Happy New Year from El Castillo!

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Geo: 11.019, -84.398

RECAP

After bailing out of The Remote Cano Negro National Park on 28th December we spent the next 2 nights enjoying the gentle adventure playground of the JURASSIC FLINT-STONE region of Costa Rica called The Arenal Volcanic National Part. The hotel located right in the foothills of the Volcano was excellent and the scenery superb only slightly tarnished by hoards of "buffet guzzling tourists" and small French children running free and uncontrolled in the Hotel campus crying "PAPA PAPA"...........This was useful downtime to wash SMALLS and regroup after a hectic 12 days of travel.

New Years Eve!

The 30th was a very very long day in the saddle........we left the comforts of The Hotel Lomas del Volcan in Fortuna Costa Rica at 0830 in the morning drizzle setting coordinates for the border town of Los Chilles (with Nicruargua) some 80km due North.

The weather deteriorated steadily throughout the drive and by 0930 Pedro's little wipers were once again flapping madly!

We arrived at the frontier town of Los Chilles early ........very early..........1000hrs to be precise instead of the scheduled 12:30!......I cautiously crept Pedro up to the border post wondering where the car rental office was located........NOTHING.........apart from a flag pole and several heavily armed border patrol who took great interest in us!............"WHERE YOU GO?"........"NICRUAGRUA OFFICER (SIR)"........NONONONO.....NO!......ONLY CAR RENTAL DROP OFF FORTUNA........(where we had started earlier 75km South!!!!).....!@?K!

They hadn't however bargained for the persistence of Cathy.......much flapping of paperwork and mobile phone calls in Spanish by the now helpful Soldiers, eventually, some 20 minutes later, we were asked by a semi casually dressed senior Officer (GLOCK AUTOMATIC PISTOL conveniently tucked into his belt) to follow him (in Pedro) to a muddy Police compound some 500m to the rear.

A quick glance at the trip said 1137km.............Splashing about in brown puddles we decanted all our clobber including the Coffee maker and bade a rather unceremonious farewell to Pedro. A great little performer who never faltered once! I am tempted to rescue him from his torrid "Latino" existence and bring him to the UK to be cherished and lead a calm little 4*4 existence negotiating nothing more taxing than a paper bag in Sainsburys Car Park......

Laden down with shopping bags and a loads of kit we teetered toward the first customs post comprising nothing more than several shipping containers plonked in the mud with small windows. A small "Redcap" Porter came to our rescue and we started the actually crossing process. It was like something akin to those Barclaycard adverts in the 1980's......

The locals were crossing the border en masse for New Year....some clutching LCD TV's others slow cookers (with a guaranteed "no splash" function).....small children jumped about in puddles whilst gaucho looking men in red cut off tea shirts looked on grinning. A gentle aroma of sweat, Hi Karate (No 2) and Blue Stratos aftershave permeated the hot tropical "fug" as we negotiated various green clad officials.........all under the watchful eye of very young border guards clutching pump action SPAZ 12 automatic shotguns and chewing gum with total indifference.

Eventually, we crossed no mans land and trundled into Nicruagrua only to have go through an even longer process their side..........WHY YOU COME NICRUAGRUA?..........."EER well I thought about starting a revolution, overthrow the Government and then open up a crystal meth plant in Managua (was the tempting answer...).......but our actual reply was more along the lines of........."well sir we are but humble tourists eagerly looking forward to spending much needed US Dollars in your embryonic tourist industry and enjoy your somewhat rustic yet culturally stimulating country......STAMP......THROUGH WE GO.........off to meet up with our courier....who had already spoken to us in the queue but had no idea we were her customers...........strange as we were the only Westerners for about 1200 miles....

TIME CHECK 0700hrs NEW YEARS DAY

El Castillo.....Nicruargua.....a SERIOUSLY remote frontier town only accessible by boat some 50km along the Río San Juan.

A two hour boat trip due West from the border at San Carlos delivered us here on the 30th.

It is like stepping back in time.........to the mid 1800's...............at that time paddle steamers plyed the River San Juan from the Caribean to take out gold and other valuable commodities such as rubber and Teak. Before them The Spanish built a fort to defend the route and even Horatio Nelson successfully stormed the town! You could easily image Humprey Bogart arriving in his famous film of the 1950's..........The African Queen.

There are no roads only little wooden buildings with Verandahs overhanging the fast flowing river. Activities so far include paddling 10km up the San Juan River followed by an SAS Jungle Walk..........more to follow.......

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Comments

[Chris McDonald]

Kathy looks good humoured despite being stuck in concrete mud!

[Chris McDonald]

Well - having spent a little time in some 'posh hotels' (usually at the expense of my employer) this is towel art at its best. I did not think the Washington 'duck' could be beaten but 'hey' - this is special.