False start, but still movin´!
Hello from Nicaragua! After La Vida Activa I decided to call it quits in Costa Rica and cross the border to this place! There´s basically 2 ´open´ crossings between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, one by road and another by crossing a river (Rio San Juan). Decided to take the latter, as it would lead into a little less-explored territory in the south-east of the country. So far so good, river crossing went smoothly and after having crossed the official border it was like ending up in another world. Quite intriguing… but all the more interesting!
The next day I went down Rio San Juan, a river surrounded by dense jungle and lots of wildlife - about 2 hours down there´s a small village named El Castillo which is quite isolated but offers some interesting things to see and do. There´s an (unlikely) fortress in the middle of it, used to keep pirates from entering the country and the village really has an atmosphere of its own. I´d also like to make specific mention of two Dutch people who are busy setting up a very substantial form of eco-tourism in the area. El Castillo won´t be the same for long as many people have started buying up land but they seem to be developing one of the best forms of eco-tourism I´ve come across so far; please visit their website NicaNature!
It was here where my money started running low so a small trip back up the river to get money from a bank seemed necessary - if only they wouldn´t have stopped accepting Visa cards since a short period of time… This left two options; take a 10-hour bus ride (one way) to another ATM, or get money in Costa Rica. Well, 2 hours (and 6 Visa stamps) later I got what I needed :) Boat schedules didn´t turn out to be in my favour to go back so I decided to make a little turn and cross over land this time. It´s hard to say, but this land crossing was probably one of the craziest border crossings I´ve been to so far… having to block people and threaten with getting the police is not something I do every day ;)
Anyway, false start… ended up in San Juan del Sur (southwestern Nicaragua)… and there´s absolutely worse places to crash down! The place is laid-back, the beaches are nice and the surfing is great fun! When it comes to the latter, I´m still class ´S´ (the S is for sucks) but everyone needs to learn anyway…. right?! Also seeing nesting sea turtles was interesting, besides the fact we were surrounded by hundreds of them!
That´s all for now, I´ve got quite some more things on the programme so keep coming back ;) And thanks for all feedback I got lately!
Note: due to constant electricity problems over here I haven´t been able to upload pics yet, will try doing so tomorrow. Sorry!
Update 22-Nov: Pics now available! I´ll try to keep it shorter next time!
Street life - San Carlos de Nicaragua
Sabalo - small river community
Lunch swims right in the river ;)