Nicaragua
today we went for a day trip to Nicaragua, which turned out be very close to Playa Hermosa Guanacaste
the day before we booked a trip, and today at exactly 5:30 in the morning we were picked by a shuttle with the driver/tour guide Jose who took us to Nicaragua
the trip started with a stop in the city of Liberia (still in Costa Rica) where we had breakfast...by 7am we were done with it and on our way to the border, which we reached around 8:30am...it was easy to figure out that we are getting close because we saw a huge line (probably a couple of miles long) of huge trucks waiting to cross the border...it's probably gonna take them days or maybe even weeks to get to Nicaragua, so the drivers hang their hammocks at the bottom of their trucks and take advantage of local's business, such as offers to buy food or rent a shower...
according to our guide, 95% of Costa Rica's goods exchanges happen at this border because of Panama Canal, which makes it very easy/cheap to transport things to and from various countries, and this is why the border is so busy...also, the border checks of such trucks are pretty sctrict because of potential drug smuggling, especially considering that Panama is right next to Colombia
we, obviously, were not planning on staying in line (apparently there were two lines -- one for trucks and the other -- for everyone else), so we passed all the trucks via the lane on the opposite side of the road (the freeways in Costa Rica seem to only have one lane in each direction), occasionally getting off the road completely, so that oncoming traffic could pass
recall that i said that we got to the border around 8:30am...unfortunately, it was one o'clock when we finally entered Nicaragua...this is probably the most adventurous part of the trip, but according to our guide, today it took way longer than it was expected...there were a couple of reasons for it: first of all, it was Saturday, second -- this is easter week, which everyone gets off, and thus all the Nicaraguans working in Costa Rica (apparently, while in Nicaragua people survive on $1.20 per day, in Costa Rica they can get paid $2.40 per hour, which is the reason why many Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica) were getting home to their families to celebrate easter...finally, our guide was hoping to get help from his friends and arrange it, so that we don't have to stand in the common line to get stamps in our passports, but, unfortunately, all of his friends were off today...so, in order to get departure stamps on the Costa Rican side we actually stood in line, and in order ot get arrival stamps on the Nicaraguan side we played the "pregnant lady" card, and therefore managed to get inside the building without standing in line...of course, inside the building we still had to stand in line...then our guide had to stand in another line to get all the paperwork for the vehicle done, and only afterwards we entered Nicaragua
unfortunately, because we wasted so much time at the border, the rest of the trip was very rushed...first we drove through the city of Rivas, then we drove by the Lake of Nicaragua, which turns out to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world...there are two volcano islands in the lake...by the way, it turns out that "Nicaragua" means "the land of volcanos and lakes"
then we went to the city of Masaya ("the land of deer") where we had lunch at the Masayan Market...while we were waiting for food, we bought a couple of souvenirs at the market...unfortunately, we had very little time and we were strongly encouraged to use a couple of guys that followed us around and told us whether the price for the stuff we wanted to buy was reasonable...wondering around the market with a couple of guys breathing down your neck is not that much fun
after lunch, we went to see Masaya Volcano...we didn't stay very long there because it was smoking, and the wind was blowing the smoke in our direction making us all cough...the impressive thing about this volcano is that you can go up to the very edge of its crator and just look down into it, and this is an active volcano
it was probably already 4 o'clock when we were leaving the volcano...our next destination was Granada -- the oldest city of Central America, which was founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who was from the Spanish Granada, which is why he named the new city Granada as well...also, Nicaraguan currency is called cordobas in his name...
in Granada, we took a ride in a carriage drawn by two horses around the historic part of the city, which actually turned out to be very cute...i wish we had more time to walk around the streets, look at colonial houses, and watch people sitting in rocking chairs outside their homes, but at 5:30pm we started to head back to the border -- it gets dark pretty early here, around 6:10pm
the road back was uneventful, except for maybe a couple of drunk guys trying to cross the freeway and almost getting hit by our shuttle...there were no lines at the border, so we managed to do all the paperwork very quickly, and by 10pm were back at the hotel
our guide, however, still had work ahead of him even though today he woke up around 4am -- he still had to go to his office and file all of the expense reports for the trip, and tomorrow he has to be back at work...according to him, during the high season their employees work 12-16-hour days 7 days a week in order to compensate for the low season
Nicaragua definitely looked a lot more poor than Costa Rica -- its poor parts, that is...unlike Costa Rica that abolished their military in return for education, Nicaragua still has strong military that requires a lot of money to support...the funny thing is that the main sport in Nicaragua is baseball (not soccer) because of earlier strong US influence
in any case, i am exhausted, since I got up at 5am today, and now it's almost midnight, but tomorrow we have another relaxing day before heading back to Alajuela, and then back to US
the day before we booked a trip, and today at exactly 5:30 in the morning we were picked by a shuttle with the driver/tour guide Jose who took us to Nicaragua
the trip started with a stop in the city of Liberia (still in Costa Rica) where we had breakfast...by 7am we were done with it and on our way to the border, which we reached around 8:30am...it was easy to figure out that we are getting close because we saw a huge line (probably a couple of miles long) of huge trucks waiting to cross the border...it's probably gonna take them days or maybe even weeks to get to Nicaragua, so the drivers hang their hammocks at the bottom of their trucks and take advantage of local's business, such as offers to buy food or rent a shower...
according to our guide, 95% of Costa Rica's goods exchanges happen at this border because of Panama Canal, which makes it very easy/cheap to transport things to and from various countries, and this is why the border is so busy...also, the border checks of such trucks are pretty sctrict because of potential drug smuggling, especially considering that Panama is right next to Colombia
we, obviously, were not planning on staying in line (apparently there were two lines -- one for trucks and the other -- for everyone else), so we passed all the trucks via the lane on the opposite side of the road (the freeways in Costa Rica seem to only have one lane in each direction), occasionally getting off the road completely, so that oncoming traffic could pass
recall that i said that we got to the border around 8:30am...unfortunately, it was one o'clock when we finally entered Nicaragua...this is probably the most adventurous part of the trip, but according to our guide, today it took way longer than it was expected...there were a couple of reasons for it: first of all, it was Saturday, second -- this is easter week, which everyone gets off, and thus all the Nicaraguans working in Costa Rica (apparently, while in Nicaragua people survive on $1.20 per day, in Costa Rica they can get paid $2.40 per hour, which is the reason why many Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica) were getting home to their families to celebrate easter...finally, our guide was hoping to get help from his friends and arrange it, so that we don't have to stand in the common line to get stamps in our passports, but, unfortunately, all of his friends were off today...so, in order to get departure stamps on the Costa Rican side we actually stood in line, and in order ot get arrival stamps on the Nicaraguan side we played the "pregnant lady" card, and therefore managed to get inside the building without standing in line...of course, inside the building we still had to stand in line...then our guide had to stand in another line to get all the paperwork for the vehicle done, and only afterwards we entered Nicaragua
unfortunately, because we wasted so much time at the border, the rest of the trip was very rushed...first we drove through the city of Rivas, then we drove by the Lake of Nicaragua, which turns out to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world...there are two volcano islands in the lake...by the way, it turns out that "Nicaragua" means "the land of volcanos and lakes"
then we went to the city of Masaya ("the land of deer") where we had lunch at the Masayan Market...while we were waiting for food, we bought a couple of souvenirs at the market...unfortunately, we had very little time and we were strongly encouraged to use a couple of guys that followed us around and told us whether the price for the stuff we wanted to buy was reasonable...wondering around the market with a couple of guys breathing down your neck is not that much fun
after lunch, we went to see Masaya Volcano...we didn't stay very long there because it was smoking, and the wind was blowing the smoke in our direction making us all cough...the impressive thing about this volcano is that you can go up to the very edge of its crator and just look down into it, and this is an active volcano
it was probably already 4 o'clock when we were leaving the volcano...our next destination was Granada -- the oldest city of Central America, which was founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, who was from the Spanish Granada, which is why he named the new city Granada as well...also, Nicaraguan currency is called cordobas in his name...
in Granada, we took a ride in a carriage drawn by two horses around the historic part of the city, which actually turned out to be very cute...i wish we had more time to walk around the streets, look at colonial houses, and watch people sitting in rocking chairs outside their homes, but at 5:30pm we started to head back to the border -- it gets dark pretty early here, around 6:10pm
the road back was uneventful, except for maybe a couple of drunk guys trying to cross the freeway and almost getting hit by our shuttle...there were no lines at the border, so we managed to do all the paperwork very quickly, and by 10pm were back at the hotel
our guide, however, still had work ahead of him even though today he woke up around 4am -- he still had to go to his office and file all of the expense reports for the trip, and tomorrow he has to be back at work...according to him, during the high season their employees work 12-16-hour days 7 days a week in order to compensate for the low season
Nicaragua definitely looked a lot more poor than Costa Rica -- its poor parts, that is...unlike Costa Rica that abolished their military in return for education, Nicaragua still has strong military that requires a lot of money to support...the funny thing is that the main sport in Nicaragua is baseball (not soccer) because of earlier strong US influence
in any case, i am exhausted, since I got up at 5am today, and now it's almost midnight, but tomorrow we have another relaxing day before heading back to Alajuela, and then back to US