Saturday, San Juan de Sur, Nicaragua
It is so good to be back at the coast again. I have missed it so much, I always feel at peace when I’m close to the ocean. I adore little beach towns like this. They are so laid back and quiet, yet so busy and bustling with life at the same time. Each has its own unique character and style. In this particular case, the scores of little shops selling everything from clothes to orange juice to shampoo, the vibrantly coloured cemetery, the endless rammed, squashed-in rides on open-aired pickup trucks to the more spectacular beaches nose-to-nose with tens of differently coloured and sized surf boards, the tattoo shop on the corner that is run by a Swiss whom, not surprisingly, is fluent in both English and Spanish...as well as goodness knows how many more, the sand that seems to perpetually between your toes, the people that you meet from all over the world, all over the world. Ahh to be by the sea. I drift gently to sleep in this noisy hostel with the crash of the ocean still happily humming in my ears.
For the past year I’ve been wanting to get my first tattoo, and so have spent the past 3 months doodling and designing tattoos alongside researching the best places of the body to get one (i.e. a place that can be easily hidden if required and where the skin won’t stretch or age much). Much of this time has been designing has been during long bus journeys. I wanted something to be very personal and to represent my immediate family. I’d also asked local friends if they could recommend a tattooist and the Swiss guy (whose name for the life of me I can’t remember) had been mentioned as being excellent. I took my designs over to him to ask about price and when he could fit me in. He spent my first visit altering my design slightly so that it would better fit the line of my foot. My design resembles a flowered vine, with 3 petals at the top and 3 at the middle section (representing my mum, dad, sister, brother and my mums’ parents – as I didn’t know my fathers). We set a date for 2 days time. What followed was $35 and a very painful 55 minutes. It is the incessant noise of the tattoo drill that affects you the most, it goes right through you and grates your teeth. I was pleased with the finished result and it healed well, though meant I couldn’t get in the water for 10 days. Not such great planning time wise as we were shortly heading back to one of my favourite beaches in Costa Rica where I adore to swim!
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