Just two hours drive from here in Costa Rica is the border with Nicaragua, so we decided to take a little trip to a new country for both of us. It’s very complicated to get all the paperwork and insurance needed to take a car there, so we found a private parking spot nearby and hired a car on the other side. Getting through the border on foot was a bit of an adventure in itself, as we had no idea of the procedure and where exactly to go as there seems to be over half a mile in distance between both immigration buildings via wide roads, roundabouts and zebra crossings that just lead to grassy areas! There were also very few people crossing on foot and any officials we asked just vaguely waved their arms in the general direction we needed to head 🙄 We made it through of course, and the next challenge was to find the car hire office which was partially hidden by dozens of enormous trucks parked up on the roadside. Once we had the car we had to weave through them again to get on the road, breath a sigh of relief, and another one when we saw what the main road was like. What a surprise! There are miles of beautiful tree lined roads in really good condition, which for a fairly poor country led us to think that there must have been some foreign money spent there. I have since learned however that the country has invested heavily in modernising and expanding its national road network, earning recognition for having some of the best-constructed and most rapidly improved highways in Central America.
Our first stop was in the coastal town of San Juan del Sur where we had booked an overnight stay. At lunchtime we were watched by a couple of white throated magpie jays.
Overlooking the bay is an enormous statue of Christ, which is similar to the famous one in Rio de Janeiro. It’s apparently a great place to watch the sun set into the ocean, but it was a little cloudy and the sun disappeared before it dropped into the water.
There was a nice breeze up there though with a good view of the bays.
From there we went down into town in search of dinner, and enjoyed watching some local children playing volleyball on the beach.
The next morning we got up early to go into town again to photograph the colourful buildings there. I enjoyed practicing my ‘motion blur’ photos.
I’m now used to seeing electricity wires like these in various countries!
I appreciate the fact that this restaurant was built around the trees instead of cutting them down.
I liked the facade of this building and was amused to read the sign on the door, which says ‘no parking’ 😂
After a shower and breakfast back at the hotel, we left for our next destination; Granada. (Next blog post to follow)
