Border Run 2: Chapter 1

Time to collect more stamps!

Hamilton met us at the house so we could show him how we had prepped for the painting that was to be done while we were off the island.  Prep consisted of shoving all of our stuff into one room.  After that, we hoofed it up the trail to wait for the chicken bus.  It was actually a little later than usual  but soon enough we were bouncing down the road to start our border run adventure.  Day one's map of getting off the island can be seen here:  Mérida to Rivas.

We hit Moyogalpa and hopped off the bus in town, rather than riding all the way down the hill to the dock.  Why?  Because there are sandwiches to be had at The Cornerhouse, of course!  It's easier and closer if you get off the bus early.  See?  We're learning.  Bex! had her usual and I had mine - chicken salad with a salad and a steak sandwich with potatoes, respectively.  We also bought huge molasses cookies for the ferry ride to the mainland.

In the ferry terminal office, avoiding the sun

We hit the ATM and walked down to the dock.  After buying tickets and a short wait, we boarded the ferry and got comfortable for the crossing.  Going across the lake was fine, as expected.  But approaching the dock was a bit harrowing.  Big waves rocked us the last third or so of the trip, the ferry bobbing and weaving, pitching and rolling pretty good.  When a ferry exits the open water of Lago de Nicaragua, it takes a 90 degree left around a rock jetty to get in position to dock.  Just as we were making that leftie, a lancha was coming out from the dock at the same time!  We passed close enough that we could have exchanged Grey Poupon with the passengers on the smaller boat.  Okay, it wasn't that close but given the rough waters, I'm thinking it was not intentional.  Yikes.

We negotiated a price with a taxi driver and made our way into Rivas.  He dropped us at our home away from home (in Rivas, anyway) - Hotel La Mision.  Marta met us with smiles and showed us to 'our' room - #3, for those of you who are curious.  

Since our last visit, La Mision added an in-room mini-bar.
Nice touch, but we still need the corner pulperia for cold Toña.

We dropped our bags and immediately decided to run errands.  We hit the librería (stores that sell office supplies) for 3x5 notecards and whiteboard pens.  Then we walked down the street to The Digital Store and again bought them out of HP 662 toner cartridges.

The clerk helping us asked our name and how many cartridges we wanted.  She was obviously new!  The lady who knows us well was shouting the answers to her before we could respond!  "Su nombre es Rebecca!  Quieren todos los cartuchos de seis seis dos!"  (Her name is Rebecca!  They wants all of the 662's!").  After the toner buy we hit a farmacia for various meds, the prices once again reminding me that the pharmaceutical industry in the US is a complete scam.  A short walk back to the hotel to drop off our goodies then...

… it was World Cup time!  Like I said, it's a BIG deal down here.  In fact, each of the stores we had visited on our errands had the game on!  So we hadn't really missed anything.  We walked down to Rosti Pizza to watch the rest of the game.  There were a handful of folks in there and we had fun.  Some locals seemed surprised at first that we were rooting for Argentina and not the gringo team.  We enjoyed a few beers while watching Argentina beat Holland to advance to the finals.  When the match ended, we ordered a pizza to go.  We hit a pulperia for a few beers, then relaxed in our room with the AC and our crime dramas on AXN.  Television is a real treat for us when we travel!  Air conditioning is just an extravagant luxury, as well.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast at the hotel and packed our bags.  Pedro picked us up and drove us south to the Nicaraguan border.  What a zoo!  This was not our first crossing, of course, but it was our first time doing it on foot.  A crowd of people greeted us, all shouting over one another in an attempt to get us to hire them to help us get through the lines.  No help needed, thanks. 

It's kind of a strange set up.  They check passports before they even let you into the area where the immigration office is located.  Fair enough.  The guy barely glanced at my passport before waving me through.  My wife wasn't so lucky.  The guy looked at her passport, looked at her, looked back at the document.  Hmmm…  After what seemed like a long time but was probably only 30-45 seconds, the guy let her through.  Weird.

The next step is to fill out the immigration and customs forms.  On previous trips, these were supplied by Tica Bus.  This time, we had to find the forms.  Thank goodness for the dozens and dozens of people hawking them!  Legally, they can't sell them.  But they strongly suggest you give them a propina (tip).  After looking around to find free forms, I buckled and reluctantly gave a guy 20 cordoba (80¢) for the necessary documents.  This turned out to be money well spent because a tour bus unloaded right behind us, so we were able to get through the lines ahead of that group.

Next step is to pay the municipal tax of a dollar each.  Then we waited in line to go through the official immigration check point, pay our exit fees and receive our passport stamps to show we were leaving Nicaragua.  There was an elderly Latina lady in line ahead of us and a young Latino man cut in front, said 'Hola' to her, like he knew her.  He obviously thought he was dealing with inexperienced gringos.  The older woman glanced at him but didn't respond.  Bex! called him on it!  Haha!  He tried to say he was traveling with her and my wife responded with a sweet smile - and "Mentiroso" (liar).  He knew he was busted and skulked back to the end of the line.

It was finally our turn and we stepped up to the counter together, handed over our passports and documents.  Mine:  quick look, slide through the computer reader, stamp, stamp, done.  Bex!:  look at passport, look at Bex!.  Passport, Bex!  Typity-type on the computer.  Another look at both.  Hold passport up to eye level, to compare the two side by side.  Call over another guy to verify things.  Finally, after a lot of scrutiny - stamps.  WTF?

The thing to keep in mind is that Bex! looks almost identical to her passport photo.  It's a fairly new photo, she hasn't changed in the couple of years since she got the new passport.  Me?  Wow, let's see… Passport photo - long hair.  Now - short hair.  Passport photo - goatee.  Now - mustache and sideburns.  Passport weight - xxx lb.  Now - a good 40-50 less.  

Thus, began a deep introspection:  How well do I really know this woman?

Exit receipts in hand, we left the immigration office, shouldered our packs and walked about a kilometer south into Costa Rica.  It's an interesting stretch of road, kind of a 'no man's land' between the two countries.  We dodged big rigs and buses, and the guys who spray the vehicles to decontaminate them.  We've crossed the border between Honduras and Guatemala, and it's a short walk.  You can see the other country's immigration checkpoint while standing on one side.  This border crossing is a reasonable distance, although that's probably because it's on the Panamerican Highway and is the primary north-south route through Central America.  

A few more steps and… Costa Rica!

We beat the crowd and flew through there, although 'Rebecca' again got the special triple-double check before they stamped her through.  All in all, it was our fastest border crossing yet - about 45 minutes!!!  It would have been at least 10 minutes quicker for me if I hadn't been traveling with someone on the international watch list.

Now it was time to find some transportation to get us to our destination.  We needed to first find a bus that was heading toward Liberia, one that could drop us in La Cruz de Guanacaste.  This proved to be very easy, actually.  There were two chicken buses waiting outside the immigration office and one happened to be our ride.  Within five minutes we were on our way.  And about 30 minutes later - La Cruz!  The next step was to catch the bus heading to El Jobo, a small town on the south peninsula of Bahía Salinas (Salinas Bay).  This, too, proved to be a quick transition.  We waited all of 15-20 minutes for this bus.  Smooooth.  La Cruz sits up on the flatlands, high above the bay, so the bus ride was pretty cool - steep road, tight turns and exceptional views of the bay and the Pacific.  Once we got to the bottom, we bounced along the unpaved road watching for our destination.  The day's journey is mapped here: Rivas to Bahía Salinas.  As the crow flies, we were only 40-ish miles from home!

Our stop was short of El Jobo - we had to alert the driver to drop us on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, at the Blue Dream Hotel, a cool little place overlooking the bay AND directly across the water at Nicaragua!  "Disculpe!  Aqui!  Aqui!  Gracias!"  

Despite the heat and the dehydration, this is not a mirage.

Dave waited and waited for the bell hop to bring his backpack UP to the room.

It's an interesting area, this part of Costa Rica.  They have not received much rain (sounds familiar) so it was extremely dry.  It's not a very developed corner of the country, although we saw signs for 'new housing developments' and 'se vende lotes' (lots for sale).  Some farming, a lot of grazing land, even an ostrich farm.  Or is it ostrich ranch?  

We found the proprietress, Kika, in her small hotel office.  We got checked in, she gave us the rundown on how things worked and showed us to our room.  Even though it was midday and she had been heading to lunch when we arrived, she got us settled, set us up with beers (Imperial) and even made us lunch, a tasty baked lasagna.  Mmmm, any food that's baked…

After a hectic run up to the end of our second semester, this sleepy little place was exactly what we needed to start our vacation.  This area is a world-renowned destination for kitesurfing, considered a mecca for enthusiasts of this sport. Hear that, Ben Dobler and John Knight??  Sadly, it was the off season so there was no kitesurfing happening during our stay.  And me finally in wetsuit shape - sigh.  From what we've read, it's a good place to learn because the winds almost always blow toward shore, so there is no danger of ending up in the ocean.  Or Hawaii.

But… we had lots of down time to read, relax, and beach comb.  This region has been in a bit of a drought, much like we've had in Nicaragua, so it was hot and dusty.  Can't imagine how hot it gets here in the Central American summer months.  Hooboy.  The Blue Dream sits on a hillside and the various accommodations (running the gamut from cabins to dorms) are terraced.  We were in a 'bungalow' overlooking the patio and restaurant.  There were two levels above us, so we climbed up to the top level where it was much cooler, sat in the shade, toes in the grass, drank beer, read and napped.  It was muy tranquilo, with very few guests around.

Blue Dreams is the terraced set of buildings on the right.

The next morning, after breakfast, we walked across the road and went to the beach.  Playa Papaturro is a long white sandy stretch along the southern edge of Bahía Salinas.  In the middle of the bay sits Isla Bolaños, or as I affectionately called it, Bologna Island.  We walked along the beach, picking up cool seashells along the way.  Heading west, we scrambled over the rocks on the point and took in the view.  It was windy!  Not sure how kitesurfing works, but I don't know why it's considered the off season unless they are usually getting rained on this time of year.  It seemed there was plenty of wind, for sure!

The Isla provides nesting habitat for frigate birds.

Frigate Bird riding the wind!

Crab riding the rocks.

These sand pellets appeared to indicate burrowing crabs.

Booby just wanted to go back to the hotel and chill.

Flying her hummingbird kite on the beach!

Bex!, with Bologna Island in the background

Dave, with Bologna Island in the background

Do hedgehogs have to wear swim trunks at non-nude beaches?

Later that day, we decided to go for another walk, this time to find Playa Copal.  In theory, the path leading to it was just a kilometer or so down the main road.  We walked well beyond that and either missed it or the distance we had in mind was incorrect.  It was a good walk anyway.  We saw signs showing plans for a huge subdivision-style development - definitely a gringo endeavor, I'm sure.  We passed a restaurant, but they only open during the high season.  And we saw a whole bunch of ostrich.  Or is it ostriches?

Enough guests rolled in on this Friday afternoon that Kika lit up the awesome wood-fired pizza oven outside for dinner.  The cooks were prepping dough all afternoon and the fire was lit around 4:30 to get the over ready for 7 o'clock, when they would begin taking orders for dinner.  Delicious super thin crust pizzas with ice cold Imperial.  Uh, hell yeah!  And, uh, for our former co-workers at CBA, especially the kitesurfing duo, Ben and John, they had a couple of pizzas on the menu that we found interesting:

Hmmm… maybe Ben Dobler has been down here before...

Saturday was time to depart and carry on with our border run adventure.  We had breakfast, packed, checked out and visited with Kika while waiting for the bus to take us back to La Cruz.  Kika is a neat lady - from Italy and has lived in Central America for quite a while, finding work where she can.  In fact, she lives part of the year in Cahuita, which is in the far southeast corner of Costa Rica and a potential location for us to explore in the future.  She was awesome and we had such a good time getting to know her.

We walked down to the road and found a shady spot to wait for our ride.  We enjoyed seeing this part of Costa Rica, although unless we took up kitesurfing, we probably wouldn't go back.  If you want to visit wild and wooly Costa Rica, this is it.  Go soon before the gringos take over!!

'Rebecca' - or so she says.

What a handsome gringo.

Soon enough, the bus rolled by to take us on our way.  Next stop:  La Fortuna, via La Cruz and Liberia.  The adventure continues!

Ciao!