Happy New Years, everyone! Where are you ringing in the new year? I am spending the last few hours of 2017 in Playa Marsella (north of San Juan Del Sur). But the first half of the day was spent on the journey here. We woke up this morning in Mérida, early. Had to catch a 9 AM ferry off the island which meant leaving at 7… earliest start we have had all week!

After the one hour ferry ride, we had another one hour taxi ride. The taxi dropped us off at the beach so we had a bit of a walk up the beach to the “Aussie Hut”. When we got there we were greeted by Charlie and her husband – Australian Jeremy Clarkson. They kindly offered us coffee and gave us instruction on how to get to San Juan.

The first thing we did in San Juan (when we finally got there) was enjoy some smoothies and lunch at Simon Says smoothie bar. After lunch we took a walk up the beach and just relaxed a bit. The day was slipping away quickly, though and it was time to think of a way back to Marsella. We knew there was a shuttle to Playa Maderas, so we booked tickets on the 5 PM shuttle. In the meanwhile, we went to Barrio Cafe for some coffee for a pick-me-up.

When 5 rolled around, we were waiting for our shuttle, as well as 5:15 and 5:30… at 5:45 the shuttle finally arrived. I have not felt closer to death during any of my time in Nica as I did sitting in the back of the truck of some guy who clearly did not want to be giving us a ride and was in a rush to drop us off. But we survived. We walked down the street back to the Hut and were greeted by some friendly faces and offers of beer.

We were shown to our room (very lovely and spacious). We spend a few minutes relaxing, and then went downstairs to partake in some New Years festivities ?