El Salvador to Costa Rica

Seems like it’s been forever since I posted an update so here goes.  We are now in Costa Rica, arrived here on July 24th with the intent of meeting a friend who was flying down from the Seattle area to spend a few days with us. Unfortunately, he had to cancel at the last minute due to illness.  Since our last post where we had just arrived in El Salvador we have crossed two borders in one day (not recommended), had Milton accused of assaulting a loco local in Honduras (not true but she wanted money) after much explaining, with some yelling thrown in, the police let him go and we got out of there as fast as we could.  This experience did kind of taint our feelings about spending any time in Honduras so we rode nonstop that day until we reached the border with Nicaragua.

We spent the night at a little funky hotel in Somotillo, Nicaragua where we were so exhausted that we forget to ask all of the normal questions we normally ask when searching for suitable lodging.  The first is do you take dogs, do you have secure parking, is there wifi, and does the shower have hot water (something that we have now discovered is not needed anymore because the cold water feels great after a long day riding). So yes they took dogs, yes they had secure parking, no to wifi, and we completely forgot to ask about a shower so when I stepped into to take a shower I discovered that there was no shower, only a pipe sticking out of the wall with no shower head but below that was a large garbage can filled with water and a bowl to rinse with.  I made it work and the cold water felt great.

View of our room from the door.

Notice the black garbage can, that’s our shower.

Sweetest dog, wanted to take her with us.

Got a delicious meal from her.

The next morning we pulled out early and headed south.  Nicaragua is beautiful and we rode along volcanos through beautiful green countryside, through the city of Leon where we had a delicious late breakfast and continued on until we arrived in Managua in the early afternoon.  In Managua we stopped to buy a chip for the phone so we would once again be connected as we had no service since leaving El Salvador.  After getting all set up with a phone that worked we decided to head to Granada for the night.  As we were riding we noticed that they were getting ready for a celebration, crowds were beginning to gather, bandstands were being erected and those that were already set up were blasting music, motorcycles with waving FLSN flags were riding around in larger and larger groups, traffic was often backed up and it kept going and going.  I expected it to stop any minute but it actually continued along the road for miles and miles, finally slowed just before we got to the outskirts of Granada.

Early evening, we arrived in Granada where we stayed for three days.  Granada is a  beautiful city and had a similar feel like Antigua, Guatemala except there were not quite as many vendors and  they weren’t dressed in the traditional clothing like the vendors in Antiqua. Here are some of the photos from our time in Granada.

Granada, Nicaragua

The morning that we pulled out of Granada it was pouring rain, which we discovered is typical for that area, and from there we decided to head south to San Juan Del Sur. It took us a few hours to reach San Juan but when we arrived there we immediately headed up to the Jesus statue to get an overview of the area.

Looking down over San Juan del Sur

Local woman walking her dogs with her bird.

Our friend Jeff with Jackie

We ended up staying in San Juan for about 10 days. We did yoga most mornings through Grateful Surf Yoga & Ayurveda and went on a day surf excursion with them also and had a blast,  rode on an overnight motorcycle trip with some locals back to Granada where we went swimming at Laguna de Apoyo, ate dinners with new friends, went dancing to local music, worked out at a local gym called the Fight Club, and explored nearby beaches such as Playa El Yankee which is a beautiful beach, and on our last day there I loaned my bike to a friend we met and we went riding, Jackie with him and me riding 2 up on Milton’s bike, all in all we had a blast and definitely an area that we’d return to for another visit.

When we left San Juan we retraced our path and headed to Isle de Ometepe which is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and was created from two volcanoes. Had a ferry ride to get out there but was totally worth it.  During our two days spent on the island we went on an amazing hike to a waterfall, enjoyed beautiful sunsets from our cabin porch, and met some nice people traveling,

We’ve spent the last few days here in Costa Rica at Esterillos Oeste which is just south of Playa Jaco.  Haven’t spent much time at the beach here but the view from our back deck is amazing.  We’ve enjoyed watching fireflies at night while we sit on the deck.  Tomorrow we will head out further south along the coast until we find the next place to stop. We are now further away from home than we’ve ever ridden.  Pretty freaking amazing if you ask me.

Sunset overlooking the Playa Jaco area.