October 9th, 2022

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Here’s some screen shots of the predicted path and movement of the storm as it slowly makes it way right over us. The intro cover shot is where it is currently right now. The stills I took from outside of my house, since I can’t even go outside it’s raining so much (I got drenched just taking those few shots – the winds are blowing all the rain sideways and in every direction), unfortunately I only have a moto so I’m pretty much stuck indoors for now, so I apologize for not being able to get down to the beach to even see how the seas are looking right now.

This eerily but pretty spectacular photo was taken by my local (Nica) friend Kaylee late yesterday as you can see the outer rim of the the hurricane and it’s broad size as it stared to engulf almost the whole entirety of the country.

Just for a good cross reference of a photo, here’s looking back at 2021, almost the same view or angle with Mag Rock in the back ground compared to the previous photo.

The year of the dreadful COVID, same day 2 years ago, the weather looked pretty good for being October.

Surf looked a little bit junked up, but not enough to keep the people out of the water and surfing. Remember this was when almost the whole surfing world got rocked by complete and total beach closures. Luckily for us here…. there was never a single ban on surfing during the entire time of COVID.

2019 also seeing some better days (or I should say conditions than what we have going on at a the moment).

2018, as you can see the erosion of the beach and sand that the October storms brought and took a good amount of the beach with it.

BUT, here’s how the surf looked that same day. This place it pretty resilient I tell you!

You all remember that giant sink hole that caved in right where you walk right over on your way to the beach cub. This is actually just about 10 feet from where I park my moto almost every day.

The displaced locals who lost A LOT, came together to help clean up after the aftermath of the devastation.

The pueblos and fincas were hit pretty bad. And their infrastructure and the Nica local way of building homes are already susceptible to not being able to withstand much horrific weather, let alone even just this tropical storm.

It was no joke and I’m serious when I say, I cannot even fathom what a category above 3 would do to this place????

So much lodo (mud) EVERYWHERE!!!

This is what it looked like inside all of the homes. If this image doesn’t humble you, even in the slightest way, I don’t know what to say?!?!

Most places where people needed to most help was pretty much impassable or unable to even get to for a few days.

But, although there was a lot of controversy over this storm and that the local Government knew about it and could have prepared their people for the worst and the safety for preparedness, these people are some of the most tight knit people I’ve ever come across. A lot of the expat family here too jumped in (including a lot from companies – like NSR, church groups and just the all around non-Nicaraguan people who live here and have the means to do something about helping and cleaning up this mess. Had this been 10+ years ago, there wasn’t even a number of people close enough here who could help as much as they were able to by 2017. The way everyone came together was nothing short of incredible and the amount of humility shown was enough to give you chicken skin!!!! Let’s wait and see how badly this one ends up being and once again, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and give back to the country who has given all of us so so much in return for nothing. Stay strong Nicaragua…. you’ve got an amazing support system here now!!!! Please stay tuned….! ~