Our First Border Run - Part 1

The first week of April was spent doing three things:  
1]  Wrapping up the first semester of classes before our two week break for Semana Santa; 2]  Packing for our border run to Costa Rica - part vacation/part renewal of visas;  
3]  Trying to get all of our students to understand that there would be no classes for two weeks, that classes would resume the week of April 21st, that there would be no classes for two weeks, that 'No' there were no classes next week and that classes would resume the week of April 21st.

After clearing that up...

"But there are classes next week, correct?"

Oy.

We had been looking forward to our border run for weeks!  It was hard to believe that nine weeks of teaching English in Merida had already passed.  Wow!  Time was flying by, in some ways.  Still miss family and friends, of course.  Still miss baked foods, good cheese and wine.

We were going to cure the latter on this trip!

Merida is a safe village.  We've never encountered any situation we considered dangerous or scary here, other than giant insects.  Walking around at night is fine, especially since most everyone in Merida knows us and knows why we're here.  If anything, I'd say we have people looking out for us.  However, we were advised by several people to make sure we had our house watched while we were gone.  There are still those that would take advantage of the opportunity to relieve us of our stuff, should they get the chance.  We arranged for our friend, Maykel, to come by daily to check on the place.  And Hamilton happily agreed to sleep over at night, lights on, house occupied.  We were confident things would be fine and they were.  Good friends to have!

Saturday morning we got up early, had breakfast, hoisted backpacks and walked out to the road to wait for the chicken bus to Moyogalpa.  

Did we remember to turn the gas off, let the scorpions out, bring our chicken?

We loaded up and proceeded to pick up more and more… and more people.  This Saturday morning the bus was extremely packed, and it was hot and dusty so we were ready for the ride to be over!  Oh, and if you wonder why it's called a 'chicken bus', I had this right next to my head for a good part of the trip:

Bok-bok-bok-bok-bok… ba-GOK!!!!

Arriving in Moyogalpa early enough to grab lunch was part of the plan, so we excitedly headed for The Cornerhouse for delicious chicken salad sandwiches on their fresh baked bread accompanied by fruit smoothies.  Yeah, we were gonna eat our way through this trip.  After lunch, we walked down to the dock and boarded the ferry to Puerto San Jorge on the mainland.  Pedro Pablo met us at the dock on the other side and drove us to our first destination - San Juan del Sur - where we would spend the night.

We also gave Pedro Pablo a shopping list and some cash.  While we were gone, we would have him pick up some toner cartridges and the necessary hardware to hang our hammocks.  Like I said, we've rapidly built this awesome little network of people who are more than happy to help us out.

We arrived in SJdS at Casa Ariki, a really neat little hostel just off the parque central and close to pretty much everything in town.  Four rooms with a shared bath and a very comfortable setting - too bad we were only staying one night.  But we figure we'll hit this spot again for sure.  A great value!

After dropping our bags, we made for the Tica Bus office so we could buy our return tickets for Saturday April 12th.  We had our tickets to Costa Rica already.  We had our friend, Noldan, pick them a couple of weeks prior to our trip.  Recall that when entering Costa Rica, you have to show proof of onward travel or they won't let you in.  "Welcome! - just make sure you plan to leave, okay?"  Unfortunately, all the buses were filled for the date we wanted to return to Nicaragua!  Semana Santa is a huge travel week in Latin America, with families traveling to visit relatives for Holy Week or to party at the beaches.  The next available tickets she had for us were for Monday the 14th.  No biggie - flexibility is the key down here, so we just figured we'd spend another couple of nights in San Jose and get back when we could.   

Tickets in hand, we walked back to the hostel, changed into swimsuits and made for the beautiful beach of San Juan del Sur.  It was much busier this visit, with even more people than when we were here at Christmas.  We found a good spot to drop our stuff, made for the water and… froze out butts off!  Damn, the water was cold compared to our lake back home.  But, plans were plans, and swimming in the ocean would not be deterred by water temperature.  Plans were altered, however, because once we got in the water, it was 3… 2… 1… and Bex! got stung by a jellyfish.  Oh well.  Swimming is overrated and certainly ranks below our other priority for the day - drinking piña coladas on the beach.  This turned out to be a much safer activity for us, much more suited to our true talents.

We love our diet on the island.  We eat really well, considering the limited resources for food shopping.  That said, the #1 priority for our night in San Juan del Sur was dinner.  I've written about the pizza place in town, run by an elderly Italian gentleman named Mauricio.  Mauricio's Pizzeria is the real deal.  We had been looking forward to this particular dinner all week and it did not disappoint.  Plenty of red wine, a big salad and a couple of Diablo pies later, we were sated.  Everyone we meet who has been here keeps telling us we have to try the scratch made pasta dishes but we can't get past the thin crust pizzas.  One of these days…  

We even had some entertainment during dinner in the form of…

The dude on the right is obviously waaaay too cool to be doing this shit

The next morning, Pedro Pablo picked us up right on time and dropped us in Rivas on the Pan-American Highway to wait for the Tica Bus coming from Managua that would take us to San Jose, Costa Rica.  During the wait, we stood around taking in the sights, such as this one - a car, rope out the passenger window, leading a horse down the road.  Or a horse tailgating a car.  Either way, not that unusual, actually.

I wonder how many horsepower that thing's got?

After about 40 minutes, we were on the bus and prepping for the border crossing.  All went well enough, by which I mean 'at the usual slow pace'.  Lots of waiting around while Nicaragua processed us out of the country, then another wait in line to get into Costa Rica.  Meh.  "It is what it is - Bad Bill"  

Travel buddies waiting at the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica -
Booby, the blue footed booby and Beauregard Honeysuckle Hedgehog III 

 One kinda cool thing happened, though.  While waiting in line at the CR immigration desk going in to the country we looked across the way to the line of people waiting to get processed out of Costa Rica and saw our friends from the island -  Jamie, Jen and Jalen!  Small world.  They had gone to CR the week prior to make their visa run and were heading home to Ometepe. 

More stamps!

 After the border, it was iPads and dubbed movies during the bus ride.  We arrived in San Jose, jockeyed into position to claim our backpacks and selected a driver from the crowd hustling for fares just outside the door.  We stayed at Hostel Mi Casa, a short cab ride from the bus station and right across from La Sabana Metropolitan Park, which I wrote about in a previous post here.  The hostel was really neat - nice rooms, a fantastic inner courtyard, a pool table, a foosball table, an actual lawn with patio furniture, a large selection of games and movies.  A great spot!  So great, in fact, that those extra two nights we now had in San Jose would be spent here.

The evening of our arrival in San Jose was also Election Day in Costa Rica so we watched the results come in and victory declared while we ate dinner at Rosti Pollo's, a chain restaurant that does chicken.  Lots of chicken.  For the record, the election was won in a landslide by Luis Guillermo Solís, in case you were curious.  His opponent, Johnny Araya, actually quit campaigning several weeks prior because he knew he would lose and didn't feel right about spending the money or wasting people's time.  Ah, yet another thing I wish the US would learn from the rest of the world.  (sigh)

Hostel Mi Casa was a great location because it was just a short journey to the Alamo Car Rental office in downtown.  Okay, it was a bit of a walk but we looked like real backpackers this time, not dragging around seven suitcases, so it was all good.  And on the way to the car rental place, we experienced what can only be described as the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  

If you know my wife at all, you know she loves loves loves pie!  Well, imagine her complete elation when we walked past this place called La Casa del Pie - The House of Pie, right?!!!  

"Holy crap!  This is perfect!  Remember, we miss baked goods?!  This place must be incredible!!  I think I'll start with a slice of berry pie, then get a slice of…"  

"Honey, …" 

"…strawberry rhubarb, then…"
  
"Um, honey - stop for a sec."  

"What?!  Don't 'honey' me.  I want pie and - look - it's The friggin' House of friggin' Pie right here!!"

Ooooh, yeaaahhh!

"Yeah, sweetie.  But remember 'pie' in Spanish means, uh, means… er, 'foot'.  Sorry.  This is a, um, podiatrist's office."

Yeah but… Yeah but… Awwwww

Oh boy.

Thankfully, getting the car rented was distraction enough.  Diego, the Alamo employee who helped us back in January, remembered us from our previous visit.  That was pretty cool.  He asked where we were off to this time around and we explained to him our plans.  Once again, we got a Daihatsu Bego, although this one was a newer model year.  Nice ride, plenty of room, 4-wheel drive, and with no more horsepower than we saw in Rivas.

After the paperwork and pre-trip inspection, we were off!  Driving in Monday morning rush hour traffic!  Fun times!  Seriously, it is pretty cool.  This time we actually made it all the way through with no getting lost or backtracking!  Our destination for this leg of the adventure:  the Orosi Valley.