Day 33-40 Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Day 33-40  Sunday-Sunday, March 20-27

     This has been another wonderful week of just enjoying the beautiful weather. It has begun to get much hotter than when we arrived with temperatures ranging in the 90's during the day. Still no rain. It is very dry. The Oaks has an inground watering system that comes on in the evening  and gives everything a nice drink of water. Many of the beautiful blooming plants are beginning to fade a tad and new buds are coming out.

     Some of the highlights of the week are:
*The monkeys came very close to the road where we walk every morning. It was fun to watch the two babies swinging around in the trees. There were about nine of them.
*At night this week the sounds of the frogs has gotten extremely loud. We never noticed it before this week. Larry says it has to be the females calling for the males to pay attention to them. HA!
*Larry has made friends with one of  the guards at the Oakes. He makes a point of talking with us each day and is trying to teach us a little more Spanish. He has a wonderful dog that he is training...he walks him throught the area each day....we wonder if it is sniffing for drugs.
*Spotted our first Costa Rican squirrel. It was red with a grey stripe down its back.
*Spent a whole day at the beach walking and sitting under the shade of the coconut trees enjoying the scenery. The beach area is hopping now with lots of people  from the north....Spring Breakers.  You can easily tell because there is a lot of white skin with red burn. The stores are packed. The traffic is so much more. Kay spotted a topless sun bather while walking on the beach. The thongs are so prevelent that we don't pay much attention to it any more...Larry may disagree. Police ride their motorcycles  out on the beach. It was entertaining to watch all the action, but we were glad to retreat back to the Oaks for peace and quiet.
*Watching VCU beat Kansas 71-61.
*Made arrangements to get a Grey Line Bus back to the San Jose...about a 4-5 hour trip. Our flight leaves  on Thursday. We are getting excited about the next part of our adventure.

Day 30, 31, and 32 : Ometepe, Nicaragua

Day 30, 31, 32  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 17, 18, and 19

     The Hotel con Coridon ( Hotel with Heart) provided a nice breakfast with fruits, homemade bread, eggs or pancakes, coffee, tea, and a different kind of juice. We hung out at the hotel for the morning and took a cab at 10:00 to the ferry to purchase our tickets for $4.50 a piece to ride  the ferry to the island, Ometepe. Ometepe means two hills and was  formed by twin volcanos rising out of the lake.We were told that the island was unspoiled with shocking roads (My gosh, I have seen a lot of shocking roads already!) and  unbelievable charm.

     The ferry terminal was busier than the day before with people arriving with goods to be put on the ship and vendors selling snacks and drinks. After showing our passports, Larry was able to purchase two tickets. We got back into the taxi and went back to the hotel. The hotel was a relaxing oasis as the day grew hotter. At 12:30, we took a taxi back to the terminal.

Front of the boat terminal

Chicken Bus, local transportation

The Ferry Boat

The railway that had a flat bed railcar loaded to take supplies to the boat.

Men pushed the emptied flat bed car back to the building.

One vendor on the dock selling drinks and snacks before getting on the boat

     We boarded the the boat going to the top level. All Nicaraguans paid  the equivalent of $3.00 and rode on the lower level of the boat while the foreigners were told to ride the top level of the boat. Larry paid the equivilent of $3.00 each for two lounge chairs to sit out on the outside deck where the wind was whipping white caps in the lake. The boat pulled away from the dock a few minutes after 1:00.

These seat were pretty relaxing, I enjoyed reading a good book during our ride.

     We were surrounded by back packers, young couples, and  retirees who were looking for an adventure. Many were planning to rise at 5:30 the next morning to take the 10-12 hour steep climb up to the top of  Volcan de Conception which rises 1610 meters(about 5000 feet) above the lake in an almost perfect cone. Conception is still active with its last major eruption being in 1957. Would you want to live on this island knowing that the volcano out yourback door was still active? The other volcano, Maderas was smaller rising 1394 meters.  The boat ride was suppose to take 4 hours, but because of the high winds, it took 6 hours. We passed no other boats on the lake the whole trip and passed two volcanos to the west and land was spotted the whole way....thank goodness.  It was very windy and sprays of water from the lake would come over on us at times even on the top deck.

Another beautiful sunset on Lake Nicaragua

Two nights before the super moon

     As the sun set it was quite cool, especially with the spray of the water and wind blowing . We arrived at 7:00pm. The sun had set and we  walked through a large group of people who were boarding for the 9 hour trip to San Carlos. I did not envy these folks because of the rough water on the lake that they were going in encounter with the high winds.
     We had to walk up an unpaved  road for a bit of a distance, through a tall fence looking for our driver who we had hired earlier in the day to take us to the hotel. Luck was on our side that he was parked beyond the gate. He had his wife and his one year old son with him. Climbing into the back of his rickety van, he took us for a half an hour ride from the dock to Santa Cruz, Nicaragaua. For about 15 minutes of the ride we rode down another rough unpaved bumpy road. His car was making a grinding sound and Larry said, "This car needs some axle grease bad." I thought, "Please just get us to the hotel." The road then turned to the interlocked paved blocks that we had seen in Granada....a welcome change. Through the moonlight (it was almost the super moon) we noticed a lot of banana or plantain trees on each side of the road. Many natives were sitting outside their little houses enjoying the breezes.
     We were so happy to check into the hotel. It had air conditioning, a television with two English channels, a front porch with a hammock and two rustic chairs and table, and an attached bathroom, but no hot water. The walls were stoned from the inside...looking  very rustic at night. The wind blew hard all night.

We stayed at Hotel Villa Paraiso (Paradise)

                                                        The hotel lobby was open air.

Our bungalow, spent two nights here

View of Lake Nicaragua from our hotel

       The next day we realized that we were actually in a little bungalow and there were 20 such houses that sat right on the edge of a beach on Lake Nicaragua. The views from on top of the  little cliff where our bungalow sat were gorgeous looking out on the lake. The hotel restaurant also had magnificent views of the lake. We explored the little village and the beach on Friday. There were horses for rent across the street to ride up to the  volcano,  Two small rustic stores were located along the road  close to the hotel. We enjoyed the day taking pictures and relaxing with the new folks that we had met. This was the real Nicaragua. In the late afternoon around 3:00  the winds died down and these tiny little mosquitos came out....making us retreat to our room. The restaurant fixed us a great grilled chicken, plantains, rice, and salad dinner....one plate was enough to feed both Larry and I.
      The following morning we jumped into the hotel van around 8:15 and headed for the other side of the island to catch the ferry, a half an hour ride to San Jose de Sur. We passed through a couple of villages. The homes were stucco with tin roofs.Lots of Nics were riding horses or pulling carts with horses. Many had been busy gathering fire wood. Several horses were loaded down with the fire wood. They used this firewood to cook with.

A cart loaded with firewood.

       We made it to the ferry by 8:55 and watched the ferry dock. We boarded the ferry....this one allowed us to sit in the bottom of the boat, paying 80 cordove to ride for an hour to Saint Georgie.

The ferry to St. Georgie

     Our driver that we had arranged for in Granada did not show up, but we did manage to get a taxi to take us back to Pinas Blancas, the border town. We approached the same situation of tractor trailer trucks lined up on the Nicaraguan side of the driving lane. Our taxi drove in the on coming lane squeezing between these trucks and buses, other tractor trailers, cars, bicycles, horses and whateverelse came our way. Sometimes it was a pretty tight squeeze getting through and I just held my breath thinking, "I don't know how the cabby is going to squeeze us through."

So long to Nicaragua!

     Finally we made it to the border, and two people approached us telling us that we had to pay a dollar for this and a dollar for that. We passed through a little fenced gate with two girls collecting a dollar for each of to pass. This young man who spoke pretty good English came out of no where, guiding us to the places that we needed to go. It was such chaos that if he had not been there, I'm not sure we would have been able to find our way back. Anyway, he lead us clear on the other side of a huge building to the Nicaraguan passport office, which we recognized once we got past the building. I went into get our passports checked in while Larry went to find the most gosh awful bathroom that he has ever used in his whole life including China's.Men and women were using it and he had to pay two dollars to get a few sheets of TP as well as some water that you would use to flush it. The passport guard checked the passports out of the country but would not give me back Larry's passport. Larry had to go and get it from him. Then the young man led us to the Costa Rica pass port area which was way on the other side of the building.. No problems here. Larry found a cab driver that he negotiated with to take us back to the Oaks, a two hour ride for $65 dollars. It was a bargin to us. We could have taken the pubic bus, but it would have taken 4-5 hours to get back into our area during the hottest part of the day which this time of year is the 90's. Besides that the public bus has no airconditioning. The cab driver was fantastic meaning, he drove without passing everything on the road and he used the airconditioning the whole way. He spoke very little English so it was a very peaceful trip.
     In summary, Nicaragua is a lot poorer than Costa Rica. It is a lot dirter. You can not drink the water. We were told that it was a lot cheaper to live here...but we did not see any indication that it was. Perhaps if we had gone further into the country  we may have seen this. We did meet an American couple from Richmond who had sold their home in the USA and were planning to live in Granada for the year. They had been there for a month and seemed to be enjoying it.  Nicaraguans appear to live in structures that are more sturdier than the grass huts of East Timor. They don't seem to have the compounds or fences around their houses that we see a lot of in Costa Rica. Their windows of their houses are not barred as frequently....perhaps because they do not own valuable things to keep safe. They do have their share of dirt roads.

     When we arrived back at the Oaks, it looked fabulous. Traveling to Nicaragua was a good experience, but we sure were glad to have our nice conveniences of a hot shower, clean housing, and pleasant surroundings.

Day 28--29: Trip to Granada, Nicaragua

Day 28-29: Tuesday, March 15-March 16

     We packed our backpack and a small shoulder bag for a five day trip to Nicaragua leaving around 10:00 am. Larry made arrangements for a hotel in Granada for two nights and we stopped in Liberia to return our car. Rental cars are only allowed to be driven in the country where they are leased and are not allowed to cross into bordering countries. The car company gave us a ride to the bus station  in Liberia where we were planning to hop on board a local bus to ride to the border. We arrived at the  terminal around noon and found that we had just missed a bus but another one was leaving in an hour. A cab driver approached Larry to see if he wanted to taxi there, saying it would cost $40.00. The cabby was speakiing mostly Spanish and Larry was speaking mostly English so there was a lot of sign language and writing on a piece of paper going on. Larry said the bus was only going to cost $6.00 for us, both but he would pay $20.00. The cabby was not interested, but he approached another lady who was waiting as well. Larry saw him approach her and so he started talking to her about sharing  a cab. In her thick French accent she said she would pay $10.00. So after a lot of talking and hand motioning with the cabby, the three of them finally agreed on a ride to the border for $30.00.

                                                         Larry, the negotiator
     The cabby wasn't the best driver....passing everything that he could and he had a foot that would excell and release the gas pedal and excell and release and on and on down the two lane road known as the Panamerican Highway. With no air conditioning, the wind whipping us was a nice relief to the noon heat.The area was very dry and you could see the volcanos with clouds around the top to the east as we traveled north. We felt a change in temperature as we went into a higher elevation and the area became greener indicating that they received a lot more rain. There were not many roads leading off of this main highway and there were only a couple of small inhabited villages.
       The lady, Margauxrain,  that we shared the cab with, spoke fluently French, Spanish, and English.  We called her Marga.She had been traveling by herself for 4 months through Central America with a huge backpack. She was a tiny thing and her backpack was as big as she was. She was from France and was planning to travel  through Nicaragua to Gutamala and on to Mexico for another month. I still can not believe that she was traveling alone. What a wonderful help she was!
      Anyway after about 45 minutes of riding north, we approached more than a hundred tractor trailers lined up waiting for their turn to go across the border in the traveling lane of the road. Those drivers had to have a lot of patience because they were waiting for approval to drive over the boarder and there was only one building that they could drive their trucks through to be inspected. It must have taken a day for them to gain entrance into Nicaragua. Anyway our cabby drove in the on coming lane, trying to manuver by tracter trailers, buses and other cars coming in our direction, passing all the  tractor trailers that were parked. Wheeee...it was interesting at times!
     Anyway we finally got to the point  at the border where the cabby could not go any further and  he stopped to let us out. From there we entered a air conditioned Costa Rican building to have our passports checked and then we walked through a fenced row about 3-4 kilometers to the Nicaraguan side. Vendors were everywhere selling baked goods and soft drinks. Nicaraguan men were flashing big wads of Nicaraguan cash at us wanting us to exchange our American dollars. Marga said that it was ok to exchange with them and I had read in our travel guide that generally they will give you a fair exchange. Larry stopped  and exchanged $40.00 for 540 cordoves. We later figured out that we should have gotten 800 cordoves so they got a nice tip from us.The border crossing  was really chaotic and  it was a pleasure to have Marga there to help us  get to the other side.
     Since Marga spoke the language, she asked many questions and then led us to the non-air conditioned  Nicaraguan passport office where we paid 24 dollars to enter the country. While we were  getting our passports stamped, she found a bus that would take us to Granada that was air conditioned and had really nice relaxing seats. While waiting for the bus to get ready to go, we stood amongst the vendors and beggars.
      One little old lady came up to us asking for a hand out and Marga gave her all of her Costa Rican  coins since she was not going back to Costa Rica.. The little lady was not happy to get these and it was obvious that it wasn't enough. We had never seen a beggar complain about getting money. Which brings up the topic of begging. In one of the restaurants that we ate dinner in,the menu had a page devoted to how to handle the begging that takes place in Nicaragua. The page stated that the children in Nicaragua have plenty to eat. The government and other charities have set up kitchens for families to come to get the normal Nicaraguan food and the children have learned to ask for dollars so that they can spend it on junk food that is not available in the free food kitchens. Most tourist are not aware of this and give them money, making the begging more prevelent. Although the Nicaraguans appear to be living in poorer housing conditions, they look very muscular and robust, in other words, healthy.

Inside the Nicaraguan Passport office...no air conditioning....and it is rather warm.

Marga and I are waiting for the bus.

    Vendors trying to sell their goods...I wondered how long the stuff had been in its little bags.

This lady sold hand woven hammocks ($10.00), storing one on her head.

     We finally paid $10.00 each and showed our passports to the bus porter and climbed on board. The bus passed Lake Nicaragua and the two volcanos that formed the  island, Ometepe, to the east of us. We drove for an hour passing through the towns of La Virgen, Rivas, Belen, and Nandame before arriving at Granada.

The bus pulled up to the side of the road and let us out. Another lady who had a home in Granada and also lived in Miami directed us to Park Central...our hotel was two blocks from there. We started walking. We admired the restored colonial buildings that lined the streets with their beautiful colors. We could not pass by an old cathedral, Iglesia de Xalteva, without walking inside.

                                                                 Iglesia de Xalteva

       As we left the cathedral, a young man with a horse and carriage asked for us to take a ride. Larry said, "Let's go"  and paid him one hundred cordoves ($5.00) We climbed on board and he took us for a tour of the city before taking us to Hotel Con Corazon.He went by another cathedral. A funeral was taking place.

What an elegant hearst.

The driver swung by Park Central and pointed out many of the sites in the area. The roads were all paved with interlocking paver blocks, nothing was asphalt or cement. The horses were very well trained, not flinching at the cars or the horns that honked upon  occasion. He drove us down the street, Calle de Calzada,  through an area that had lots of restaurants and  bars with outdoor seating. This area had been beautifully restored and was full of tourist having an afternoon refreshment. On we went to the Lake of Nicaragua, past the oldest church in the area, Igelsia de Guadalupe. It looked as though it had been burned on the outside and was not open. Two heathy looking boys approached us begging for a dollar....saying please, please, please! They had their English down.

Our hotel looks really good after a day of traveling.

     We checked in and decided to take a dip in a the pool. The hotel turns 100% of its profits over to the education of Nicaraguan children. The average Nicaraguan has a 4.6 grade education. Only 38 % of the population has a elementary education. The hotel has set a goal to help 300 children graduate from high school. This was a nice, clean facility with private bath, air conditioning, internet, and cable TV; however, it did not have hot water.

     After a good nights rest, we rented two bikes and rode to Parque Central. Just as Costa Rica, every town has a park in the center of town with a church on one end of it. We managed to ride our bikes to the cathedral  and get inside before a little shower occured. After climbing the bell tower and  taking some pictures, we rode our bikes to the market place.



Entering  Central Park...the roads that are paved are interlocking pavers....all others are dirt. 

Activity in the park

Napping at 10:00 am or did he spend the night there?

                                     The Cathedral at Park Central...absolutely beautiful inside.

Red tile roofs of Granada seen from the Cathedral Bell Tower

View from the Bell Tower

                                                                     Park Central

     With sun back out, we jumped on our bikes and started riding. We ended up at the market place. It was about two blocks by seven or eight blocks long and had everything from shoes to undies. Men sat behind old sewing machines mending shoes. There was a food market with lots of over ripe fruits. veggies, and  meats....out in the open hot air. Big sacks of grains....rice, beans, coffee, and things that we had never heard of. Cars, motorcycles , horse and carts, buses, trucks, taxis and bicycles were passing all these vendors.It was so busy and active that it was almost too much to take in all at once...you just couldn't capture everything that was going on because a  horn would blow at you to get out of the way or someone would yell at you to come look at their wares. It was exciting but we were glad to get down a back street away from it all after a while. Whew!

This market area dates back to 1890.

This is just unbelievable!

     We headed to the main street that we had walked down the night before and passed three sweet little girls in their school uniforms that were on their way home for lunch.

What cuties!

                                           Must have been lunch time for the horses as well!

      Larry was ready for lunch too so he suggested going up in the Iglesia de La Merced Bell Tower. It was a great idea because there was a wonderful breeze up there. We paid a dollar each and climbed up the narrow steps where it is claimed to be the best views of the city.This church was built in 1539, sacked by pirates in 1655, damaged by Leonese forces in 1854, and then restored  in 1862. It had beautiful stain glass windows.

                                                       Outside of the Iglesia de La Merced

Visitors frequented here as well as locals who came in to pray.

                                             There were  several more stained glass windows inside.

                                                          Stairway to the Bell Tower

What a view...the Cathedral at Park Central is in the background.

Rode the bikes back to Park Central....

and stopped to have a refreshing coke in the shade.

      I did some shopping and then we  headed our bikes to the lake ....many blocks to the east. The water looked very polluted. People were out swimming in the  waves. We looked at the dock and tried to purchase tickets to ride the ferry for the next day, but it was closed. Riding back to the hotel, we decided that we needed a  dip in the pool to cool off.  We had  a great day in Granda and were looking forward to riding the ferry to the twin volcanic island, Ometepe, the next day.