Costa Rica meets Nicaragua

We woke up at 4am to head to the bus station to catch the bus to the Nicaraguan border at Piñas Blancas. It was our first chicken bus experience; all of the thrills of driving an ex-USA school bus with holes in the floor that provided a nice breeze for our toes (and a precise view of the ground below) while driving 70 mph (60mph on gravel sections) overtaking other chicken buses. We met an American family who was living in Esteli, Nicaragua who were quite amiable and offered us a place to stay, which we'll probably hit up on our way to Guatemala in a few weeks.

Actually crossing the border was a bit of an adventure. First, we waited for an hour or more in the rain, eating peanuts and a mango we had acquired earlier at a supermercado, until we passed through Costa Rican exit control, paying some small fee for the privilege. Then we embarked on a 300m hike through the gravel road in the rain to the Nicaraguan entrance control, dodging semis, small lakes formed by the semis and hawkers, climbing through fences and paying more fees for the offroad promenade.

Along the way we ran into Lisa (my cousin) who was on her way home through Liberia, Costa Rica, after just over a month of Central American adventures. She shared some stories while some little kid helped Rafer rid himself of a handful of coins in exchange for a grasshopper made of palm leaf. Then we dodged the usual taxi hawkers and jumped on a chicken bus for Rivas, Nicaragua.

We were dropped off somewhere in Rivas and I fearlessly led our party randomly about until we found Don Juan's Desayunos. But that is another post in and of itself.

'Til next time... I'm still about a week behind in these tales. By the way, not sure if I mentioned it before, but Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere (after Haiti), which is much better for our budgets than overpriced Costa Rica.

Dan.