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Wow, it has definitely been a while since I wrote in here! I just got back from an 8 day trip to Nicaragua and it was absolutely incredible. I went with a friend/roommate of mine named Matt. We travelled very well together but were definitely not too sad to say goodbye at the end. :)
Day 1: Matt and I jumped on a bus at 3:30pm and arrived in Tamarindo, Costa Rica around 10:30pm. Yes, that is 7 hours. We stayed at a place called the Tamarindo Beach House. We roomed with two Canadians named Huck and Phil and ended up hitting it off with them. The first night we went to a local bar with them to play pool and have a couple "tamarindo bombs" which are an odd mixture of grape fruit juice and guaro. Fun fun!
Day 2: We woke up early and rented surf boards for $5/day. The boys definitely put in more of an effort than I did. The waves were massive. There was even a professional surf competition going on and everyone was looking at us like we were crazy to even be trying. I spent most of the day laying on the beach, swimming, and watching the surfers. I also bought a chicken kabob from a street vender for 50 cents that was the best thing I have eaten since I left. I hung out in a hammock at the hostel and chit chatted with the Canadians and another guy named Red. Red is 35 years old and doesn't shower. He lives at the Tamarindo Beach House and sleeps in the hammock most nights. He is covered in tattoos and has long red hair and a long red beard. But he is really nice and very interesting. Anyway, later that night we all went to a club called Aqua. It is the hot spot for locals and a good place for dancing. Oddly enough, the best dancer in the club turned out to be Huck, one of the Canadians. All of the Costa Rican women were battling it out trying to get a turn with him. Very funny.
Day 3: We woke up early again and saw that the trees behind our hostel were full of howler monkeys! The owners were not impressed, they said that they are there all the time. Then, we swam across a chanel to get to a different beach. The boys tried to surf again and I swam and caught some rays. We decided to splurge and spend $4 to get a casado at a local food joint and it was a very wise decision. The casado consisted of grilled mahi mahi, homemade mashed potatoes, white rice, black beans, fried plantains, and a salad dressed with fresh lime. That's right, all for $4. Thank goodness the food was good because the conversation about video games and fist fights was less than par. I guess that's what you get when you travel with dudes. Later, we watched the sunset on the beach and it was amazing. There was a guy playing acoustic guitar behind us and it made the moment much more remarkable. We ended the night with a riveting game of texas hold em and a couple Tonas, Nicaragua's national beer.
Day 4: We got up early to catch the 8am bus to Nicaragua. The entire process of catching numerous different buses and getting across the boarder was quite the experience. First, our bus was 1 1/2 hours late. When we asked a local if that was normal they laughed and said yes. We took the first bus to Liberia, Costa Rica. The bus station was bustling and we had no idea if we just got on a bus or had to buy tickets but we were herded onto a bus to Santa Cruz. We thought Santa Cruz was on the border but we arrived to learn different. We had no clue where we were or what to do next. I asked a local and he started panicing because the bus we needed was about to leave. He screamed and pointed and pushed us toward a bus. It was all very exciting. We were able to board a bus to Penas Blancas just in the nick of time. I sat on top of the back wheel and my butt got really hot and sweaty. At about 1:30pm we arrived in Penas Blancas, which is supposively on the board of Costa Rica. The entire crossing the board process was a complete mess. Not even the locals knew what they were doing. I asked one of them if we were in Nicaragua and he said that he didn't know. The whole ordeal took about 45 minutes of wondering around and filling out weird paper work. We finally entered Nicaragua through a semi truck weight station. Then we had to jump on a "chicken bus" to San Juan del Sur. A chicken bus is pretty much just a crappy school bus that is painted with really bright colors. The first bus ended up dropping us of at a fork in the road in the middle of no where. They said another bus would come. We waited for about 10 minutes when we suddenly saw this junky pink bus barrelling down the road toward us. We waved our arms for it to stop. The bus slowed down and whipped open the back door and screamed at us to jump on. So, I literally jump through the back door while the bus was still moving. Very exciting. We got to the hostel at about 4pm. Nice full day of travel! We spent the rest of the night walking around San Juan del Sur. It is a very rustic beach town with lots of poverty. The transition from Costa Rica to Nicaragua was very intense. Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in Latin America and it is obvious from the moment you cross the boarder. I have never quite experienced anything like it before.
I will finish writing about my trip soon. Tomorrow is my first day of work and I have lots of lesson planning to do. :)
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