This weekend Nicaragua celebrated an important national holiday…Independence from Spain (September 14, 1821). San Juan del Sur was full of festivities with the rumble of marching bands, loads of people coming down for the 3 day weekend, kids playing traca-traca on the streets, and a general buzz of excitement as Nicaraguan flags hung proud throughout the streets.
A national holiday of such character is, of course, grounds for throwing a good party – and the streets of San Juan were certainly festive this weekend. But what better way to appreciate the soil you are on than keep it clean. That’s how we celebrated Nicaragua this holiday weekend. Chica Brava teamed up with some of the yogis of Zen Yoga studio to do an early morning beach clean up in the bay. Between a total of eight people we quickly collected a number of bags of trash, and obscene amount of plastic bottles – the majority of which were empty ‘Joyita’ bottles (a cheap and gnarly hard liquor that is common in these parts). The big swells and south winds had pushed a lot of the trash floating in the ocean onto the shore, and unfortunately we filled our bags quickly.
Some may argue as to whether or not a beach clean up is effective…they might say that trash just comes back, or that it is difficult to change people’s mindset and education regarding littering. However, spending time caring for our beaches and ocean is never time wasted, and is a very important reminder of just how often we take the beauty of mother nature for granted. So on this Independence Day weekend Chica Brava says cheers! Enjoy the company of good friends, and celebrate Nicaragua’s independence…but keep the beaches clean and respect the ocean, because nature is one bad madre!
Aloha,
Noelani
Camp Operations Manager
Beach Clean-up, Friday the 13th, 2013
