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So we had an early start thursday morning, to catch the apparent 7am bus out of costa rica. however we arrived at the bus station to be told that the bus wasnt until 9.30, times seem to vary and change a lot out here. so we sat and waited and eventually could buy a ticket, and then suddenly the bus was now a 7.20!! so we got on a settled down for the 7hr journey, sleeping most of the way untill finally we arrived at the costa rican/nicaraguan border. we drowsily got off the bus to be swarmed by locals waning to exchange our money, or sell us visa forms or give us taxis, and literally anything else that could result in geting some money! After many ``no gracias`` we found our selves at the desk to leave costa rica, got the stamp and were officially out of costa rica, assuming we would walk out of another door and be in nicaragua...... but we walked out of the door to see the bus we had just got off in front of us! turns out there is about a kilometer of `no mans land` so we trundled down this road in search of nicaragua.... into another office to get a new stamp, the entry fee is somewhat confusing and changable, basically it seems to depend wether the official fancies a meal out that night or not, after talking to other people the fee can be any thing from $4 to $40, i think we got off ok with just $12, and then an extra $1 for someone to look at our passport!! so we were officially in and on our way to San Juan del Sur with 2 guys that had been in our last hostel. Its a small but lively surfing town just 30mins from the boarder and we found our selves a hostel - with the cutest little puppy to convice us to come in. Lola is a crazy dog that i swear has bipolar! shes teething, so one minute shes ripping your arm to shreds, and the next shes asleep on your belly. Shes kept us company alot though in the hammocks when we`ve been reading/sleeping. We did the usual unpacking routine of tipping the content of our backpacks all over the floor, and decided it was time for washing!! our clothes had beeen festering for 2 and a half weeks, nothing had dried or been washed properly, the smell was embarrassing and disgusting! so it was all sent off to Gabbys laundry, then returned to us the next morning folded, whiter then white and smelling like a dream!! it was heaven.
the rest of the first day we just wondered round the town and along the beach. seems pretty small but well compact. the first night we cooked up some delicious burritos and cracked open some beers, got chatting to some dutch people and then headed out for ladies night, more free rum for girls!! ended up finding a fellow zoologist who we had met earlier at the boarder, he also loves fiji so we had plenty of conversation!!! we ended the night with a well needed hot dog.
awake early the next morning and we fancied a day relaxing on the beach so we asked around to see where would be good to go, with some assurance we were going to a beach we could swimm off we got into a shuttle and headed off down a dirt track. we arrived at the pebble beach with massive waves and nothing but surfers in the water!! not quite what we had in mind. we spotted a small patch of sand down one end so headed there to set up the towels (we were the only people doing this on the beach!), as we then went in for a dip a local man approached us and said we should not leave our things or be on that end of the beach as it was dangerous! so a moody claire and kate moved our bag to a `safer` location by a beach shack/bar. we had hired body boards so braved it into the waves, the current and size of the waves was pretty scary and over welming. after about 30mins we were exhausted and headed back to the beach for a break, this day wasnt quite panning out as we hoped! confused by why people had sent us here as a good swimming beach we started counting down the hours until the truck was going to pick us up again! things changed when a mancunion came over asking to borrow some sun cream as his pastey british skin was turning more lobster like! we got chatting then headed back to the water, they wanted to try out the body boards so took the opertunity to borrow one of there surf boards. a little apprehensive as to wether i had any idea of what i was doing i dragged the board out through the waves then got on and had a go, after a couple of attempts of only getting to my knees, i finaly managed to stand up (even if it was just for a few seconds!) we were starting to love the waves and appreciate the beach. it turned out to be a good day, thenm followed by a good evening. we treated our selves to a meal out! we both went for burritos as we had hurd they were BIG!! when they arrived we were slightly dissappointed by the size, but they were yummy all the same. just not quite filling enough so we went on to order some nachos and dips to ensure we were properly full!! ul be glad to hear our stomachs havent shrunk since being out here!! another night out was on the cards with a few other people from the hostel. again we found another ladies night, and the rest is history!
Woke up with a horrific head this morning and went in sarch of a great hangover curing meal as the day we had planned of surfing seemed pretty much impossible when even swinging in a hammock made me feel like i was going to puke! a nice bit of fried chicken and rice later, the stomach and head was settled and we missioned down to the beach for a bumming around day and now an early night as we are surfing at 8am, wish us luck!
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