El viaje

„So Jojo, when you guys go to Nicaragua you gotta check out this dude i met. He builds houses out of cococret and has a good soul! Just dont let him stand behind you..”

“Why not behind me?” i asked Steve, when he told me about this guy.

“Ah just because he had some crazy Israeli special forces training. He could just kill you with two twists of his little finger” Steve replied laughingly.

So far i had only good experiences with people that came with Steves recommendation.

Shout outs to my bro Hugo in Guatemala!!

Obviously, i was anxious to meet the guy!

But Steve being Steve, he had obviously not given a contact yet..

So while reading and searching for treasures at the Happy Coconut we got to meet Ben first.

Ben is a Canadian who decided to move to Nicaragua. Him and his wife have, wait for it, 12 beautiful children, so the busy parents decided to buy a resort in Jiquelite to have appropriate housing space for the entire gang. (The house we are staying in is part of the resort.) Fact is though, that when the guests are about, they dont just surf but also party from time to time, also it turned out that it is just easier to have all the different ages under one roof. So they rented a nice place close to the resort , a little further up in the hills. All of them are super nice and friendly and obviously interesting , so every time i met Ben around , i bombarded him with questions.

While chatting to him he mentioned a new project he just got involved in.

“So we are planing this Village/Community. Build with sustainable materials, surrounded by permacultures, including a school…The guy i am doing this with is a cococret master. He is interesting, you should check him out. He lives right next to you ,by the way. He is from Israel. Here is his contact.”

“Thanks Ben!”

So how many surfing Israeli cococret masters could have settled on the Nicaraguan cost? i asked myself ,and Steve, who i excitedly called right after getting the contact.

Of course it was the same guy! I immediately went over to meet this highly appraised neighbor of mine.

“Hey yo, anyone here?” “Yeah ill be out in a sec”

That gave me some time to check the outside library.

I must admit, i liked the guy before having even met him. Talking to him made me fall in love, instantly.

Apart from having kind eyes and a proper good nose, he is a charmer and a good talker. And he talks a lot, because he has a lot to say. So far i havent heared anything stupid. We had some extremely good coffee accompanied by an even better chat to scope eachother out.

We also went for a quick ride on his bike to check out his land and his vision. He talks with a lot of passion.

https://m.facebook.com/Tierra-Nahua-2212112559000782/#_=_

There is quite a lot of similarities to be found here. Not only in the way we handle our hefty egos or the childish naivity with which we get excited about good things or the uncontrollable headvoice that slips out every now and then when talking about annoying things (like lawyers) . The endless optimism while remaining a realist (and thats a tought job , especially nowadays )but also the love we share for Steve or the mantis that decided to check me out while blabbering like a waterfall.

It crawled up my left arm, over to the right one, then retreated to the couch.

I do not know enough about cococret yet, nor about permacultures ( next 2 things i have to research) but two things i can tell you already: I like this Shay, i also like the mantis