The Four Day Trip

Since Julia and I seem to have a restless soul, we decided to take a vacation from a vacation. Hence, the idea of renting a car for fourdays came about---and to save money, we invited a friend, Nigel, from Australia. Here's our new family (everyone looks great except me).

Granada

Well, for some odd reasons, nothing ever happens smoothly in Nica. There always seem to be a need for a bump of one kind or another before arriving to the planned destination. Even though I didbring a pair of extra contact lenses, bringing a second pair is---still not enough. Not with all the salt from the ocean, and hot humid weather---thosetwo things crumble those little circularthings up! I had a pair of very ugly, old glasses! Good heavens, I wasnot going to wear those things for the rest of the trip! Off to Rivas,a small city on the way to Granada to buy "cooler" looking glasses.

Then we headed on to Granada to visit friends that we met in Tamarindo, CR. Anyhow, the problem with traveling is that there often to seems to be a lack of appropriate words to describe these places. Granada is a very beautiful old, colonial town with a lot of color. Ther

e's a beautiful central park in the middle of the town--where you can eat a meal, buy souvenirs and the like. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of children asking for food. We were told not to give out food and it was explained that once you start handing out things (food including), you will suddenly be surrounded by more children. A pretty hard thing for two teachers to do--not share food.

We did visit one church---we were warmly welcomed and encouraged to visit the top of the church with a small donation. I'm still hitting myself on the head for not bringing the camera with me at this time...we walked up narrow stepsto the top where there were big, open circular windows where you could see a beautiful view of the city. Stunning! And to add more character to the view, it was raining!

There is a market that seems to be endless. It continues on and on and on. It was hard to stay with the group because there are so many things too look at while trying to keep one eye on your friend. Once you lose your friends, chances are slim that you'd have a heck of a hard time finding them. Thank heavens, Elyza wanted to stay at the apartment with her friend in the pool instead of coming with us. I would have had to tie a rope on her to not lose her.

The next day we all drove to Laguna de Apoyo. It's a crater filled with water. Extremely beautiful---very humid, very green, verybad road. The lake is so fresh, clean and surprisingly warm. We stayed in a hostel that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere...and one of the rules of this hostel was: Children under the age of 14 must be with one sober adult! Hmmmm....that's quite a rule! Here's a photo of Julia taking Elyza for an early morning boat ride.

Masaya

This was supposed to be the "art town" where amazing artworks. It was more like a city with a lot of people, cars and loud music. The art center was hard to find...it's an interesting open air market (we also didn't know that the market would be in a "castle-like" building without a roof) butwith same artwork after artwork. A bit disappointing. And, the frog thing, is that art?

We went to see Volcan de Masaya---wow! The sulfur is quite strong---almost intoxicating. But, there are no words to describe how amazing it is to be so close to a live volcano. There are deep craters, and thick smoke coming out of it.

Leon

I wish we had a chance to stay in this city longer. This is the most historical part

of Nicaragua---this is where the civil war between the Sandinistas and Somozas took place. You can see bullet holes in the walls---however, it's also the most intellectual city where the University is located. There a lotof amazing murals on the wall (political, of course). It's also the home of the famous poet: Ruben Dario.

Take a close look to see who the figure is crushing....

Poor communication is not uncommon in Nicaragua---the people at Alamo car rental neglected to tell us that we didn't have to return the car until the very next day. We were under the impression that the car was to be returned by 5PM...so we spent only a few hours in Leon and drove back as quickly as we could for 5 hours...and the woman looks at us frazzled travelers like we were crazy for returning the car so early---god dang it---it didn't need to be returned until the next day!

It's the journey--not the destination right?

La Frontera

Good bye Costa Rica (land of very expensive things)...hello Nicaragua (land of very kind people, magical air and cheaper stuff).

My heart always beating really fast and stomach gets butterflies every time I cross the Tico/Nica border. There's an incredible difference in the air the minute you cross the border. It's quite calm and orderly in CR---no questions asked by immigrations---a quick glance at your passpor

t, no money asked and it's indoors. Cross the border, all the noise begins, everyone wants to help you (it's their way of earning a very small amount of money), you wait in very short lines that take a very long time to get to the window, and price is always different to get into the country. I find it quite humorous that on even after showing immigrations your passport, there are still guards a few feet away that ask to see your passport

---and then you hop over to the Nica border, where guards could very clearly see that CR guards had already seen your passport, and you show it to them as well! Our taxi friend, Je

sus, once again carries my heavy backpack and walks us all the way into the Nica sid

e.

Immigrations on Nica side was not so nice this time. I could barely hear him through the plastic windows, and h

e would stare at me point blankly when I asked him to repeat the request. Even my friend, Jesus, a Nica, had trouble hearing him. It turned out he wanted the address of where I was staying in San Juan Del Sur----ha, ha, ha, I almost fell on the floor laughing---there ain't no address in Nicaragua or Costa Rica for that matter! So, I made one up! It worked!

Returning to San Juan Del Sur is something of magic. I really love this small, fishing, surf town. The dona's family was so happy to see us again! And very sad that they didn't have room for us for one night. We ha

d to stay in a really crappy hotel---walls were painted in very retro style, one large king sized bed (very hard, coulda slept on the floor instead) and just didn't feel very clean---it helped just knowing that it was for one nigh

t only.

The next day, with our strong determination, Julia and I looked and looked for an apartment all day. We finally found one---second level---3 bedrooms---within meters from the beach. We'll move in today at four. Once we move in, we'll feel settled---and I'll buy Elyza a

big box of Frosted Flakes (only in the summer) to keep her happy every morning! Here's the vi

ew from our balcony.

Elyza is going to take surfing lessons every day! By the time she returns, she'll probably be pro!

A New Camera Has Arrived....

and so has my mother! We met in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste---a small city that I highly don't recommend! It's got all the U.S. restaurants such as Papa John's, Cinnabon, McDonald's and the like all right next to each other. It's not even a beautiful city either. Much to Elyza's delight, there were three swimming pools! I really don't see the point of swimming pools when there are playas y aguas!

Check out this awesome sign that was posted in the hotel room! I love it!

We took our pretty sweet time leaving the hotel to catch a bus to beautiful Monte Verde to meet our friend Julia! To get to Monte Verde from Liberia, two buses are required. We got off the first stop, which really feels like it's in the

middle of nowhere. There's a small restaurant and gas station off the road. We hungry people decided to eat---and were told that the next bus would not arrive for another 2.5 hours! Yikes! There were a group of taxi drivers huddled near the bus stop. We decided to be posh for the thought of hanging around the bus stop for so long just didn't seem appealing---we paid quite a bit of money to ride in the taxi. Then the taxi driver asked if we could stop by his house to pick up a family member so he wouldn't have to drive back down alone. Turns out to be one of the best decision made and money well spent---it po

ured and poured rain on a very dirt road (and mighty steep too!) The driver explaine

d to us that buses have skidded off the road, have had to wait for hours for the rain to stop and take a lot longer to arrive to the top. You can see both the view and wet horse riders in front of the cab.

Once at the top, we met our dear friend Julia. We were all so tired! We went to bed so early!

Today, Elyza and I went on the most beautiful, ye

t adventurous horse ride today! We rode to the top of the mountains where we saw the most beautiful

scenery! Everything I've learned as a child from equestrian camp---poof, out the window---riding on a horse in Costa Rica requires no rules: riding in a straight line (not important), staying behind a rider with space in between (no matter), riding through mud (huh, what's the difference?), heck we even got off our horse!

Once we reached what seemed to be the topmost part of the mountain, take a wild guess to guess what we did?

That's all for now!