It took me a while to leave Costa Rica,
but on Saturday the 17th D-day was finally there. After
saying goodbye to all my friends in Nuevo Arenal I hopped on the bike
and took off to Tilaran to wish Sander all the best with FlyZone
during the second National Fly Championship on Lago Arenal. After
that I said goodbye to Dwayne (R.I.P.) and asked him to keep an eye
on me during my travels. Last stop before actually hitting the road
was the Yamaha dealer to drop off the Power of Attorney to sell my
Genesis 200.
So far so good and I was off to
Liberia. Shortly before Liberia I got stopped at the regular police
checkpoint and had to show the paperwork to the bike. Prepared as I
was (but with an expired visa) I wanted to show the officer I had all
taken care off and reached in my tank bag to get the paperwork. But
nothing was there! In a flash I remembered taking it out at the
Yamaha dealer in Tilaran and being exited to leave forgot to put it
back. So the first bump in the road was a fact... However the police
officer was very helpful and told me I could get all the paperwork
done at Banco de Costa Rica, only 10 minuted away. So I hopped on the
bike only to figure out that that was not the case. I had to get back
to Tilaran (75km) and time was ticking as it was already 2:30 pm.
Raced back to Tilaran, got the paperwork and via Liberia headed
towards the border where I arrived around 5pm. Got my exit stamp of
Costa Rica and went to customs to process the bike via the papers I
just retrieved from Tilaran. It went great for about one minute and
the officer told me that the paperwork expired three days ago...!?!
Lesson learned: never trust a Toco telling you the paperwork is valid
for a month, double check it yourself...!
So there I was at the border getting
hit by dusk and no valid papers. Solution: wait until the Registro
Publico opens up on Monday in Liberia and come back to the border
again. So I went back to Liberia (80km) and called Ryan and Meghan in
Playa Hermosa (another 40km) if they had some shelter for a stranded
Dutchie and his bike. Wouldn't be a problem, but they weren't at home
until Sunday afternoon. So I checked in a hotel to hook up with them
the next day. Got into a restaurant to grab dinner and bumped in to
Linda and Bill Gossard who I hadn't been able to say goodbye to in
Arenal. Maybe this was the reason for all of it, at least it was
great to be able to grab a drink and say goodbye.
Next day chilled on the beach and met
Ryan and Meghan at their house and spent the night to head for the
border first thing Monday morning. Got up, drove to Liberia, got all
the paperwork done at the Banco de Costa Rica and headed for La Cruz
and give the border crossing another shot. Got onther exit stamp of
Costa Rica and the fresh paperwork I headed for the Nicaraguan
immigration. Of course got swarmed by helpful guys to assist in all
the hoops they make you jump through. All went well until I needed to
pay $12 entry fee. I had no dollars left so went to the ATM to find
that they only accepted Visa and I happened to have a Mastercard...
So next challenge; couldn't/wouldn't go back to Costa Rica to get
dollars and couldn't enter Rivas the first town having an ATM
accepting Mastercard. Time to get inventive to my helping guy was out
of option. So I actually had a bright idea: go to the duty free shop
and buy a pack of gum and let hem charge me $20 for it and get the
change in cash. That was no option because they couldn't give me cash
out of the register for some reason. Than looked around and saw a
woman buying something and asked her if she was going to pay cash.
She as so I suggested me paying it with my credit card and get the
cash from her. Being flewent in Spanish I only needed to explain it
for five times but than she got and the solution was a fact...! A
couple of hoops more, fumigation of the bike and I was free to go and
actually leave my precious Hotel California Rica! :-)
After all the hassle I went through I
thought it would be nice to take it slow and head for Ometepe (40km)
and take it slow for a couple of days. Got to Rivas and scored some
dollars, went to San Jorge to catch the ferry to the Island and my
luck had indeed changed: got there at 4:10pm and the first departure
was at 4:30. Enough time to buy the ticked, get my bike on the ferry
and head for the AC. Perfect timing after a couple of days with bumps
in the road. After getting at Ometepe I headed for Playa Santo
Domingo, about half on hour from the harbour and drove there during a
nice sunset. Found a hotel, unpacked and headed for the bar for a
well deserved beer (or five ;-)
