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Published: October 8th 2008
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Tim version:
* Left La Fortuna for Nicaragua, heading through Upala and staying the night in Penas Blancas.
* Crossed the border, without issue, to Nicaragua.
The pretty sort version, coz I wanna leave the Nicaragua side until the next entry:
Waking up in La Fortuna I had no idea what I was going to do today! So at about 7am I got up and started reading about Costa Rica and Nicaragua... by about 9am with some breakfast in my belly and the day warming up I'd decided that it was time for Nicaragua! Sure, Costa Rica has a lot of wicked sites to see and is worth probably a good month on its own, but the cost is double Nicaragua if not triple, and the sites sounded so much more pure and untouched in Guatemala and Nicaragua, so for now they get my time. Time to leave Costa Rica! Now there are two border crossings.. Penas Blancas, or Los Chiles. I was closest to Los Chiles but its on the right side of Lago de Nicaragua. Everything I wanted was on the left! So I asked the Gringo Petes receptionist about bus times... heh now I
My first night as a Templar Knight
Crazy, just like the Knights Templar castle dorms. Scary shit! gotta explain a little about this girl coz shes awesome. We had a wicked retarded sounding conversation the day before, both doing a bit of the spanglish thing, coz my spanish sucks and her English wasnt the best outside of a few select topics, so there was a lot of laughing and pointing at phrase books and hand motions to get info across and being a wicked bubbly personality she made it a lot of fun. Not like the snarly buggers at Golfito! So anyway, a 9:30 bus for Los Chiles of a 5pm bus for Penas Blancas... easy choice, Los Chiles right? So its 9:20 and I run down to the bus stop and ask a guy there again about bus times (partially just coz I like to ask lots of people the same questions to hear different spanish responses) and he says only 11:30 for Penas Blancas since times changed. Sweet! Perfect! Penas Blancas it is! 2 hours at the bus stop is easy to kill, talking to a US girl for a bit about things who was over visiting family in Costa Rica. She wanted to go to Guatemala next but had noone to travel with and
My spacious room for the night
but it did the job and was cheap so all boxes ticked didnt want to go as a solo girl. If I was going there next I woulda said come with me, but I'm a while off yet...
11:30 came and so did my bus, with it going to Upala where I hadda change buses to go to La Cruz, a town just before Penas Blancas the border town. Both trips were spent in mostly silence with just the noise of the bus meeting the road and a thunder storm cranking in the background. As everyone on the first bus were locals, so no hablas Ingles (speaky no english), I slept a bit and just chilled... Upala I got to at about 1pm and it was bucketing down! Seriously bucketing. The local sodas at the bus depot, cheap places to eat, were getting flooded a bit and it was wet everywhere. I sat in silence eating some lunch while waiting for my 5pm, just listening to the goings on around me... it was interesting to see. Upala was much more farmer based, and the increase in the level of the manners was incredibly noticable when compared so San Jose. You wouldn't think they were the same people! Upala still had its
La Cruz bay
I almost missed the view of this beautiful bay and only foun d it due to my wandering nature from a view in an overgrown old playground. trash but hey, its a bus depot, think Midland train station. At maybe 4, a local shop owner who had seen me wandering on my lonesome came over and started talking. He and his friend who joined later, both 60 probably, spoke 0 English. In an hour we got some basic info outof each other and it was wicked fun! He had ultimate patience with me and my spanish, and they ended up re affirming the bus time I was told, and even asking the driver of the bus that rocked up to make sure it was my bus before I got on it. He also gave me his details in case I drop through or get stuck in Upala again, and said I could crash at his and that he has friends in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Esteli in Nicaragua (a place I wanna learn some spanish in) and that once I learn some more spanish to give him a call and he will help if he can. Sounds like I didn't have too much of a problem communicating right? Heh wrong! Besides the word Koala, and finding out that he can only talk and can't write
Spanish, and me explaining the countries I'd go to, all of that took a hour. It made Upala memorable though for good reasons!
The bus to La Cruz was easier. A US volunteer for Peace Corps heard me ask the bus driver the time and thought I was American too, and that got me and her talking for a while. She was a good kinda of aid worker, although still sounding pretty naive and a bit superficial. She got off early though and the rest of the trip I just listened to others as we made our way over roads that may as well have been bombed for the amount and size of pot holes, until it was dark and we arrived at La Cruz. I crashed at a place there the guide book recommended as it was pretty dead and starting to look seedy. Well, freaky and uninviting is the best description I can give... Cabinas Santa Rita. Well, they're safe. Just not friendly. The rooms are individual cells. The hallway has taken the design from the Knights Templar castle I saw in Tomar Portugal. The hallway has a sign with something like Christ is my saviour written
on it, and the owner is short and to the point. Youll see from the photos. I found it creepy, but it was my own room and it was just a border cross stop so good enough!
In the morning I grabbed an early bus, happy to leave creepy old Cabinas Santa Rita, and headed to the border Penas Blancas! The border crossing was easy enough though I'd hate to be a trucky... they were lined up for miles back while we sped up to the border in a taxi! A taxi I know, I wanted a local bus! But while one girl said 7:45, the timetable said 7, and another guy said about 8, I waited from 7:15 to about 8:15 and nothing came before a local policeman told me no buses were coming until 5pm, so no choice but to taxi... heh only cost me $2 anyway, but still, its the experience that you miss in a taxi! Due to not many people doing the crossing the way I was going, to Nicaragua (the line into Costa Rica from Nicaragua was pretty huge) I got hunted half way across the 1km walk by people selling Cordobas, Colones (Nicarguan and Costa Rican currency), people offering to kindly fill in my form for some $$ (it takes 1 min to do yourself), and various other offers I couldnt even understand. I made it to the other side, checked out some little duty free shops, and crossed it to Nicaragua. The place where you catch the local buses is crowded and a little dodgy at best during the day so was a nice little intro to the place. Luckily a bus was waiting when I got there, so I hopped on and waited out the 45 mins or so till it left, while getting offered in Spanish every kind of food you could imagine to buy, all "fresca!" (fresh), slightly warm with chicken and beef in sweating plastic bags... fresh im sure!
I'm here, in one piece, and with nothing stolen or lost so far except for my necklace thing I think I left in Pavones (which looked sparkly and rich so was gonna have to stuff in a bag to not stand out anyway so no real loss) so pretty good so far! Reminds me, gotta get a new locally made one maybe, something to take away as a memory of here...
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Jen
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and maybe bring some central american girls home si? glad ur still alive! s'all a bit exciting :)