Last Minute
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"You made it," I yelled to Phil as he walked away from a dust covered Toyota Yaris, bags in hand. In Nicaragua, these subcompacts brave the dirt roads, in frequent, white knuckle passages from the Coast to Managua.
"Sure did. The flight was flawless. This place is gorgeous," Phil said, motioning toward the cabanas and palm trees.
"Yah. Beats the shit out of Jersey doesn't it?" Rolling out of the hammock I was rocking in, I set down Hayduke Lives and walked over to help Phil with his bags.
"Actually it was 70° yesterday. We've had a pretty mellow winter, but still, this is incredible."
"So I hear. You ready to get in the water?"
Five days earlier, Phil and I were shooting the shit on Google Chat when I asked him if he would be interested in heading down to Nicaragua for a bit. Fed up with the rain and mediocre waves of the Northwest, I bought a ticket to Managua in a crime of passion a few days early. My alternative employment allows me to plan my travels with a few days notice. Few twenty-somethings have this same flexibility, so I often make journeys with the company of my camera and a book on tape.
"Let me get back to you about it," Phil said before signing offline.
"Just putting it out there."
Normally, a noncommittal line like that is a death sentence for trip but with Phil, the founder of the Madbury Club and The Award Tour, I withheld judgement. Twenty minutes later my phone buzzed with an email saying he was in for a week.
The Window Seat.
Quiver Me Timbers.
#vanlife Nica style.
Beach Cruisers.
Equipped to rip.
Kicking back.
Duck diving.
Stump town.
Sun bleached.
Selfy on the Nikon Action Touch with Portra 160.
Exchanging Phil's bags for a hand plane and a set of fins, we headed towards the beach for a little white water baptism.
"The tides are wrong for surfing," I explained. "But we will have a blast with these," I said holding up the fins. "We'll get you on a surfboard tomorrow."
"Man, I'm just happy to be here. It reminds me a lot of Haiti." Phil said as we walked through the hot sand
"It's pretty wild. It's tough to only come here once. I'm glad you could make it."
"Yah man, the best stuff always happens last minute."
"Sure does."
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