Prologue to Nicaragua
We leave the Liberia, CR bus station early in the morning. Apart from food vendors, taxi drivers and the odd 'money changer' wanting to sell you Nicaragua cordobas (dollars), it is pretty tranquillo......and a short 90 minute ride to the frontier.....and the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border.
Before boarding, we exchange all our CR colones for Nicaragua cordobas. Got to love human ATM bank machines!
Our ride is easy, clean, safe and cheap. Approaching the border, but still kilometres away, we pass freight trucks waiting to go north. The line extends for kilometers........yea......trade seems bottlenecked here.
The bus stops at the Costà Rica border and we walk forward....
1st stop the $8 (American) exit payment...
2nd Stop....step inside an official-looking building and get an exit stamp in our passports .......
Then, pass through several security checks .. No problem!
We cross into a 'no man's' land of about 500 metres between CR and Nicaragua. It's filled with trucks, vendors, people walking north/south, security/uniforms and guns. All pretty typical of every border we've walked through the past few years. Organized chaos....that seems to work.
The Nicaragua checkpoint.....
Stop #3 to pay a $1.00 tax....then get an entry stamp in our passports for Nicaragua.....
Stop #4....pay another $12 ...and put our packs through an airport type scanner....(which no one seemed to pay attention to)....and...we are free to go...all told ...no more than 30 minutes. Easy! And, no time for El Bano!
Adios Costa Rica!!
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...........Parting thoughts on Costa Rica
We've been looking forward to Nicaragua for quite some time. Costa Rica just didn't fit the bill for us. In CR, we found high prices and lots of tourists. While the country prides itself as an eco-friendly, nature preserve...it is seemingly beginning to price itself out of reach for many. Those that visit CR, will no doubt find that an adventure in the great outdoors can still be found. And, for those on the east coast of Canada/United States, CR is an easy direct flight and provides a decent Hawaii-like type holiday.
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Welcome to Nicaragua
For your referencing pleasure....
Clearing Nicaragua customs, we bargain with a taxi driver to take us to San Juan Del Sur, a beach town. Starting at $30, we settle on a $20 fare for the 45 minute ride to SJDS.
San Juan Del Sur
We spend several days hanging out in SJDS. The coffee's great and the vibe is 'funky'.
With tons of hostels, this is the place to surf, drink some beers and chill out.
While nothing special, SJDS is home to a fair number of expats living/wintering there.
We do meet some great people...
... visit another beach, Playa Remanso, via the back of a pick-up truck that runs once daily for the 30 minute bumpy ride...
We get to the Jesus statue overlooking the picturesque bay...
Lake Nicaragua/Ometepe Island
After enough sun and little to do.....we head for Lake Nicaragua and Isla de Ometepe. Getting a 'chicken bus' from SJDS to the town of Rivas is easy. We even manage seats for the hour ride to the ferry port. Our driver flies along the narrow road; if we'd had these speed demons on school trips in our other life....it would have made learning an exciting real life adventure for our students.
Once in Rivas we hop from bus to cab to ferry with little problem. Grabbing some seats on the sunny upper deck of the car ferry, we sit back and enjoy the views of Ometepe Island and its twin volcanoes.
Conception Volcano, last active in 2012
We head for the village of Santa Domingo. We don't have rooms booked, but know there's several places with rooms and restaurants.
We find Mira Flores right on the beach with warm wavy waters... Ometepe is an extremely windy island with the trade winds blowing day and night which certainly helps with the heat...
Ometepe (means two mountains)...has only one road that circles the island like a tipped over figure 8....bus service everywhere is infrequent and generally crowded...
Lake Nicaragua is also a critical part of a long time plan to build a canal from the Caribbean coast ... through San Juan River ...into the lake and then connecting to the Pacific somewhere around San Juan Del Sur....stay tuned!
Santa Domingo Village
This quiet, peaceful village is stretched along the volcanic beach shore sands of Lake Nicaragua one of the largest lakes in the world.
Maderas Volcano
Spending several days on this side (facing east)....we visit a local fresh water swimming hole... (Ojo de Aqua) It's s a bit developed charging $5 US to enter but it is a relaxing oasis to take a swim and have a cold drink.
We hitch a ride in the back of a pick up with a family back to SD...
... check out a local, organic chocolate farm El Petal, (yum) where we are shown the process followed by sampling some of their chocolates and special smoothies... So good!
and hike along a jungle trail complete with
white-faced Capuchin monkeys...
massive panama tree
However, the highlight of our stay in Santa Domingo is an evening spent with a local family. While nature, wildlife, scenery and 'doing things' are certainly reasons to travel, we find the interaction with people provide us with our most memorable moments.
The family seems to have started the village of Santa Domingo....once a family farm...land was split between the 12 children....now many family run businesses dot the shore line of Santa Domingo Village.
The next day we're on the ferry back to the mainland. ..
Goodbye Ometepe !
Adios from
Shayne y Yvonne
Additional Random Photos
