nicaragua

ok, so we left nosara, playa guiones on thursday afternoon, late and got to liberia where we stayed overnight. the hotel was like a best western and the restaurant was some weird chain costa rica place called lib or rib and it had interesting graphics everywhere but we were just happy to be able to sit and eat and drink and rest for a while. it was trying driving in the dark out of our area, into nicoya, and then to liberia. nicoya, there was a main street that had been ripped up and there were not visible signs to let you know where to go. the streets were full of life and we finally got help from a young man named david who spoke a bit of english and helped us out of the craziness of nicoya. we got up early on friday morning and headed out. we just started driving to the border of nicaragua and decided to head to the rancon volcano and national park on this side of the border. we walked the park and got the steam pockets and sulphur springs as well as a mini-volcano. it was all very beautiful and very harsh on my new pumas. oh well. rugger wearhouse 7.00 surprise. good spending. on the way into the trails, i saw a pissotie which was very photogenic and quite glamourous. the border scene into nicaragua was kind of crazy and very third world. there was the costa side, with passport stamping and such, but the really crazy part was just walking through and showing one policeman after another our papers, walking in between trucks and then the other side, where we slipped the imigration officer twenty dollars to get ours stamped by going through a side door in the building, it was totally wild. there were people coming out of every direction at that stop and pretty much through out our time in nicaragua begging for money or selling something. baskets of cashews, baskets of snacks and cigarettes, hammocks, all stacked and balanced on to the tops of their heads. little doe eyed children getting as close to you as they can and asking for one cordobo and then looking so sad or smiling really big, which ever they thought might get them a donation. if you turned them down for that, they would ask for your water or food. this is sitting down at a restaurant in grenada. after a while you just get used to it. the first stop in nicaragua was san juan del sur. we drove about thirty to forty minutes to the little beach community and stayed in the most third world hotel ever. thirteen dollars worth. kind of skanky but cheap. we walked all around the area, even through the sketchy parts, until dark and then stayed pretty close to the boardwalk. the beach was nice, pretty but developed all the way up to the sand. boats at a distance in the water, very little in the way of waves. we drank 1.50 rum and coke all night and got offered cocaine by our waiter at dinner. we saw a woman walking on the beach with a spider monkey on her shoulder as a pet. watched a bit of the olympics opening at one bar, and ate ceviche and shrimp. in the morning we hung out and realized that we pretty much did everything there was to do in san juan del sur in one night. we did some shopping, drank some coffee and headed for grenada. the ride was simple, a ton of shacks and shanties along the way, rivas was especially funkadelic and poverty stricken. once we got to grenada, the ride in was incredible with beautiful trees and a breathtaking cemetary. once we got into the city, it was thick and wall to wall colonial buildings. very pretty and interesting but also very poor. anyone who stops to help you, every time you stop for anything, they want to make a bit of change, we had people want to watch our car for safety, when we would say no, they would offer to wash our car, and so on, and so on. i think that is where i will stop for now. the grenada leg of the trip i will write about next time. if you are not aware, i am posting pictures of my trip and travelling on flickr.com, my id is atarieyes. check it out. more to come later and thanks for checking in. bye for now. david a