Arriving in Nicaragua

We had a brief scare on Friday morning when we thought the hostel was fully-booked and that we'd have to pack our bags and leave within fifteen minutes but fortunately a cancellation for three people was made and we were able to stay in our room an extra night. Oli and Natasha headed off to San Jose for their English courses as planned so me, Ellie and Rachael spent one of the sunniest days we had in Costa Rica around the pool planning our journey to Nicaragua on Saturday morning, before heading into town for some lunch and a shopping trip that was prolonged by torrential rain which meant we had to take refuge in shops along the way back.

Costa Rican flag me and Ellie sat on

Once back at the hostel for the night we decided to have a couple of drinks in the bar before heading to bed knowing that we needed to be up at 5:30am for a bus to the border. The other three new arrivals in our dorm must have been pretty annoyed as two Americans were up at 5:00am before we got up half an hour later just after they had left!

The bus journey was long but straight forward, consisting of two buses but about seven hours journey-time. Both of the buses were packed full but we managed to get seats and half an arm rest when Rachael was awake but absolutely no arm rest when she was asleep. The time passed quickly and when we arrived at the border into Nicaragua we were confronted with a massive queue which looked like it would take longer than it actually did but whilst we queued we had several people coming up to us trying to sell us varying things, begging or offering to exchange our Colones into Cordobas. For some reason Rachael cracked and a beggar woman got the better of her. As she took out her pack of biscuits for a quick snack the woman stretched out an open palm and Rachael crossed it with silver in the form of the whole pack of biscuits, a cereal bar, some Pringles, a bottle of water and other random bits of rubbish in the plastic bag that she handed over!

Once we had a stamp in our passports we walked from Costa Rica to the gates of Nicaragua, stopping at a telephone whilst Rachael used up the remaining minutes on her phonecard. Me and Ellie took the opportunity to sit down but were really confused when a policeman came walking towards us saying something and it turned out we were sat on the podium at the base of the Costa Rican flag so we were told to move!

Before we could actually get into Nicaragua we had to pay a seven dollar entry fee and whilst we were queueing to do this there were more beggars and various people trying to sell us things as well as persistent taxi drivers offering to take us to where we needed to go, including one who claimed he could take us so that we didn't have to pay the entry fee! We didn't take him up on his offer as none of us fancy Nicaraguan prison if we don't have the relevant stamps in our passports and were soon through the gates into what seemed like a market place with fast food stools and people milling around.

Trying to get a taxi the other side of the border seemed pretty difficult so faced with the possibility of having to get an overcrowded chicken-bus with all our baggage, after a brief barter with one of the persistent taxi drivers, we got a cab to San Juan del Sur. I was particularly glad that we did this so that there would be someone else to compensate for Rachael's tiny guns (arm muscles - or lack of in this instance) and lift her little camper bag for her. A bag complete with the little inflatable boat she insisted on buying in Puerto Viejo and her idea of a nice present for her Nicaraguan family some cheap, tacky London tea - ensuring she stays true to her Liverpudlian/Welsh roots.