Tag Archives: #travel

Moving to Matagalpa

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I won’t have much time to get online today. Maybe not for the next few days. I’ll be leaving Granada and heading North to Matagalpa. Its supposed to be cooler up there. I sure do hope so! The heat and humidity here is killing me. Yeah, I know. I live in SE Texas, I should be used to it. But we have air conditioners and we USE them!

I’ll be leaving here around noon with a guy I met before I left for Costa Rica. I’ll be staying at a little place recommended by another guy I met hanging out at a bar/restaurant on the main drag the other night. Hopefully these guys are reliable. 🙂

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Last look at Granadas ‘main square’, it’s really a nice area to hang out. I’m staying only a half a block up the street. If only it wasn’t so HOT, I’d really miss it!

Crossing the Border to San Juan del Sur

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I left Costa Rica on Sunday morning along with a few others from the blogging workshop. I was dropped off at the airport in Liberia to wait for the local bus to town (it was late).

Taxi drivers offered to take me to town for $30, but since the local bus only cost $1, I figured it was worth the wait. Even if it was hot! I caught the bus along with a British girl, we stood in the back and talked about our travels til the bus arrived at the station.

The information desk was closed for lunch, but some helpful people told us which bus to take and where they would arrive. I only had about a half hour to wait. There were plenty of people selling drinks and snacks. Sliced mango with limes, banana chips, cashew nuts, sodas, and all sorts of sweets.

I met a young guy from England who was also going to SJDS and we decided to share a cab from the border. That would make it an easy decision to take a cab instead of dealing with more busses. 🙂

We left on the bus to the border at 1230 sharp. They put our luggage under the bus and off we went. This was the local bus, so we took a different route than I took on the Ticabus coming South. It stopped every so often for people getting on/off. It went through a lot of small towns and there was beautiful scenery to see along the way. No AC, but with the window open it was pretty nice with the breeze.

The bus dropped us off at the border (Penas Blancas) and we walked up to the immigration office. Made the mistake of not paying the exit fee beforehand (which I was informed there was none in Costa Rica- there IS). It cost $8 to leave. We had to go back along the road to one of the little houses to pay the fee and get our paperwork stamped. Then back in line for the officials to collect those papers and stamp our passports.

After completing the paperwork, we walked a few minutes over the border to Nicaragua. It was very simple to enter, we just paid $12 to the official and he stamped our passports. We were in!

We had already made a bargain with a taxi driver while we were walking in. He would take us both to SJDS and drop us at our hotels (different ones) for $25. Off we went! It was a nice ride and pretty quick. It only took a while to find my hotel since the driver wasn’t familiar with SJDS. We asked directions a couple of times (at least he had no problems with doing that!). I gave him a couple of dollars extra as a tip since I’m sure he wasn’t planning to take so long to find my hotel. It still only worked out to $14 for the ride. 🙂

Sailing and Snorkeling- Tamarindo

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It wasn’t all work and no play. We had plenty of fun during the blogging workshop. One day we went for a cruise on a nice big catamaran called the Marlin del Rey out of Tamarindo.

waiting for the launch

waiting for the launch

We spent the day sailing, fishing, swimming and snorkeling. It was a ton of fun. There were other people on the cruise too, not just our group. There was a couple on their honeymoon from Texas. There was a group of cute young Italian guys. A couple of pretty young German girls (who got along great with the Italians). A couple of local ladies and a few more.

We took a small launch out to the catamaran and got underway (after the safety briefing). We motored out of the anchorage and then set sail. It was a great day for sailing, good breeze but not rough. We saw whales, and dolphins came up to the boat for a while. We had a couple of trolling lines out, just in case we went through some fish.

checking out the dolphins

checking out the dolphins

We arrived at the snorkeling spot and the crew passed out life jackets and noodles for anyone who wanted them. We all dived in. The water was crystal clear and just a little bit cool when you jumped in, but warm enough once you got wet. 🙂

enjoying a nice swim

enjoying a nice swim

We spent a couple of hours enjoying the ocean. I saw a spotted eagle ray and followed it around for a while. I tried out my new waterproof camera and even got a movie of it. I took a few pictures of the fish there, but was a little disappointed. There really was no coral. Or at least I didn’t find it. There were some rocks, and algae growing on them which attracted a few fish, but nothing like a real coral reef.

The swim was nice anyway and when we got back onboard they had a nice lunch spread out for us. Chicken, rice, beans, potato chips, doritos, Cheetos, and even chocolate chip cookies. Of course, the drinks were free and flowing all day. Excellent pina coladas!

We set sail again just as the sun was setting and watched as it turned the sky brilliant colors of orange and red. We even managed to catch a fish on the way in!

When we got back to the anchorage, it was a subdued group that loaded back into the launch for the ride back to the beach. Yeah, I would definitely do it again! 🙂