Coola girl on the loose!

The land crossing to Nicaragua.
Nov 19th

A stifling 6 hour bus ride from San Jose to the border (of course on the only really sunny day we've had so far) and we crossed by foot from Costa Rica into Nicaragua. There was about a half kilometre of "no man's land" to walk from the official exit office from CR to the official (apparently) entrance to Nicaragua. They are having a bit of border dispute right now so there were lots of official-types with guns hanging around and it was sketchy to say the LEAST. It took many long, hot humid minutes to even find immigration on the Nic side.... the office was well past the bus station, duty free store, bank etc (claro)and had no signage..... just a long line of people waiting. Garbage and dirt and people and filth and crumbling, shabby buildings were everywhere but the people were definitely genuinely friendly. There were plenty of questionable types around but most were extremely helpful. We cheated and grabbed a taxi to the town of San Jorge (at 20 bucks for the 1 hour trip, after THAT bus ride, we weren't about the save 15 bucks to catch another cramped, hot, stinky bus.....) which was the jumping off point for the ferry to Isla Ometepe. I was pleased to find that after leaving the border area, things got much better. Very beautiful countryside, and although the poverty was obvious, Fraser noted it was night and day different from when he was here 17 years ago.

lsla Ometepe

We caught the "Ferry El Che Guevarra" to the island , which was shrouded in clouds, with the wind howling over the lake and dumping rain on us in startling amounts (add to this the fact that it was still warm and humid and you can imagine that none of your stuff ever really dries). We had already lined up a guided tour for next day, as we only had one full day there. He met us at the ferry, (an indigenous fellow named Eric who spoke English very well) and he took us to our hotel and gave us the low down for the following day.
The tour was a full day (at least 8 hours) and included a lovely waterfall, gorgeous freshwater springs and petroglyphs, plus interpretation of all things Omotepe as we almost circumnavigated the whole place (including 2 volcanoes). A really unbelievable value for a private tour for 2 at 80 bucks.

Escuela Espanol La Mariposa
Nov 21

1 full day at La Mariposa and it has been an overwhelming experience (the language classes anyway).

So far, every day but one, we've had to get up at UNGODLY hours to get somewhere. Airport in Van, airport in Houston, bus to rafting trip, then this morning we decided to get up on purpose at 6am to get some exercise by climbing this little mini-Grouse grind by the Pacuare River lodge (with toucans flying overhead). Now back in San Jose and have to get up at 5:45 to get the only direct bus to the Nicaragua border I'll just nap on the beach tomorrow I guess!! Yo soy una pobre cita. Therefore I must delay once again any photo downloading because I must sleep. But by god the coffee is good here! Easy to stay awake when you need to.

We also have a date set to visit Marcos Antonio, so we will get to finally meet him. We bought baseball gloves for him and what ever other kids they will fit and a few baseballs, just as long as he doesn't expect us to play.....

First of all, Fraser would like you to know that HE is not the aforementioned 'ball and chain'. Let's not get him started about the ball part though...

So flying across the volcanoed mtns. of Nic and CR this morning, it suddenly struck me as strange and surreal that we would be here for a month. Will I be very ready to come home after 30 days in some very gritty Latin America? Or no?