Nicaragua/Costa Rica 2007 0 START TRIP - Liberia, Costa Rica 23-MAR-2007 19:00:00 I started my trip in Liberia, Costa Rica. From here, I would need to cross the border into Nicaragua and go to San Juan del Sur to meet my friend Chad. 0 Penas Blancas - Border Crossing 23-MAR-2007 21:00:00 Warning... Not all borders in the world come with instructions in 50 languages. What an adventure this was. There are no good signs or instructions anywhere telling you what to do. But they have the next best thing... personal guides. As I rolled up by cab, about 6 guys rushed up on the cab (freaking me out a little too) and began asking me, "You go Nicaragua? You need taxi?" Well after getting my bearings, I selected George, who seemed to speak the most English. He walked me through the whole border crossing ordeal, which really makes no sense whatsoever. On the other side, once in Nicaragua, I threw George about $3 and he set me up with a cab from the border to San Juan del Sur. He got a kickback there too, so I think everyone made out well. 0 Weekend in San Juan del Sur 23-MAR-2007 22:00:00 I met up with Chad in San Juan del Sur. It is a beautiful little town built up on a natural bay on the Pacific side of Nicaragua. We checked out the beach, watched some NCAA basketball 150ft from the ocean and had many cocktails. Since there was a jellyfish infestation, we couldn't swim in the ocean, but we heard of a great resort up the hill where you could use the pool for $5 for the day. It was an infinity pool overlooking the whole town and the bay. Well worth the $5. 0 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua 25-MAR-2007 22:29:00 These are some friends we made at a party on Saturday night. It was a big beach celebration. They set up a DJ stand right on the beach and we partied the night away. We stayed the weekend in San Juan del Sur and then left to go meet Chad's partner with the boat in Northern Nicaragua. 0 Rivas, Nicaragua 26-MAR-2007 12:20:00 Rivas is basically the supporting town for San Juan del Sur. It is right on Lake Nicaragua, the 2nd largest lake in Latin America. From the highway, you can see one of the volcanoes that rise up from the middle of the lake. It was quite amazing. 0 Managua, Nicaragua 26-MAR-2007 15:00:00 Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua. In most areas, it was very poor with people peddling their goods everywhere. Anything from food, beverages, cakes, snacks... and every other nic-nac you can imagine. We only passed through here changing busses, and unfortunately, that was more than enough for me. 0 Leon, Nicaragua 26-MAR-2007 17:01:00 Leon looked much more put together than Managua. Much cleaner, yet smaller. We were only through here long enough to transfer busses as well. 0 Poneloya, Nicaragua 26-MAR-2007 19:15:00 Poneloya is where we had planned on meeting Scott and the boat. We arrived around noon and walked up the beach looking for the boat. It wasn't anywhere to be seen, so we found a little bar to hang out at for a couple hours. After about 3 hours and no boat, we got worried and started asking some questions. We showed a picture of the boat to one of the hotel employees, and he told us that the boat had gone by the day before!!! Well it was too late to make a 6.5 hour return to San Juan del Sur, and there was no way to catch them by boat, so for $6 we stayed the night there at Playa Roca. We spent the rest of the day swimming in the ocean and enjoying $1 Tona beers. 0 Back to San Juan del Sur 27-MAR-2007 19:30:00 The next morning we woke up early and caught the first bus out to make the return trip to San Juan del Sur. As soon as we arrived, there was the boat. That was quite a 24 hour adventure, but well worth it. We had a little snafu with the Port Captain seizing the boat and getting our passports checked out, but all was cleared up and we stocked up the boat to leave a couple mornings later. It was time to say goodbye to Nicaragua and head south by sea to Costa Rica. 0 Leaving San Juan del Sur towards Costa Rica 29-MAR-2007 13:00:00 This was my first experience driving the boat. Chad and Scott, after thousands of miles of driving like to call anyone who comes abord, "Auto" for auto-pilot. We started heading south towards Playa del Coco, a port city where we could check into the country and get our passports stamped. 0 Cruising around Ollie's Point, Costa Rica 29-MAR-2007 16:02:00 Just some pictures of the coast. This area is known as Ollie's Point. It was an area used by Ollie North to supply the Contra's during the Iran/Contra scandal in the 80's. While we were cruising though here, we caught a nice little Yellow Fin Tuna. We filleted it right on the boat and put the meat on ice for later. 0 Witches Rock, Costa Rica 29-MAR-2007 19:03:00 As we came around the point into the Gulf of Papagayo, we came upon a huge deserted stretch of beach with a nice surf break. It turned out to be a famous surf spot called Witches Rock. We stopped here and anchored for some sun and surfing. Its only accessible by boat, so there weren't many people around to fight for waves. After a cocktail bag rum and coke and a few waves, we came back up on the boat for some Tuna sushimi. We decided to stay the night right at this spot, anchored just a few hundred yards off the beach. We had some more cocktails and watched a nice sunset, then cooked up some tuna pasta with red sauce and peppers. Not long after that, we were all ready for bed. 0 Playa del Coco 30-MAR-2007 14:02:00 The next morning we got an early start and arrived in Playa del Coco just an hour or two later. We went through yet another hassle of getting our Passports stamped and getting checked into the country. But after that, it was time to relax. It was too late to make the next port town, so we decided to get an early start on... cocktails! While we were having our first drink, we learned about Regatta Papagayo, an annual sailboat race around the different beaches of the area. We decided to hang around for the weekend and enjoy the festivities. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the boat, stocking up on supplies (ice... BEER) and... well drinking cocktails. 0 Snorkling 31-MAR-2007 13:04:00 The next morning, before the regatta, we took a little booze cruise with some South African friends we made the night before. We were just gonna find a nice little beach to lay around at, grill up some dogs and... drink. But as we were coming up to a nice little beach, we looked out and found a beautiful coral reef. So instead, we anchored out a bit, grabbed the masks and fins, and spent a few hours snorkling. It was beautiful. 0 Regatta Papagayo 2007 31-MAR-2007 17:06:00 The Regatta was a lot of fun. It started around 11, and for the most part, we just chased the boats and watched. Oh, and drank beers. A local fisherman, Edwardo came along with us for the day. He showed us a thing or two about catching some fish. After the race, we met up with and were invited aboard the sailboat Don Bosco, a 65-foot luxury sailboat built by France as a gift to Spain. Later that night, we decided to get cleaned up and check out the local nightlife. Here you can see a picture of Scott. This is what you look like right before you get mugged. 0 Cruising to Tamarindo, Costa Rica 01-APR-2007 13:30:00 After Scott lost his ATM/CreditCard/Cash, we decided we'd had enough of Playa del Coco and headed out for Playa Tamarindo... aka Tama'gringo'. Just north of Tamarindo is Playa Grande, one of the largest beaches I've ever seen. 0 Cruising to Tamarindo, Costa Rica 01-APR-2007 15:30:00 Cruising to Tamarindo. 0 Playa Tamarindo 01-APR-2007 16:15:00 Tamarindo is a VERY touristy town. From Subway to Pizza Hut, you aren't going to get much 'culture' in a town like this. But if you need a place to recoup after getting mugged by the locals, this might be the spot. Of course, with the big touristy, Americanized places, the prices were quite a bit higher here than anywhere else I'd been. Anyway, we spend my last day here and just relaxed. All in all, it was a trip of great experiences and lots of fun memories! 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0