Nicaragua to Panama

Our trip started out with a bang! I met Stacy at the airport in Managua and we went straight to our hotel to rest. We had to get ready for the party our friends were having that night in Managua! We wanted to take a nap, but we had so much to talk about, we never got a chance and Yader and Loli picked us up at 5 o´clock to start the fiesta! We went to two places and got so tired at the second one (Stacy had been up straight for 30 hours), that we never got to see the show or the real festivities. But thanks to Yader, Loli, Josue, Clara and Villanueva and Flora (who showed up on our way out) and Amaru (who was trying to get there but never made it) for making the evening special.



After a good night´s sleep, we flew on a tiny, 12-seater plane to San Carlos, Nicaragua. This town is on the edge of Rio San Juan, a river that flows all the way across Nicaragua to the Caribbean. There has been constant talk of making a canal here, bigger than the one in Panama. Who knows if it will ever happen? Anyway, our guidebook told us we could get a boat to the Solentiname islands on Saturday and it was Saturday. Guess what? Our outdated Lonely Planet guide told us wrong. Only Tuesdays and Fridays. We were out of luck and stuck. But no, I never take ¨NO¨for an answer. So I asked and asked and asked and finally found out that a boat was going at 3 o´clock that afternoon to take one gentleman home to his island. Instead of the $120 USD other people were asking to take us in their private boats to the islands, this boat captain only charged us $5 each. Of course, then we were stuck on the islands until Tuesday, when the next boat left back to San Carlos. We decided to chance it.



Were we thrilled with our decision!!!! The first three days and nights of our vacation were so serene and peaceful. Our cabin was right on the lake (and for only $16 a night for the two of us!!! ). Lake Colcibolca, one of the largest lakes in the world. For those of you who have visited Nicaragua, this is the same lake that houses Ometepe island with the two huge volcanoes. Anyway, Solentiname consists of 36 islands, with only four of them inhabited by people. We stayed on Elvis island, named after a martyr in the revolution. It was perfect, lovely, the food was unbelievably good! One breakfast consisted of eggs, cheese, gallo pinto (beans and rice), cantaloupe and prune fruit salad, toast with homemade guava marmelade, fresh orange-lime juice and delicious Nicaraguan coffee. One day we took a boat to some other islands, one to see birds, the other to see monkeys, and one to see the original culture of the islands. Lovely day. Weather cooperated.

Since we were ¨stuck¨ on the island for three days, we alternated between taking it easy, reading, hanging in a hammock, drinking a beer or a rum, eating, swimming in the lake, looking out on the lake, talking, taking boat rides, your usual tough days. But I´m taking too long to tell the story.

We finally left the islands at 5 in the morning, took the boat back to San Carlos, then took another beautiful boat ride to Los Chiles, Costa Rica. Our plans had been to take a boat ride down the Rio San Juan all the way to the Caribean, but there was no longer a border crossing there (so they said), and even though you could walk across the way right into Costa Rica, I was afraid of leaving Nicaragua without getting a stamp in my passport. Since I´m a legal resident, I didn´t know what would happen when I tried to get back in. So...we had to scrap those plans.

Instead, we got to Los Chiles, Costa Rica, then took a 6 hour bus to San Jose, arriving there in the worst part of town, the bus station at 8 at night. Rather than fuss with trying to find a place to stay and taking a taxi (risky at night), we stayed at a hotel OVER the bus station! Never saw one of those before, probably never want to see one again. We were contemplating what a ¨bus station hotel¨ must really mean, but decided not to think about it too much. We had a wonderful dinner of Ritz crackers, string cheese with slices of Delicious apples from the states and Gator Ade. Didn´t feel like walking around outside the bus station to find a place to eat. Didn´t sleep well, got up at 5 in the morning, took a cab to another bus station and got on another bus to the border of Costa Rica and Panama. We were going to go to Puerto Viejo for a couple of days, but when we got there, there were so many tourists and it looked pretty much like a beach town in the U.S., so we scrapped that and went straight to the border with Panama.

That border crossing was a bit of a disorganized nightmare, where we got ripped off, had to walk across a suspicious bridge over a huge river with all of our stuff (of course I brought too much, my suitcase weighs 77 pounds, way over half of me!), not knowing if we would make it across! But we did! Took another bus for an hour and a half, then a boat all the way to Bocas del Toro, Panama, where we are now. I am making the comparisons (will tell you in a later post) between my town of San Juan del Sur and our big competition here. Hope you are all well. Let´s see what our adventures in Bocas del Toro will be............. Click here to see the photos from this part of the trip.