It was hard to say goo
dbye to Snake
and Sarah but what the heck I’m always up for a new adventure. I had put my back pack in the Motor home the night before cuz they were leaving at 11 and I 
didn’t want to miss the ride. So the next morning I went down to find the bus but it was gone! I thought shit those guys took off with my bag. So thought Oh well I’ll catch a ride on Alex’s motorcycle to catch up to them at the Nicaragua / Costa Rica border. But as I was walking back to see Alex I found the bus. The guys were having breakfast and we didn’t leave for awhile. Then we had to stop to fix a flat tire for 2 hrs. Then we had a 3 hr stop at the border cuz when u drive a vehicle into one of these countries u have to sign a form saying u wouldn’t sell the vehicle.
So what happens when we got back on the road the Police stop us on the highway in a routine check. They checked our passports and said a couple of us didn’t have exit visas stamped in our passport. But these were in Guatemala so they held us there for a hr. They talked about sending us back to the border but what could they do there since the stamps were needed from Guatemala not Nicaragua. So it seemed like shit this delay tactic was to try to get us to pay some money as a payoff. So we just hung in there and they finally gave us our passports back and we got on our way. We figured cuz there were 6 cops and it would be hard to extort money from us and keep it quiet among them but who knows. Then later we got stopped in another road block but it went smoother
So we finally pulled into Coco Beach about a hr into Costa Rica after dark. The guys headed to the internet to communicate with their friends they were to meet. They said they had been invited for Christmas in Pavonis de Golfdino. I thought well I’m going to just stay in Coco Beach but got convinced to head down to Pavonis with them. So we ate and decided to drive through the night so we could make it there during the day on Christmas Eve. This was a 10 hr trip right to border of Costa Rica and Panama.
So we drove through the night and made it there by Christmas Eve. But we had to spend 3 hrs at this ferry crossing which we didn’t know about. The problem was we had to wait for the tide to come in so we could get on the ferry. It was a real older wooden ferry but it was the only way to get to Pavonis cuz it’s really remote and not many people go there. Then after crossing on the ferry we were within 20 kms of the town when we reach a place in the road where the culvert was missing so had another detour.
Hey these were common problems that people driving face but the normal traveller doesn’t notice.
Pavonis is a real chilled village of about 1000 people but few travellers. There are a lot of Americans and Canadians living there to surf as it’s a big surging village. But they are all into the chilled life style so they weren’t much different than the Costa Ricans.
The guys had to check around to find where there friends lived. But finally located the house
San Juan Del Sur is a nice chilled town but have to go out of town for nicer beaches.
It’s a nice place to chill out but the places were all filled for Christmas tho there weren’t a lot of people around
So we took this room in this Dirt Bag place for the night cuz it was cheap.
One thing I noticed about Nicaragua is the rooms and buses are cheap but the food is not. Now go figure! We paid $5 each for a bed in this Guest House, it cost us $4 to get from Granada to San Juan Del Sur in a 3 hr bus ride which was reasonable. But then a meal of chicken and rice cost us $4 which is expensive relatively speaking. It seemed this Guest House was put together with second hand wood. Then in the morning the waterdidn’t work but we finally got a shower.
So headed to the beach and found that it the beach was more mud then sand. I didn’t care cuz I went for a run on the beach for 1 hr and got some exercise.
Then ran into a couple of old friends we met before. They told us about this band playing in this one bar that night. We decided to take it in that night. The band played everything from rock, pop, reggae, folk to Latino music. The members were from Vancouver and were travelling in a 1973 Motorhome converted to propane which had seen better days. But it ran OK and they had driven it down to Nicaragua from Vancouver with no trouble.
Got talking to them and one member said I could travel with them but didn’t think much about it. But the next day Sarah (English chick we met in Leon who was travelling the same way as us) and Alex (Canadian riding his motor cycle down to Brazil). So we had to hit the beach in the afternoon and to the bar to lesten to live music in the evening. I must have had a few drinks and decided to join the guys for the drive to Costa Rica. The others were headed to Ometepe which is an island in a crater with 2 volcanos for Christmas. Now I had been to a few volcanos so thought why not head south in the Motorhome cuz it would be a different way to travel.
So never saw much of San Juan Del Sur and decided hell let’s do it and go in the Motorhome. So parted company with Snake and Sarah,. Alex was riding his bike to Costa Rica.
So I headed out with the 4 guys on a Road trip in the Boom Boom Motorhome on a new adventure.
Not sure why we stopped in Granada, Nicaragua
Made a 2 day stop in Granada Nicaragua cuz it was there and we wanted to check it out! Sat in the Bigfoot Hostel in Leon saying we were going to Granada but took us till 3 pm to get going. The Snake, Sarah and I took a 3 hr bus trip to Granada which was relatively problem free.
Granada is a nice city which is a colonial style buildings similar to Leon, San Cristobel and Antigua that I had been to before so it was nice to see the town.
Stayed in the Braided Dog hostel or something like that. But there was only 1 bed available in the hostel so the Snake and I slept on mattresses on the floor for $5. Then since we had no beds we had lockers. Well I wasn’t impressed so I complained about it and I was offerred a free drink. But I wanted 2 so the Noisy wheel gets the grease.
So I got the 2 free drinks which was bad since we hadn’t eaten all day and it hit me hard. Then we all headed to listen to the Live Music in this Latino bar.
So I had a chance to practice my Salsa dancing which is coming along but have a long way to go to get to a level like the Latinos.
Spent 2 nights in Granada and each night was spent in the bar listening to the live music and doing a poor man’s version of the Salsa. The last day we were there I was woken up to see if I was still going on this boat trip to this island. But had to bail cuz we were leaving for San Juan Del Sur which is a beach town. We had been dying to get to a beach cuz hadn’t been to a nice one since Puerto Escondido. But by the time we got our act together to catch a bus the people who went on the boat trip were back at the hostel.
So we caught a 3pm bus to San Juan Del Sur and didn’t get there till dark. So now at least we were at the beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment