Ben - Afternoon, July 31

Tuesday, July 31
3:40 PM
Playa el Coco resort, Nicaragua

Hello from Playa el Coco, a small but cozy Nicaraguan resort on the beach. It has been a relaxing day of eating, swimming, sleeping, lounging, etc. We arrived yesterday after having successfully crossed the border from Nicaragua into Costa Rica. Our day started on Saturday with us waking up at the lovely hour of 4:45 AM so we could get a taxi to the bus station and purchase tickets and catch the 6:00 bus to the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. We experienced a moment of disconcertion when the man at the desk said he wasn´t sure if he had any more tickets left, but we got our tickets fine. The bus itself was similar to a bus one might take for a long trip in the US. It had big cushy seats, TVs on the ceiling, and was generally quite comfortable. The other passengers seemed to be a mix of tourists and Central Americans, although it was difficult to tell. The ride was 5 hours to the border, but it wasn´t too bad. They showed some black and white Spanish films on the TV which were quite amusing to watch, made more so by the fact that we didn´t understand most of the dialogue.


Once at the border, we had to go through the process of getting out of Costa Rica and then into Nicaragua. Getting out of Costa Rica was fairly smooth apart from a bit of a wait in line. It was interesting to see all the vendors at the border trying to sell people their stuff, whether it was juice, snacks, cold drinks, ice cream or whatever. There was one young man who looked to be about 17 or so with an orange juice stand going. He would peel the oranges, put them in a squeezer and squeeze the juice into the cup. It usually took about 2-3 oranges for a cup. He then offered sugar if the customer wanted it. Some customers simply bought the oranges and had them for a snack. Once we got out of Nicaragua, we got back on the bus and drove a bit to the Nicaraguan entrance. We just sat on the bus for around an hour until we finally got off and went through the entrance process. Getting in went fairly smoothly and quickly once we were off the bus. There were many people on that side of the border who were trying to sell us items including one man who had bootlegged DVDs including the Simpsons movie and Harry Potter 5, both of which came out in theaters only in the last two weeks.


We met our taxi driver, who was a friend of Heidi Michelsen and he drove us to Playa el Coco. We had to take a roundabout way because apparently the direct road was so bad you couldn´t even drive on it. We drove to the town of San Juan del Sur, then back around to the resort. The drive to San Juan was easy, but the road to the resort was unpaved, so we had to go very slowly. We got to the resort and went up to our house, which had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a patio. It was small, but nice. We went down to the beach wich was right down the road and got some late afternoon swimming in. I wanted to go out to the big waves, but was warned by a group of surfers that I would get sucked out in a riptide, which made me a bit disappointed.


We went out to dinner at the only restaraunt around. The food was nice, but it took a while to arrive. It should be noted that there was a notice in the menu saying that food might take a while because the staff was moving ¨with the natural rhythm of nature¨and to enjoy the surrounding nature while we waited. (Our food there this morning for breakfast took even longer, so I guess nature was moving pretttyyyy slow.)


This morning, we had breakfast and took a short walk to a wildlife refuge that was supposed to have a beautiful beach. As we were walking in, a woman told us that there were a number of sea turtles on the beach, laying their eggs. We hurried down, and there they were, all along the beach. They were quite large, very slow and apparently unfazed by humans. They would dig their holes in the sand, lay their eggs and go back out to the water. It was an amazing sight. Rachel and I went out swimming in the surf, and saw more in the water, swimming around us. The surf at this beach was really good, and the waves weren´t so far out, so we could swim in them easily. We walked back to our house, the parents picked up some food at the small market here and we had some sandwiches for lunch. The rest of today has been simply relaxing. We will go out for dinner, but that´s it. Tomorrow, we leave for our next destination, which I think is an old town called Granada. So, adios for now!