand on the sidewalk outside with your name on a card. This time not so much. We looked and looked but no one there had our name. I was able to grab a roaming signal on my phone to make a call to the resort. They texted our driver and let us know he WAS in fact there.

Problem occurred because he was INSIDE looking for us and we were OUTSIDE looking for him. Crisis averted LOL. 

The roads in Nica are pretty nice. Main roads all paved. It is a poor country and that is evident when looking at the buildings as we left Managua. 
The last part of road taking us to the resort has been a work in progress since we started coming here. It’s an 11 km stretch that used to resemble a river bed rather than a road. 
It’s mostly paved now. There is still a short stretch that took a beating from the recent storm that was part of Hurricane Nate. I joked that all the guys driving the big lift kit trucks up and down Winkler’s Main St would have a hoot on this road. Our drive has a Toyota SUV we don’t see in N America. All wheel drive 5 speed that handled the road well.

There is a short bridge you have to cross just before you get to the gate of the resort. 
Two days earlier he was bringing guests in the middle of the aforementioned storm and the small river this bridge crosses was around 4 feet under water. The area is very hilly and the water collected and came rushing through this area. He said they had to wait until 3 to 4 am in order to cross. That would be from 9ish pm. All in a days work here in Nica. 

Let’s just say when we finally got to our beautiful condo it was all worth it. 
Slept like a log. Woke up to sunshine and very warm humid weather, but with a great ocean breeze to help keep things tolerable. 

Had breakfast with our friend and owner of this place, Patrick Hiebert, his significant other, Andrea, and his sister Ruth. It was great catching up and having a few laughs. The servers remembered us from previous visits. Just has a nice family feel. The only thing missing is our family from back home. Someday…

The beaches took a beating from the storm as well. A large clean up project will be underway to get that back to normal. Owning a resort isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. 
Patrick puts in a lot of hours making this place work. 

Today will be a chill day for us. No agenda, no schedule…

Cheers…