A week and a half to get to Costa Rica. We need to move. I do not believe I mentioned the name of the school in San Pedro. In case you are wondering and would like one on one Spanish classes at a great school, it is called San Pedro Spanish School. We found it on a website called www.guatemala365. This website lists the Spanish schools in Guatemala and ranks them according to people's ratings and allows you to easily research all of your options. I would definitely recommend this school because it is in a beautiful garden on the lake, classes are held under palapas, the family we stayed with was wonderful as was my teacher Clemente.
Paying up to Sunday morning, we left first thing and were out the door at 5:20am to catch the 6am chicken bus to Guatemala City. We contemplated riding to Antigua because we heard it is a beautiful city but agreed upon spending our last bit of time in Nicaragua. Taking a chance and not booking a bus ticket online, we showed up at the Tika Bus station and were lucky to buy seats for the 1pm departure to Managua, Nicaragua. A night stopover in San Salvador, El Salvador, we arrived in Managua at 1:30pm. That was a lot of sitting and my legs swelled like sausages from the hours of not moving. Stopping in San Salvador, everyone needed to get a hotel room for the night and there were two options. One was to stay at a nicer hotel that was a bit more expensive ($24-28/room) or a cheaper hotel ($12/person) in a sketchy neighborhood. We opted for the nicer hotel and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the area. We were able to walk the streets at night to stretch our legs and grab a bite to eat before our 2am wake-up call for our 9 hour ride to Nicaragua. Never easy, the man loading the bus at 2:30am would not load our bikes and said he was not able to do it. ugh! Our broken Spanish was not cutting but with a bit of help from a local woman dropping off her son, we spoke with the attendant inside and he did manage to get our bikes on. Now that would have been a problem.
Crossing borders, there are different requirements and procedures. We just went with the flow and asked our neighbors if they understood the announcement. At one point we blindly handed over our passports to the Tika Bus worker at 5am and did not receive them back until probably 11 after we crossed through Honduras into Nicaragua. Phew. All was fine. Crossing over the border into Nicaragua, all passengers had to unload their bags and gear to be inspected by the border patrol. It was a bit of a pain if you were like us, hauling 8 awkward panniers a few steps at a time. They barely checked the contents of the bags, simply asked what our plans were in Nicaragua. Children around the age of 10 swarmed all passengers hoping for a quarter or two to help carry luggage off the bus and to the search tables. At first I thought it was sad that this was how a child was spending their Sunday, their day off from school. Once back on the bus, I realized it was actually Monday and they must not attend school. The stomach turned to knots at this realization. How do they make a life for themselves without an education? We are so fortunate in life and I am so thankful to have spent time in other countries to put life into perspective as it is so easily taken for granted.
We were dropped off in Managua and were hoping to find a means of transportation to the coast, San Juan dSur. No luck unless we wanted to ride to another part of the city to catch the chicken buses for that route. Nope. Ryan was not feeling well (surprise, surprise I know....I feel that between the two of us, we have been sick for almost the entire time we have been on this leg of our travels. Sigh.) so we boarded a collectivo who's driver gladly overcharged us to drive us 50k to Granada, another city on a lake with two volcanoes sitting in the middle of it. Beautiful. We found a hotel and poor Ryan more or less slept for 18 hours and started a round of antibiotics the next day to fight the stomach bug.
Granada is a bustling town with beautiful architecture, plenty of restaurants and a local market along one of the main streets. Most of the sidewalks and parallel parking spots for cars have men and women selling fruit, hamburgers, shoes, clothes, or fried goodies. One of the first things I noticed about the Nicaraguan culture was the equality of men and women. It is the first time I have seen men carrying over sized bags on their heads and selling food (nuts and fried corn objects in the shape of pretzels for example) hanging from hangers. I could tell that jobs are shared and the number of whistlers dwindled. Rather that be the lack of machismo or maybe because they find me less appealing, I do not know or care that matter. I am simply thrilled to not be heckled.
One more ride on a chicken bus (and finally not ripped off as we are slowly learning our lesson and able to negotiate after our Spanish classes) to Rivas before we grabbed our bikes and hit the paved roads with a decent shoulder. It felt great to be on the bikes! We rode our way to San Juan del Sur with huge smiles on our faces. The route we took was created in the 1850's by Cornelius Vanderbilt as the shortest way to get from New York City to San Francisco. At that time if you had money, it was much easier to board a ship in New York and sail to the coast of Nicaragua, transfer to a boat for the river journey up to a giant lake and then a carriage ride over the mountains for the last 14 miles to the Pacific Ocean. Not too bad considering the alternatives at that time were to cross a hostile North American continent or take your chances sailing all the way around South America via Cape Horn.
After arriving in San Juan del Sur, we weren't feeling what it had to offer and instead took the rocky, dirt path 9k to another beach called Playa Maderas. It is stunning here. Taking advantage of our x-mas gift card from Ryan's parents, we splurged on a place called Buena Vista Surf Club where we have an amazing view from atop a hill overlooking the ocean. Our bed is enormous and encased by a mosquito net, beautiful stone bathroom and they provide breakfast and dinner. What a way to end our last bit in Central America. I am in heaven and am extremely relaxed. Tomorrow Ryan will rent a surfboard to enjoy the waves. A few days at the beach before we ride our way into Costa Rica and eventually catch a bus to Alajuela (the town just outside of the big city of San Jose that is closer to the airport) because we are out of time. We are both very appreciative for the experiences in Mexico and Central America but are ready to be back on the bikes more and living in our tent. Next stop, Minneapolis.
Paying up to Sunday morning, we left first thing and were out the door at 5:20am to catch the 6am chicken bus to Guatemala City. We contemplated riding to Antigua because we heard it is a beautiful city but agreed upon spending our last bit of time in Nicaragua. Taking a chance and not booking a bus ticket online, we showed up at the Tika Bus station and were lucky to buy seats for the 1pm departure to Managua, Nicaragua. A night stopover in San Salvador, El Salvador, we arrived in Managua at 1:30pm. That was a lot of sitting and my legs swelled like sausages from the hours of not moving. Stopping in San Salvador, everyone needed to get a hotel room for the night and there were two options. One was to stay at a nicer hotel that was a bit more expensive ($24-28/room) or a cheaper hotel ($12/person) in a sketchy neighborhood. We opted for the nicer hotel and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the area. We were able to walk the streets at night to stretch our legs and grab a bite to eat before our 2am wake-up call for our 9 hour ride to Nicaragua. Never easy, the man loading the bus at 2:30am would not load our bikes and said he was not able to do it. ugh! Our broken Spanish was not cutting but with a bit of help from a local woman dropping off her son, we spoke with the attendant inside and he did manage to get our bikes on. Now that would have been a problem.
Crossing borders, there are different requirements and procedures. We just went with the flow and asked our neighbors if they understood the announcement. At one point we blindly handed over our passports to the Tika Bus worker at 5am and did not receive them back until probably 11 after we crossed through Honduras into Nicaragua. Phew. All was fine. Crossing over the border into Nicaragua, all passengers had to unload their bags and gear to be inspected by the border patrol. It was a bit of a pain if you were like us, hauling 8 awkward panniers a few steps at a time. They barely checked the contents of the bags, simply asked what our plans were in Nicaragua. Children around the age of 10 swarmed all passengers hoping for a quarter or two to help carry luggage off the bus and to the search tables. At first I thought it was sad that this was how a child was spending their Sunday, their day off from school. Once back on the bus, I realized it was actually Monday and they must not attend school. The stomach turned to knots at this realization. How do they make a life for themselves without an education? We are so fortunate in life and I am so thankful to have spent time in other countries to put life into perspective as it is so easily taken for granted.
We were dropped off in Managua and were hoping to find a means of transportation to the coast, San Juan dSur. No luck unless we wanted to ride to another part of the city to catch the chicken buses for that route. Nope. Ryan was not feeling well (surprise, surprise I know....I feel that between the two of us, we have been sick for almost the entire time we have been on this leg of our travels. Sigh.) so we boarded a collectivo who's driver gladly overcharged us to drive us 50k to Granada, another city on a lake with two volcanoes sitting in the middle of it. Beautiful. We found a hotel and poor Ryan more or less slept for 18 hours and started a round of antibiotics the next day to fight the stomach bug.
Granada is a bustling town with beautiful architecture, plenty of restaurants and a local market along one of the main streets. Most of the sidewalks and parallel parking spots for cars have men and women selling fruit, hamburgers, shoes, clothes, or fried goodies. One of the first things I noticed about the Nicaraguan culture was the equality of men and women. It is the first time I have seen men carrying over sized bags on their heads and selling food (nuts and fried corn objects in the shape of pretzels for example) hanging from hangers. I could tell that jobs are shared and the number of whistlers dwindled. Rather that be the lack of machismo or maybe because they find me less appealing, I do not know or care that matter. I am simply thrilled to not be heckled.
One more ride on a chicken bus (and finally not ripped off as we are slowly learning our lesson and able to negotiate after our Spanish classes) to Rivas before we grabbed our bikes and hit the paved roads with a decent shoulder. It felt great to be on the bikes! We rode our way to San Juan del Sur with huge smiles on our faces. The route we took was created in the 1850's by Cornelius Vanderbilt as the shortest way to get from New York City to San Francisco. At that time if you had money, it was much easier to board a ship in New York and sail to the coast of Nicaragua, transfer to a boat for the river journey up to a giant lake and then a carriage ride over the mountains for the last 14 miles to the Pacific Ocean. Not too bad considering the alternatives at that time were to cross a hostile North American continent or take your chances sailing all the way around South America via Cape Horn.
After arriving in San Juan del Sur, we weren't feeling what it had to offer and instead took the rocky, dirt path 9k to another beach called Playa Maderas. It is stunning here. Taking advantage of our x-mas gift card from Ryan's parents, we splurged on a place called Buena Vista Surf Club where we have an amazing view from atop a hill overlooking the ocean. Our bed is enormous and encased by a mosquito net, beautiful stone bathroom and they provide breakfast and dinner. What a way to end our last bit in Central America. I am in heaven and am extremely relaxed. Tomorrow Ryan will rent a surfboard to enjoy the waves. A few days at the beach before we ride our way into Costa Rica and eventually catch a bus to Alajuela (the town just outside of the big city of San Jose that is closer to the airport) because we are out of time. We are both very appreciative for the experiences in Mexico and Central America but are ready to be back on the bikes more and living in our tent. Next stop, Minneapolis.
Ryan and Lisa it was great to have met you both and to have heard all about your amazing experiences, including these past 2 years. It has really made us reflect on ourselves and say "hey life offers alot more then a mortgage and a 9-5, we can achieve more" You always have friends in the Rockies if ever passing through Calgary so don't hesitate to contact us and if we are ever looking for a skipper and crew to sail for us we know who to contact.
ReplyDeleteSafe Travels
Aron and Andrea
arbbull@gmail.com