No Man's Land

Late last week we began another journey . . . this one to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  We’ll be gone about two months and look forward to sharing our adventure.  It’s our first time to be “snowbirds,” escaping the winter for a warm climate.  However, this is not our first journey to Costa Rica.  We traveled here in 1996 and immediately upon landing knew that the country has been changed by tourism.  We flew from home to Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, outside Liberia, Guanacaste.  Quirós served as the country’s president 1974-78.  The airport itself has been there for many years but a new terminal and additional runways were built 2010-12.  Our flights went well and we were actually able to catch a few winks during a 5-hour layover in DFW before flying to LIR.

Cots courtesy of DFW

The Guanacaste is a province in northwestern Costa Rica and the gateway to the Pacific coast beaches.  It has a dry climate for half the year, and a long economic and cultural history based in cattle ranching.  Through the years bordering Nicaragua laid claim to the Guanacaste causing tension between the countries.  Costa Rica has made a commitment to preserve its natural beauty and resources and tourism has made a major impact to the economy.  The tourists are drawn to the beaches and also to the seven national parks in the province.  The Guanacaste offers a magnificent coastline, volcanoes, mountains and a sunny dry climate during the winter months of the northern latitude countries, specifically Canada and the US.

Guanacaste

After 24 hours of travel we were exhausted and took the easy way out by staying at the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport for a couple nights.  Good food, clean room, comfy bed and refreshing pool . . . a good decision.  Although we did a double take when we got the AMEX notice about the hold on our credit card!  The we remembered the exchange rate of about $540CR/$1US.

No problemo!

Lobby flowers

We did take the taxi into Liberia for a day of exploring.  Using the Central Park as our base we wandered around town, visited a couple churches, and did a lot of people watching.  When lunchtime rolled around we chose Guana’s, across the street from the park and as it turned out they were playing NFL highlights of the December 2015 Seahawks/Vikings game when Seattle trounced MN 38-7.  It was fun to get excited about the upcoming playoff game!

Red-eyed frog decorations; symbol of CR

Iglesia Immaculada Concepcion de Maria

La Agonia Iglesia, founded in 1769

Liberia's central park

Great guacamole and football!

Museo de Guanacaste, old City jail  (closed for renovation)

We’d arranged for a shuttle to take us from the hotel to the CR/Nicaragua border at Peñas Blancas.  Fabrizio was our driver and an interesting, fun guy to be around.  A full-time school teacher he works part-time as a tour shuttle driver in part to better his English but also because he loves sharing Costa Rica and learning about where all the tourists come from.  We enjoyed the morning drive.   

Fabrizio

Volcan Orosi

The border was crazy busy with people and trucks everywhere.  The signage wasn’t very obvious and we walked all the way to Nicaragua before we realized we had missed the CR departure tax kiosk and the exit visa stamp.  Back to Costa Rica we went (with the kind help of Jorge, who spoke some English) and after paying $8/each and getting our stamp we walked back to Nicaragua.  You’d think that a border would be like a “line in the sand” but it isn’t.  Dragging our backpacks and luggage we probably walked about 1/2 mile each direction; not much but did I mention how hot it is in this part of the world at this time of the year?  Going back and forth we actually felt like we were in “no man’s land” until we had the Costa Rica exit behind us and the entrance taxes ($12/each) and passport stamps for Nicaragua in our hands. Here’s the good thing about being in “no man’s land” . . . there are some nice bathrooms outside the Costa Rica immigration office.  Donations are appreciated and toilet paper is free; just ask the attendant for it!

Trucks trying to get into Costa Rica

Free TP!

Before coming to Costa Rica we had read that there were as many as 7000 Cuban immigrants trying to cross the border from CR to NIC.  Fabrizio confirmed it for us and explained that many of them were waiting it out in the mountains and some would be at the border.  I’d say we saw about 200, in makeshift tents, just hoping Nicaragua would open its border to them.  I don’t think that’s going to happen.  The first thing we saw were a couple military regiments lined up with shields and rifles.  It was pretty unnerving. Apparently these Cubans made their way to Ecuador and up the Central American isthmus through Panama and Costa Rica.  They are trying to go all the way up to the US.  Why?  Because they fear with the warming of relations between Cuba and the US, the decades old policy of open immigration from Cuba to the US will be cut off.   As a follow-up note, we read today that 180 Cubans who are still in Panama will be flown to El Salvador, north of NIC, and can then begin the trek across Guatemala and Mexico to the US.  Interesting situation.

Cuban's makeshift camps

NIC military in the distance

Somewhere along our trek through “no man’s land” we met Ivan who claimed he was a representative of the “official” NIC taxi company.  I’m pretty skeptical but he walked right along with us, showed us which door to go for the NIC immigration entrance process, and met us on the other side of the building.  I took it as a sign . . . my Dad’s name was Ivan.  It had to be divine intervention, or maybe the tip Bob gave him. 

Ivan took us over to a taxi (didn’t look official) and off we went down the road to San Juan del Sur.  Maybe I should mention that drivers don’t seem to pay a lot of attention to double yellow lines or posted speed limits . . .

But we were delivered safe and sound to the SJDS central park, across the street from our apartment, La Terraza, rented through AirBnb.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1154075  It’s perfect for the week, very basic and in a great location.  SJDS is a small beach town; you can walk from one side to the other in about 15 minutes, which is going slowly so you can watch for the holes in the sidewalks. 

The beach is very gentle and the hills are marked with beautiful ocean-view homes overlooking the bay.  The town itself is largely known as a surfing town.  There are a number of surfers’ shuttle buses that take surfers to other beaches on the open ocean.  This area has caught the attention of world-class surfing competitions and also real estate developers.  We spent our first full day in SJDS wandering around, in and out of shops, drinking coffee and cerveza, buying groceries at the pulperías, and walking in the surf.

Looking south across the bay

Toward town

Church on the town square

Houses on the hill

Gentle surf in the bay

Yesterday we arrived in SJDS in time to see the second half of the Seahawks playoff game and this evening we are watching the Clemson-Alabama game; we are Clemson fans having lived in SC for four years.  The commentary is in Spanish, so it's like watching a whole new game!

Local beer

Monday was cruise ship day so all the street vendors were out on every corner and on the beach.  The cruise ship was small and we didn’t see all that many tourists in town.  Maybe we didn’t notice since most of them looked just like us . . . older couples wandering around town.  The other tourist demographic is largely the young crowd seeking the big waves.

  

Cruise ship and fishing boats

Dancers

Monkey

Everyone who travels will tell you “don’t go” unless you are going to be open to new experiences, embrace new cultures, and be a good ambassador of your home country.  Our insight for today is that we hope we rise to those criteria.  Thanks for following along as the journey continues.

Sunset over the bay at San Juan del Sur