The day started at 4:30 with the alarm going off and we were up and ready to head to Nicaragua by 4:50 in the lobby. Well before the 5 am time we were told to be there. The hotel lobby was dark- they had turned off all the lights so we sat by the bellman stand and waited patiently. 5 am came and went… Then 5:15 came and went. We started to think they forgot us so Richard went off to find a phone-no luck, but he did find a guy that said they usually turn up around 5:30 so we waited patiently for a bit longer. The only vehicle that turned up was a pick up and I said “watch we are going to have to ride in the back of a pick up to get to Nicaragua.” Well they were there to pick us up and take us to their bus station… We paid our fee and joined everyone on the bus. I would say about 1/2 were just going to Nicaragua and not on our tour, so even though the bus we full we thought it should be pretty empty on the way back (we were wrong).
First stop was immigration to leave Costa Rica. Our bus pulled up and we handed our passports off to a man named Eric and he left. We waited in the bus watching some monkeys playing in the trees after awhile he came out and suggested we go and get some breakfast while he waited so we were left him there and had an ok breakfast at a local restaurant. After breakfast we returned to pick him up with our passports in hand and we were off for the 1 hour drive to the boarder.
At the boarder we passed through all the trucks waiting to clear immigration. It can take awhile so they were mostly laying in hammocks under their trucks. The bus was sprayed with some chemicals to kill any potential bugs we might be transporting and were allowed into Nicaragua. At the boarder crossing we handed our passports off to Eric again and this time we got off the bus as we were told it could take some time. It was a very lively place with a DJ, 2 duty free shops lots of little vendors selling everything from water, local made treats to children’s toys. We spend about 1 minute in the duty free shops and headed back to wait outside the bus. There was a really bad dance routine but mostly just local music and lots of people to watch. Eventually we were called up to the immigration desk to collect our passports and loaded back into the bus. I am not sure what the next stop was for, but a gentleman got on the bus and we gave him some bottled water (which appeared to be the gift of choice for the boarder patrolman). We left two guys on the other side of the boarder and I no longer had to sit over the wheel well, so my legs and back were extremely relieved! Now just another 2 hours in the bus to a town called Grenada…
We arrived in Grenada and visited an old church and then went down to the historic town centre. We were given 15 minutes- basically enough time to use the toilet and walk around once. Which was ok as it was full of vendors trying to sell you stuff. I really would have enjoyed it more without all the harassment. We got back in our bus and went for lunch- at the Best Western of all places! It was actually a really pretty old hotel and the best food we had pretty much the entire Christmas holiday.
After lunch we went up to the top of an active volcano (the photos can be found at http://www.melisajohnson.com/christmas-2013.html) Then it was down to a craft market- it was one of those where you can’t even stop to look at something without being harassed, which was a shame because they had quite a bit of stuff. So, we thought we would get a beer and just relax. We had $20 USD- It was impossible to find someone who could provide us with any change! So we gave up and walked back to our bus and found Eric. He got a restaurant to open up and they sold us 2 beers ($2 total) and provided us with change. We loaded back up in the bus and headed to a dormant volcano that is now w a beautiful lake!
But boy was it cold up there! We headed back to the bus and stopped to pick up a few more people then back to go through the entire boarder process again! Eventually we arrived back at our hotel only 3 hours later than we were scheduled to! All in all a very good day!
The Johnsons 