Nicaragua & Costa Rica

NICARAGUA (27.05.-09.06)

The 27th of May we landed in de capital city of Nicaragua: Managua. Since we landed in the evening, and we hadn’t done our homework enough to know what to do in Nicaragua, we had decided to book a room in Managua for the first two nights. This gave us the chance to acclimate and to sort out our plans.

We took a cab from the airport to the hostel, which was a little away from the city center. We were told that Managua is a very dangerous city. We would have to pick our cab with much care and we should not walk outside at nighttime. Also at the hostel we were strictly advised not to walk around after dark, except maybe to buy something directly on the other side of the street. We stayed at the hostel that night and settled down with a cold Toña beer and a smoothie.

In the morning we decided to take a walk around the city. We left the hostel located in a quiet area and headed towards the center. After walking a few minutes, we (mostly Sven) freaked out when we almost past a guy with a machete. However, we learned later that not every person with a machete wants to rob white people, they use them for gardening too.

The rest of the walk was not very interesting. We looked for a lake on the map, which in reality was nothing more than a nasty muddy pool. The city center was not a cozy city center we were hoping for and there was not much interesting to see. It was very hot and humid and we were walking from shade to shade. Managua is located at a lake so we went to check that out. Again, that didn’t had much to offer. We took a cab back to the hostel and decided to leave early in the morning towards Granada.

We took the “chicken-bus” to Granada. These are the cheap and local buses: no AC and people hopping on and off randomly (no official bus-stops). Granada is a much smaller town south-west of Managua, located at Laguna de Nicaragua, the biggest lake in Central America. It was already a much more pleasant place, with typically colored houses, a small cozy center with a bell tower to enjoy the view and a local market. One day we met up with an acquaintance: Erik Hof, a Dutch guy who built up a beach club in Granada. He took us to a private party of a friend on a small island near Granada. The island was private area with only one house, a swimming pool and a tennis court. There was an open bar and we had the best view of the Volcano Mombacho during sunset. It was an amazing “insider experience” that we would have never experienced otherwise.

From Granada we made our way to Isla de Ometepe, an island located in the Laguna de Nicaragua. We went by ferry which took 4 hours and although the weather forecast predicted some thunderstorms, we stayed dry and had an amazing sunset view from the boat. From the port in Altagracia it was about 25km to get to our hostel in Moyogalpa on the other side of the island. A ride that usually would not take longer than 25 min, took us overall 2 hours including 2 shuttle changes.

“The Landing Hostel” wasn’t the best option, but it was cheap ($7pp/night) and we met up again with Lybbe and Max, a nice American couple we met in Granada. Since it was quite late upon arrival, we mainly spent the night in front of cooling vans while drinking. We were planning to spend around 2-3 days on the island before going to San Juan del Sur for surfing. Actually we wanted to finally climb our first volcano, “La Concepción”, but due to the insane temperatures and exhausting stories of other backpackers, we decided not to fool ourselves and to wait for another possibility – which we would definitely have. Instead, we rented two scooters for 4 people (Lybbe & Max and us) and toured around the island for a whole day. Again, it was very hot that day, but the breeze on the bike was just perfect, and we even had the chance to cool off at “Ojo de Agua” – a natural spring swimming pool with fresh water.

The day after we spent in front of the computer, sorting out our next travel destination and managed a hostel in San Juan. The next morning we took the boat to Rivas on the mainland, and from there a cab straight to San Juan. San Juan is a more touristy spot at the Pacific coast, especially known for surfing in the area. The perfect location for us to properly start picking up surfing. The beach in San Juan is not that spectacular, but there are several beaches within a 30-40min drive, reachable by shuttles from the hostel. First we were not sure how long to stay but it didn’t take long to consider to just stay a couple of days and relax on the beach, take a surf lesson and finally get some tan. And that is exactly what we ended up doing. Right on the first day in the morning we went to Ramonso Beach with a surf instructor, Alex, and tried our luck. We started off with long boards and it went way better than expected (the pictured and videos will show…)!! The lesson lasted 1,5 hours, but we could keep the boards for the rest of the day and practice ourselves. That night, we had a VERY good and deep sleep ;).

We met quite some people in the hostel so the next couple of days we only went to the various beaches again, surfing and chilling on the beach. Therefore we decided to skip the “Sunday Funday” during the day (a too expensive pool-hopping & drinking event) and only went to the last bar at the beach where this event ended.

COSTA RICA (09.06.-23.06)

After a 5-day-chill-and-watersport-program, we packed our bags, hopped on the chicken bus again and made our way to cross another border: Costa Rica. The crossing went smooth and luckily it didn’t take too much time.

Two Germans we met in Nicaragua suggested us to go to Río Celeste. Rio Celeste is a river which originates at the volcano Tenorio and is known for its spectacular turquoise blue color. This blue color is due to the mixing of the minerals Sulphur and calcium carbonate, disposed by the volcano. The river is located in the Tenorio National Park. This park is a secondary rainforest (primary = the original state of the forest, with no trees and plants ever been cut; secondary = forest that has regrown after major disturbance such as timber harvest).
Since we only arrived in Bijagua in the late afternoon (the town before the National Park), we decided to spend there a night and only get to the Park the next morning. We made a reservation at a Lodge near the entrance for the following night. Since this destination is not very well known yet, and the road to the entrance of the park is only reachable with a 4x4 car, we were not very lucky with getting a cab or going by bus. SO what was the alternative? Exactly – walking! We left our big bags at the hotel and only took the most important things in our small bags. We got up around 6.00am, packed some sandwiches and started our journey. The park would open at 8.00am and the trail to get there would be around 9km. Already after the first 1-2km, we were basically soaked in sweat due to the humidity and walking only uphill. Luckily, about half way, a car was passing and we could hitch hike for the last part – what a relief! After paying the $12 entrance fee, they told us it would be a 3h hike to return and we would pass a look-out point, the waterfall and see the spot were two rivers merge to form the beautiful blue color. It looked amazing!  

Our next destination would be Monteverde – a village up in the mountains. The road towards there was quite bumpy so it took us basically 3h for 40km. Monteverde is known for its various tours to different rain- and cloudforests, Canopy, horse riding and coffee tours. We chose for a 3-4 hour walk through the Santa Elena cloud forest. Cloud forests - also known as fog forest - differ from rainforests because they are located in higher altitude and therefore the trees are literally covered in clouds, fog and mist most of the time. It creates a very green and moist scenery with beautiful flora. During our hike we just crossed one other hiker, and the quietness of the forest was magic. The only sounds where the sounds of birds and drops falling from the trees.

Since the weather was not that amazing (rain in the early in the afternoon every day), the offered tours were very pricy, we only stayed another night and got on the bus very early the next morning. Some girls told us about “Santa Teresa” – a place on the Peninsula Island at the Pacific coast. And indeed – Santa Teresa is a little village along one street, right beside a beautiful beach. The hostel we stayed at had a very relaxed atmosphere, offering Yoga classes and surf boards. For the next 3 days we had again some days at the beach, reading our books, studying Spanish, surfing the waves and eating “Casados” at rather cheap Sodas (Casado = main dish in Costa Rica.. RICE AND BEANS with some kind of vegetables and meat; that is basically everything what the people there eat). Again, the rain mostly only started in the evenings or at night time, so we had beautiful and very hot weather during the days.

Since we did not want to spend too much time in Costa Rica (due to expenses), our following stops would be the Volcano Póas and only one more National Park. To “climb” the Volcano, we had to go to San Jose first. It was alright for one day, but San Jose is definitely not a city which has to be on somebody’s list when traveling through Costa Rica. Also the trip to the Volcano was a little disappointing. It was way overpriced for what the surrounding offered. The elevation was 2,708m but the expected hike to the crater was more like a 15-minute walk on paved ground, following groups of other tourists. The crater itself (including a crater lake) was amazing to see though. Damps of gases where rising from the crater and the smell of rotten eggs was intense. There was also a lagoon located a 30-minute hike away. This lagoon is the extinct crater and the minirals in it still make it a very poisoned lake. In the end we had to wait for another 1,5 hours for the bus to take us back to the city. We were not quite sure if the whole hassle was actually worth it, but we knew we will have better experiences with volcanos for sure!

After another night in San Jose, we had an 8-hour bus ride to Corcovado National Park. Again, somebody we met on our way really recommended us that place. It is supposed to be way less touristy than e.g. National Park Manuel Antonio, and also better for seeing a lot of animals. Since this park is only accessible with a tour-guide, we decided for once to excessively exceed our day-to-day budget and book an organized 2-day tour: $120 each (everything included; that price was already rather cheap compared to other tours), with a group of 6 people plus the tour guide. Unfortunately, that tour was a bit of a fail. We were promised a package with multiple tours into the jungle and a night tour to spot turtle eggs. Unfortunately, that was not really true. Our tour guide Jean Pierre was a nice man but not the youngest one anymore so keeping up with us was difficult, and also the promised trips were not as spectacular and the promised waterfall we did not see at all. The trails were mostly right beside the beach (the beach was stunning though!!), and not in the actual jungle as we firstly understood. Also for the night walk, we had to go by ourselves since he was too tired. After finding animal tracks of what might have been a puma or other big cat, Pam was sh****** her pants and saw animals behind every bush ;) Overall, we did see a lot of monkeys (white-headed capuchins, spider monkeys and mantled howlers), 2 white-nosed coatis and lots of scarlet macaws (papagai). So animal-wise it was really cool, although the tour itself lacked excitement since the group atmosphere was also not the best due to the misunderstandings.

Costa Rica was very expensive and bad for our budget, so we decided that this stop was definitely our last one. The following morning we took a boat to the mainland and made our way to the border of Panama. After paying a $7 (!!!) exit-fee, getting our next stamp, we could easily walk across the border to get to our next destination – Boquete, in the Highlands of Panama.