Well, it’s usually some kind of “Welcome” or Bienvenido to the daily surf report, but as I am sure most of you are aware, we’re getting the full force of Hurricane Julia that made land fall up in the northern region (Blue Fields etc) late last night. Apparently the Corn Islands are without power and I haven’t seen the damage thus far, but here in the Tola area where we’re located, it’s some pretty tropical storm type winds and A LOT of rain. Lots and and lots of rain! The hurricane coming from the Caribbean coast last night was being rated as a category 2 hurricane but by passing over direct land its now been downgraded to a category 1 I beleive? If you guys remember back in 2017 when we got slammed with what was supposed to be credited as a Hurricane, that one ended up being downgraded to a tropical storm, also known or remembered as TS “Nate”. Man for a Tropical Storm, that was the gnarliest damage I’ve ever seen in person (being from CA, the west coast) and that wasn’t even a rated category hurricane.

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.

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?!?!

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….! ~