It was a long adventure to Nicaragua with my bus getting a flat tire on the way. It is normally a six hour bus ride, but with the flat tire pit stop it ended up being about eight hours. Once I arrived I had to take a $20 taxi to get to San Juan Del Sur where I stayed at a hostel recommended by a buddy. I left at 5 am so I would then have the whole day to explore in San Juan. Once I got to my hostel and got settled in I took a taxi about 40 minutes to Playa Madera to hang out there for a few hours and and catch the sunset.
After the sunset and my return by taxi from the beach I got cleaned up and went out to grab a bite to eat. I went to this restaurant that was a dream restaurant for me to own one day. It was right on the ocean with chairs out in the sand, and also had a beautiful decor on the inside with much more seating inside. This local guy that I met there in San Juan Del Sur knew the owner, and he is from Germany. I guess the place is only roughly $100K. Maybe I should be moving to Nicaragua to buy my restaurant...lol! The owner was living the dream and had his beautiful latina girlfriend or wife sitting at the bar observing him on the job.
The following day I took a taxi to Ometepe Island in the early morning and after paying $25 for this 1.5 hour cab ride (I had a whole tourism bus to myself) I realized that I was low on cash. Most of the taxi rides are about $20, because they are 45 minutes to 1.5 hour taxi rides, and after awhile I ended up blowing more money on taxis than I anticipated. It would definitely help to have another person or two to cut on the cab fees. Anyways, the Island that I went to called Merida had one bank, but this girl that I met said my atm card would not work at this bank. Therefore, I could not use my bankcard, and as a result, I had to head back to the mainland the following day. I stayed at this hostel called Hostel Hacienda and it was a beautiful place right on Lake Nicaragua (biggest lake in Central America), and it had a sketchy dock leading out to the water. Ometepe Island is surrounded by Lake Nicaragua and it is a beautiful community of roughly 12,000 people. It was a very nice place in the middle of no where with all sorts of wildlife running around on the bumpy dirt roads. When I was walking the streets everyone I said hello to always responded with a great big smile and a nice greeting. Everyone seemed so friendly towards each other. It was pretty neat to see!
At this Hostel Hacienda in Merida I had a meal around 3 pm when I arrived, and I was looking to pay afterwards, but they told me to just pay for the meal when I leave along with the room. As I was sitting in the hammock in the middle of the night lounging (I didn't even sleep in my bed...I slept in the hammock because I felt guilty) I knew that I was not going to be able to pay the $5 for this hostel and the $3.50 meal, and I also found out that the internet was $4 for unlimited, and they saw me using the internet...so I knew they would try charging for that as well when I just assumed it was included with the room. At this point I was feeling really guilty, but knew with only $15 left on me in cordovas (Nicaraguan currency), after taking two different buses and also taking the ferry, and then a taxi from Moyogalpa to the Costa Rica border was another $15, I knew I could not pay that. As a result, I left a little note under the pillow of my bed saying I could not get money with my ATM card, and I would not be able to pay for the room. I left at 6 am to try and catch a bus back to the mainland. There was a bus stop right outside the hostel, but that bus did not leave until 8:50, and I just wanted to get away from this hostel because I felt so guilty. So, I ended up walking 1.5 hours to a small town called Santa Cruz where their bus left at 8 am. Eventually I ended up making it to the Ferry and after an hour on the fairy I was back to the mainland (Moyogalpa), and I told the taxi driver that was going to give me a ride to the border that I had to pay him a portion of the fare in Colones (costa Rican currency) because my bankcard did not work...luckily he was cool with that. When I got home I had only $5 worth of Colones on me, and it was great to get back! It was a close call, and I did not even want to try and use the atm on the mainland because I have heard some horror stories of people not being able to access their money in Nicaragua! I just assumed the worst that I would not be able to get any cash either....after a 13 hour travel day...it is nice to be back in Costa Rica, but I loved Nicaragua...the people there were all so warm hearted, and it was hot and beautiful there!
My buddy said that he will be heading back to that place in Nicaragua next month...so at least I will be able to send the money with him to cover my stay and food there!
