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Nicaragua was the country I looked forward to visiting the most while planning this trip, and a few hassles aside it was a realy great place. We probably could have given it some more time, but with only five days left to be back in Costa Rica we decided to hit the beach there for a bit.
After writing the last entry we decided to tour around the city of Granada for a bit while the sun was lowering in the sky. Across from the central park there was a tractor pulling a series of trolley carts and for 35 cents each we hopped on for a half hour tour of the city. Our cart had the massive speaker on it that blaired the same two songs over and over, and families had dressed in their sunday best for their night out. Down along the lakefront where hundreds of cowboys trotting around show horses in perfect posture.
The next morning we visited Laguna de Apoyo and stayed at a great hostel there called crater's edge, it's set on volcanic lake in the middle of the jungle. It's run by a Canadian lady who might just be the nicest expat
in all of central america. We were the only ones there so had the place to ourselves and it was realy quiet. The lake is crystal clear and warm because of underwater thermal vents, the water is supposed to have therepuetic properties and leave your skin smooth and enriched, which I think is a nice way of saying it has a lot of sulfur in it.
The days there were spent kayaking, swimming, and lying on a dock anchored out a little ways. The lake is very deep (600 ft), and drops off from the shore very steeply. The funnest thing to do here is grab a big rock and see how far down you can swim while making sure you have enough breath to make it back up. Also there are rocks that are so light that they float around in the lake.
When we got back to Granada we decided to check into another hotel a little more budget friendly and save a few dollars. So we found a place with an 18 dollar room and took it thinking it would be fine for a few hours sleep. I would have been happy with a few
hours of sleep that night, what a sweatbox that place was, man it was hot. I thought someone had put heaters under the bed or something, there was no ventilation whatsover, just laid on top of the sheets sweating all night, hahah. And the bathroom was seperated from the main room by a wall that was about three feet shy of the ceiling so if you forgot anything in the shower someone could pass some shampoo over the wall to you, yah it was realy classy.
Then we went south to the fishing turned beach town of San Juan del Sur. It's set in a horseshoe bay with cliff's around and a realy nice beach. The beaches are even more spectacular a few miles north of town, and theres no one on them. Also if you're going to eat seafood a town with a fleet of fishing boats you can see from the restaraunts is the place to do it, so I tried the whole spectrum of marine life from octupus to snapper and all sorts of shellfish.
Then the other morning we woke up and decided to get back to Costa Rica for a few days. We
took a taxi to the border since it was close and were greeted by a line up that circled the whole way around the immigration building nearly twice! The lineup was clearly not moving as there was only one officer on duty and it surely looked like a five hour wait. After talking with Dane and a few minutes persuading Tiff that it was perfectly normal we arranged to have our passports stamped and ready in a few mintues. Amazing what a 15 dollar handshake will get you in these parts of the world. I think Tiff was a bit weary of the whole thing, especialy since she was the only one carrying american currency and hence supplying the ''dirty money'', but we assured her it was just part of traveling and it's not like all the people were in line for a kidney transplant or anything.
So now we're down on a beach in Costa Rica called Samara, the place is one of the nicer places I've been and rainy season has officialy started here. It has been raining fow a few days but it's still warm and the waves are good for surfing. It's nice to have
a few days to plan ahead for the next few weeks. On thursday we'll head back up to Liberia so Tiff can fly out and me and Dane will head off from there.
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