San Juan del Sur – Day 4: Sunday Funday
SAN JUAN DEL SUR
Day 4: Sunday Funday
January 15, 2023
Finally, one of the events eagerly awaited by most backpackers had arrived – the pool crawl known as Sunday Funday, allegedly Nicaragua’s biggest party. Starting around noon, the crawl involves stops at four different hostels, promising great music, cheap drinks, and venues to swim and hang out in.
The first hostel was Pachamama, named after the Incan Mother Nature – something that made absolutely no sense whatsoever in this context. Here, Amelia and I got our very own Sunday Funday tees and proceeded to down what felt like a thousand mojitos, while also getting our hands on some party powder from Michael’s contact.
Baby Jesus Lives On
For once, Amelia seemed to get the short end of the stick, standing there unaffected while I was on a roll. The fun had barely begun but it already promised to be an unforgettable event!
After a while, in walked Dan – an incredibly handsome, long-haired blonde with piercing blue eyes, all tatted up and pierced. We’d been chatting on Grindr back on Ometepe but never had the time to meet. This felt like the perfect chance. He told me he was born and raised in Rhode Island and was in his final year of Environmental Science, travelling with Maddie, who had tagged along for a three-week holiday in Nicaragua. We hit it off immediately, and with my confidence boosted by the magic white, I couldn’t help but tell him how insanely hot I thought he was.
Meanwhile, Amelia stood next to us looking plain bored, the music already growing stale. She also had to put up with strangers recognising me as Baby Jesus! It’s funny how this made-up persona that was birthed in Utila in a matter of seconds on a whim had grown to have so much fame and influence. I should have started carrying around autographed photos!
Highs, Kisses, and Close Calls
At 4 PM we moved on to the second spot, Hotel Anamar. Security, noticing my bum bag, asked if I had marijuana. “Pfff, no, duh!” Then he moved on to other stuff, at which point my poker face crumbled as I held Amelia’s hair scrunchie, where we’d stashed the baggie. “Do I look like someone who’d use drugs?” I smirked. He laughed and then asked about weapons. I flashed him my lighter, which he took as a no, and waved me in. Phew.
Unlike the closed-off hostel before, this one had an open-plan terrace with a large pool overlooking the beach and those glorious Pacific sunsets. Not that we cared about the sunset at this point – drunk and high as hell, all we wanted was to party.
We jumped into the pool, and soon everyone was shamelessly making out: Dan and me, Amelia and Michael, and dozens of others. It felt like a giant orgy, though everyone stuck to their own partners. I’ll admit, kissing a guy in front of a crowd felt weird at first, but it was also empowering. “This is pride!” I thought – though I half-wondered if we’d end up in a Nicaraguan prison by the end of the night.
Usually I hate being the centre of attention, but it felt damn good being cheered on as we kissed even more passionately. “We should start selling tickets!” I joked to Dan, right as the official photographer caught us in the act, immortalising our behaviour for posterity.
Last Dance at The Space
Just when we felt like we never wanted to leave, it was time to shuttle to the next stop – The Space! Packed into a bus, we bounced along the road until we reached home sweet home.
Amelia and I evaded the line in by flashing out trusty wristbands, giving us the chance to top up our by-then fading high. All pumped up, I circled round the bar area to find Dan, my plans spoiled when the security told us no visitors were allowed in the rooms. And so, we all danced and had our share of fun – Amelia and I trying to not think about it being our last party and last day together.
As the vibes started dying down a bit and we were all starting to feel the extent of our exhaustion and inebriety, we headed outside for a breath of fresh air. Here, unable to have ‘fun’, Maddie proposed some trauma talk. I couldn’t have rolled my eyes further back if I tried. At some point in my life, I stopped caring about drama – especially from people I’d just met. This was clearly an attempt for her to get a load off her stomach – and, being drunk and high, it hardly felt like the right time. But the others were too tired to keep partying, so they indulged in a sharing circle.
Dan spoke about his estranged mom, who cut him off after she killed a man while speeding. Maddie shared about her absent father, who doesn’t even know how to spell her name. Amelia talked about her mom’s alcoholism. I just sat there, chain-smoking, bored out of my skull.
Goodbyes in San Juan
When the DJ announced the final move to the fourth hostel, Amelia and I decided to call it a night. Mostly cause we had early mornings ahead – she was moving hostels for her Spanish classes, and I’d be heading with Aziz and the gang to Costa Rica.
Once the others left, we lost a round of beer pong to an American couple and then sat down to do the thing we’d been dreading for weeks – our big goodbye. Well, more of a “see you soon,” since we’d agreed to reunite in a different city ten days later.
We were drunk and tired, the come-down preventing us to feel the extent of our misery. I knew this would happen. That same morning, I spent hours writing her something akin to a platonic love letter on a journal which I hoped she’d continue writing on in order to process and face the pain instead of avoiding it – my number one worry for her. That, apart from being concerned for her being alone in the open road (having witnessed multiple people catcalling her and even approaching her unsolicitedly), were the main reason I didn’t wanna leave her.
I knew we’d stay close. I knew that. I felt the same about Becca in Belize and Emma in Utila, and we had managed to stay in touch and give each other updates unfailingly over the previous months – imagine us two! We had been in each other’s company every day for some two and a half months – we had become like siblings, shared many firsts together, bore our hearts out. I knew I’d miss her like crazy, that’s for sure, but I also knew nothing would change between us.
And so, after spending some time all huddled up together on a couch, my arms wrapped around her, my head over hers, our eyes all teary, we went to bed.