"JUSTIN, DID YOU JUST BRIBE HIM?"

wind farm, on the way to Costa Rica

We are always excited to get into a new country.  We thought that this border crossing would be easier because we've been to it before but it still was complicated and time consuming.  In total leaving Nicaragua and entering Costa Rica took about four hours, our longest crossing yet.

We ended up getting a helper to exit Nicaragua and lucky we did.  There were two Tico charter buses that arrived at the same time.  At least over a hundred people trying to get their passport stamped, with one official on duty.  For the first time Justin did a no-no.  He put five american dollars in each passport, handed it to the helper and nodded in the direction of the official.  The helper walked to the head of the line and shoved them under the window.  He then stepped back and casually waited for the passports while Justin was still at the back of the line, trying to look all innocent.  Have to say, that was money well spent because that line could of tacked an additional two hours to this border.  We don't even feel guilty about it - well maybe a little.

One thing we just can't wrap our heads around is that they never have to see me (Nadine) to stamp my passport.  Really, none of these countries have confirmed I exist.  Except for Mexico, Justin has done all of the border crossings on his own, while I wait with the truck and stay with Anna.  With two exceptions, exiting El Salvador and entering Costa Rica.  That's two out of twelve borders (entering and exiting) that I have been requested to show myself.  Isn't that strange?

Another thing we haven't written much about is bringing Anna the explorer, across the borders.  When we were researching bringing an animal into all of these countries all we could find was conflicting information - when we could even find any information.  So to be prepared, we brought along with us vaccination records, receipts and a bill of health from our vet.  We, of course, made numerous photocopies.  Some countries didn't care and thought it was bizarre that we had a cat with us but the ones that did care always asked for the "official, original documents".  These official, original documents (that's always what they call them), happens to be a photocopy.  They see a stamp from another country and think that its some sort of official document, what they are actually stamping is her vaccination receipt of payment.  In Honduras, they have an actual  document that says she's good to travel in all Central American countries.  We show this document but all they care about is the one with the stamps on it - her vaccination receipt of payment.  Forget her bill of health, forget her actual vaccination record and forget the legal form they issued in Honduras - they just want to stamp where others have stamped before.

Another thing that happens at all the borders is that there are people constantly coming up to me, trying to sell me stuff.  Usually its food, drinks and trinkets.  At this border I had someone come up to me with one of the most unusual items ever.  A MINI SPIROGRAPH SET!  He demonstrated how to use it and showed me his designs in an array of colours.  I have to say, this was one of the cutest things anyone has ever tried to sell me, but since I'm not in need of a spirograph set at this time, I had to decline.

After getting through the borders we had a short drive to Liberia.  Along the way, we both remarked that somehow everything seemed even greener and more lush than anywhere else we've been, if thats even possible.  As well Costa Rica is not known for smooth roads and it didn't disappoint.  Driving on these highways is a similar experience to flying in an airplane in turbulence.

We arrived in Liberia, spotted a McDonalds and stopped at the nearest hotel to it.  Its not fine dining, nor is it good for you but sometimes you got to have it.

yeah, thats 250 000 colones

After our non-fine dining experience we grabbed a coffee and found a spot to stop and watch the world go by.  While we were sitting there, we both suddenly started to feel dizzy and a tad nauseous.  We thought it may be the fries but as it turns out it was a 5.5 earthquake.  It was the strangest feeling, we felt like we were going to fall over.  When it dawned on us what was going on, we thought, "did that just happen?"  We looked around and nobody even seemed to notice, I guess thats just normal here.  Later that day we felt another one.  This is going to take some getting used to.

this looks like perfect weather for the beach

GO WITH THE FLOW

Ever since we left the Caribbean in Mexico we have been really craving a long stop beside the ocean.  For one reason or another we just couldn't make it work.  So our newest plan was to find a great beach in Nicaragua and stay for awhile.  We wanted to use our maximum time in the CA-4 (border agreement of a 90 day stay between the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) before we headed to pricey Costa Rica.

So while in Granada, we started looking for a rental somewhere in southern Nicaragua.  Since its low season and we've always had good luck securing a last minute good deal on a property, we thought this wasn't going to be a problem at all.  But as always, there is a big difference between what we think is going to happen and what actually happens.

We've always had good luck using real estate agents to find places to stay for short term rentals.  So we looked one up and started a correspondence.  She had a few places that fit all our criteria and were great prices.  We picked one and said we would take it.  So we packed up to leave early the next morning and luckily before we left, we checked our email.  She had emailed saying that the property wouldn't be ready for another day.  No big deal, we payed for another night at our hotel, not really concerned.  Then later that day she emailed again saying that now the property wasn't available and that all our other choices from before have been rented out now but that she had some new options for us.  Still, not a big deal, we picked another one, more expensive but a really nice place (a house up in the hills with a pool for about $40 a day and it had everything).  We called her, said we would take it, asked if this was guaranteed (she said yes) and made plans to meet the next day.

When we arrived she told us of another rental in the same price range and she really talked it up.  We said we would take a look but it turned out not to be anything that special for the price asked.  We said we just wanted to go with our original choice.  Our spydy senses started tingling when she walked away from us and got on her cell phone.  Meanwhile we were hot and dying in the truck, Anna was overheating and we were suffering through some sort of stomach bug, becoming increasingly more unhappy about the situation.  She came back after about fifteen minutes and said that the owner is doubling his price.  Now we were pissed. This real estate agent kept stringing us along because she hadn't done her homework.  She then wanted us to get on the phone and deal with the owner ourselves.  We said forget it.

She then asked us to come back to her office with her so she could find us something else.  We really didn't trust her but we wanted to get Anna into air conditioning, so we went.  As soon as we got into the office a large dog lunged at Anna in her travel bag.  We were able to get the dog down and nothing ended up happening to Anna but why would she bring us into a room, with a cat, where she knows there is a resident dog - why not at least warn us?

We took Anna outside to settle down, Justin went back in to see what was going on.  Upon entering the office, Justin realized from hearing her side of the phone conversation that she was now cold calling peoples residences enquiring when their homes would be available and if they would leave so that we could move in. Enough was enough, this was crazy - we finally started listening to the voice in the back of our heads that said its time to go.  We were just not meant to stay here.

San Juan del Sur is really close to the border with Costa Rica so there was really no where else for us to go in this county unless we started driving north again.  So we scrapped our plans.  We found a hotel and started to figure out a rental in Costa Rica.  In the end we secured an even better rate for a place beside the ocean, exactly what we wanted.  We did end up staying in town for a few days and actually ended up liking it.  The town was quiet, laid back and it had a great used book store.  We had a few really good seafood meals and watched a game of the countries favourite sport- baseball.

The point of this long drawn out post, that is about nothing more than things not going the way we planned for them to, is that we still haven't learnt one of the lessons that we have come to these countries to learn. Sometimes things are just out of your control and when they don't work - they don't work, theres no use in getting upset about it.

We still need to work on mastering, tranquilo, a word we hear a lot down here.  Something our spanish neighbours to the south have down pat.

Annas got tranquilo down, she doesn't care that her foots in her food while she sleeps!

CIGARS, RUM, CHOCOLATE AND ROCKING CHAIRS

We left Las Penitas and started the long drive to Granada.  We began the day by launching the truck baja style on a tope and miraculously not damaging the truck.  Next, we had to drive through the capital city of Managua, not known for its signage.  Somehow we managed to drive through this maze of a city without getting lost.  We did all this without coffee.

 
Granada is another gorgeous colonial city.  Brightly coloured buildings, a massive center square, beautiful churches, great restaurants and a really friendly vibe.  It's an easy place to spend some time and soak in the history.  Out of all the places we have been to, this is a city we would recommend to visit.  It has it all - culture, nightlife, lots of cheap adventure activities and the ocean is a short drive away.

 

One of the things Nicaragua is known for is making cigars (something you might not know is a large percentage of cigars sold in Cuba are made here.)  We found ourselves outside of a cigar shop/factory and went in and asked for a tour.  They happily obliged and walked us through the process.

cigar leaves drying

they can produce up to 700 a day

At the end of the tour, our guide brought us to the walk in humidor to try and sell us some cigars.  He brought us to a sitting area where we could drink cognac and flip through gentlemen magazines.  Since neither of us are gentlemen or cigar smokers, we declined and were on our way.

 
Our next stop was the chocolate factory.  This place was great!  We took a workshop on how to make chocolate bars.  This was very exciting to both of us.  Chocolate bars don't really exist in any of these countries and we are constantly craving them so when we found this place it was like Christmas morning.

doesn't justin look cute in an apron

roasting the beans until they started to pop 

husking the super hot beans

We learnt about the history of cocoa beans and how they are grown in Nicaragua.  We were shown how to roast, husk and crush the beans into a paste.  This actually was a lot of hard work and tough on the hands. It took us about an hour to make each of our chocolate bars.  We also made an Aztec hot chocolate drink, a Mayan  hot chocolate drink and a Spanish hot chocolate drink - all of them very good.  But after all those hot drinks and the chocolate making work we were completely overheated and felt a little sick from too much super rich chocolate.

our organic, stone ground, hand made, coffee flavoured chocolate bars

as you can see, it was a lot of work by the state of Justins shirt

picking up our chocolate bars the next day

The next thing we did was take a boat ride out to Las Isletas on lake Nicaragua.  These are a series of islands created by a massive explosion which took out a side of a volcano.  There are well over three hundred tiny little tropical islands.  Some are inhabited with grand homes, some have hotels and others restaurants but the best one of all was the one that had four monkeys living on it.  As always, the best part of this trip was learning about the history of this country from a locals point of view and not from a book.

Las Isletas with volcan Mombacho, the one that created these islands

monkeys with a tomato

Something else we noticed while walking around town (and all over Nicaragua) is that every home is guaranteed to have at least two rocking chairs.  It seems to be the national pastime here, so we thought we would give it a try....

Last but not least is the rum.  Flor de Cana, 18 year old rum was on the list of things we could not leave the country without.  We searched all the grocery stores and the little tiendas to find the best price.  It was still over forty dollars for the eighteen year old but its the best so we splurged.

taking a break, watching the activities in the square

the fountain in the center square

horse drawn carriages

cathedral de Granada

the oldest church in central america - Iglesia de San Francisco 

parade, couldn't figure out what it was for

ALL WE WANT IS TO USE OUR TWO AND A HALF LITRES OF SUN SCREEN

Just to backtrack a little.....

We really enjoyed our short stay in El Salvador.  Incredible people and incredible beaches.  We didn't see a lot of this tiny country but what we did see was amazing.

The drive along the ocean was beautiful and the roads were so much better than we ever expected.  We were told about another beach to go to, Las Flores in south eastern El Salvador.  We had some trouble finding a hotel here and at one point we took a wrong turn and ended up right on the beach.  Whoops! Eventually we found a hotel and it made all the headaches of finding a hotel worth it.

I guess this isn't the right way

This was a sweet little area.  The surfing is good, the views spectacular but the weather didn't want to cooperate.  We spent a couple days here getting over yet another cold, eating good food and hanging around some really nice people.

you know Justins bored when he has a book in his hand

brand new shoes and one puddle equals this

So we left with intentions of hitting the Honduras border when we saw a sign for an international hotel, the Comfort Inn.  We swear there were rays of sunlight beaming from the sign.  "The border can wait," we said in unison.  We haven't stayed in a hotel like this since Canada.  Crisp, clean white sheets, a comfortable bed, hot water and internet in the room makes a one night stay turn into three.  This really was just your standard hotel room but the fact that it was bug free (except for a few ants we brought along with us) made this the ultimate in comfort.  We basically just did laundry, watched television, read books and stayed out of the rain while we were here.  Cultural experiences zero, a happy Justin and Nadine, priceless.

After begrudgingly packing the truck, we headed for the border.  After this you would think we would of been cool, calm and collected.  But.....check out the  Honduran incident.

There is one part of our Honduras story that we didn't write about.  Mainly because it was so embarrassing. It goes like this, Justin went to go exit Honduras and I waited with the truck.  One of the coyotes that was hanging around Justin when he left, came running back to the truck and frantically said in spanish that Justin needed twenty dollars.  I can't remember exactly the reason he told me.  At this point huge alarm bells were ringing in my head but for some reason, I pushed my doubts aside and handed him the money.  WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!!  We have been travelling for this long and have come across all sorts of scams and I fall for THIS!!!!!  When Justin came back and needed more money, I asked him, what about the twenty.  When he looked at me confused, I knew instantly I had been scammed.  I hung my head in shame and told Justin what I did.  He just grinned and said that this will be a funny story in the future.  This is by far the thickest moment I've ever had and I'll never fully comprehend why I did that.  I think I'll just blame it on the heat.

Our first big stop in Nicaragua was in the city of Leon.  The driving in the city was confusing, none of the one ways made any sense and before we knew it, we were lost.  Justin ended up hailing a cab and we followed him to a hotel.  They saw Anna and wouldn't allow us in, so we headed for a budget breaking hotel and snuck Anna in.

the out of budget hotel - what were we doing here?

 
We spent our time wandering the streets, going to museums and visiting the largest cathedral in Central America.

Leon was a nice pit stop but what we really wanted to do was lay on the beach, so we headed for Las Penitas.  At first, we thought we had found paradise.  Few people around, huge black sand beaches and quiet. But after eating at the only open restaurant we could find and it making Justin sick combined with having to put up our mosquito net on the bed for the first time and still getting eaten alive, we realized that this was not paradise.  The real kicker was when it started to rain on us through the roof of our cabin while we were trying to sleep.

Anna chill'n at the table while we drank our first Tonas

it really only rained on Justins quarter of the bed

empty beaches with nice waves

So we left the beach and headed for the colonial city of Granada.....

On a side note, we are a lot further down the road now and we still haven't been able to pull out the sunscreen!