I Don't Like Corrupt Cops

So it´s been two days again. Once I explain the last two days, which also felt like an eternity, it´ll all be understood hopefully.

Yesterday, we left San Juan del Sur around noon and headed to Popoyo. It was supposed to only be a two hour drive, but after following three different signs saying Popoyo down three different awful muddy dirt roads (thank goodness for four wheel drive!), it ended up a four hour adventure. We set up tent at Popoyo Loco and spent the night for $6 US. The surf at Popoyo is supposed to be good with offshore winds for 350 days a year, but I guess we were there during the 15 days of so-so surf because of rainy season beginning. Apparently everywhere we go, we bring the rain storms north with us :-/ I fell asleep at 7:30 because of the stressful drive and lack of sleep because our flooded room in San Juan (we had to change rooms after the hotel staff banged on the door at 3 am and alerted us to the 3¨of water on the floor--did I already write about this?) and slept until 5:30 this morning.

As usual, I took the dogs for an early morning walk on the beach and then woke Mike up. He went and surfed for a little bit, I read in a hammock, then we packed up headed out. Originally, before the Lost Keys Incident in Avellanas, we were going to drive straight through from Nicaragua, through Honduras, and into El Salvador today. But we are in Corintos in northern Nicaragua for the night, so that we can get through the first border (Nicaragua-Honduras) with enough time to drive through Honduras (about three-four hours) and still make it through the second border (Honduras-El Salvador) with enough time to make it to our destination in El Salvador. Corintos is a port town but has an unknown surf break that we looked at this afternoon. If we were here for longer, Mike would´ve wanted to rent a panga to take over to the area, but we´re planning on leaving at 5 am and it´s 6 pm now. I´m at an internet cafe (can you tell by all the Spanish accents as opposed to apostrophes?¿) so I can only upload one picture, which is of a surfer in Popoyo being watched by lifeguard Max.

Oh, I almost forgot about the corrupt cops! Last night as I was falling asleep, I remember overhearing a guy at the hostel saying how he had sold his car in Nicaragua because he was sick of the cops hassling him. I now know exactly what he meant--at random check-points throughout the country, we were flagged to stop four times in a five hour drive. The first guy got $10 US out of me in a bribe because I had my emergency triangles (I remembered being hassled for them on the drive down but only once in Honduras) but not a fire extinguisher. He kept saying he was going to write a ticket, but he took the money instead (obviously). The second guy to stop us said that we were passing in a non-passing zone, but only wrote down our information, which Mike thought was odd but I told him was fine. The last two guys to pull us over just wanted to see our passports and licenses, but still, what an annoyance! I do love this road trip experience--even getting lost is fine because people are super friendly and helpful when I ask for directions--but corrupt cops suck. Plain and simple.

Okay, enough for today. ¡Hasta mañana!