Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

After leaving Alajuela we spent two more nights at Playa Hermosa, where we had already been 3 other times.  This has been one of our favorite spots on our entire trip and it seemed like a nice way to end our time in Costa Rica. 

The next day we headed for Nicaragua. 

We had planned on having a relatively stressful couple of days ahead of us: 3 border crossings in 4 days.  We arrived at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border and found an unbelievably long line.  People were estimating that it would take 3 hours just to get your passport stamped.  Since we are traveling with our car we have a bunch of other paperwork and steps to go through, so we were a little worried.  I decided to just get in line and start waiting.  Matthias was close to the front office with William and Julian.  He inevitably started talking to people there (since they don’t leave you alone) and a guy said that if we were to give him $20 he would get us through the line in 10 minutes.  There are all sorts of people at this border telling you they can get you through faster.  They were there the last time when we crossed into Costa Rica.  Eventually we found out that if you are traveling with kids all you have to do is go to the front of the line and they’ll let you right in.  We tried it and it worked.  We saved ourselves about 3 hours and 20 dollars!  I had always wondered if those guys were for real.  While I was waiting in line I started talking to a guy from Nicaragua and he eventually paid 3000 colones (about 6 dollars) to get a guy to get him through faster.  As I was walking out of the office with our stamped passports he was at the front of the line.  So it actually does work.  I imagine these guys have a deal with the guards and they get of cut of what people pay to get through faster. 

We eventually made it through the border and headed into Nicaragua.  We were nervous about driving in Nicaragua again since we had such a rough time on our way through the last time.  We ran into lots of police controls, corrupt cops and just plain unfriendly people.  This time things couldn’t have been more different.  It took us over an hour to run into our first police control.  We’ve heard from a bunch of people that the police in Nicaragua always ask for your emergency triangles.  Most people don’t have them and this is how they get bribes out of a lot of drivers.  We actually picked some up in Leon on our way through Nicaragua and they sure came in handy.  Of course they were buried under the seat with the kid’s car seats, and the policeman made us wake both William and Julian to get them out.  He was chuckling and looking around our car when on the other side of the road 2 more people they had pulled over were giving the police a hard time.  I mean a really hard time, and they were getting loud and started pushing the police, and the policeman slammed his clipboard on they guys head.  I saw what was going on and started to become alarmed.  Our policeman saw too and raced over to help his fellow officers.  At that point we put everything back in our car as fast as possible and just drove away, unscathed.  The next police control went totally fine also and he let us go without even giving us a hard time.  We spent one night in Masaya, which turned out to be a great city.  And then we spent 2 nights in Esteli, which was also great. 

We were also worried about the Honduras border.  The border crossing the last time we went through Honduras was by far the worst (and was what prompted Matthias to write his own blog entry “The other side of the border”).  But we chose to cross in a different city this time and all we encountered were nice helpful people, and we were through in 45 minutes.  The last time in Honduras we also had our first encounter with corruption within about 5 minutes – a guy wanting 20 dollars for nothing.  He didn’t even pretend we did anything wrong.  He just said “viente dolares”.  But this border went so smooth and the drive afterwards was spectacular.  It is a contender for one of our top 5 most beautiful drives on this trip.  And since we’ve been in Honduras we’ve just been so pleasantly surprised.  Nice people, smooth border crossings, beautiful landscape. 

After the border crossing we saw a car wash on the side of the road (2 guys with a pressure washer, soap and a big bucket of water) and decided to get the car washed.  We had parked the Yoda Van under a tree in Alajuela, and if you’ve done any reading on Costa Rica you know how many species of birds there are there.  Needless to say, our car was desperately in need of a good cleaning.  But it was so pleasant standing there in the sun for 45 minutes while these men washed our car, and talking with a few people who walked by.  It is strange how your impressions of a country can change so fast.  Neither Matthias nor I were looking forward to driving through Nicaragua or Honduras.  We had such rough experiences on our first way through that we decided to go through as fast as we can, straight to El Salvador.  Now we are both wishing we had more time in both of those countries. 

 

On the 21st we left our van parked at our apartment in Alajuela, and walked off into the neighborhood to catch a bus to town.  We left with 1 backpack, 1 diaper bag and each of the kids had a small backpack of their own with the toys and books we are bringing with us.  The rest is in the van and we wont see it again for another 3 or 4 weeks as we are going to backpack through Panama.

We first got a bus into Alajuela where we caught a bus to San Jose.  We spent the first night in San Jose and the next morning we took a 5 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo, which is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, just north of the Panamanian border.  Puerto Viejo is a laid back town with a huge rastafarian influence.  It was much more humid than we were used to in Alajuela and a bit overcast.  We found a nice hostel with a swimming pool and went swimming quite a bit.  We sampled a bit of the local Caribbean cuisine, rented some bikes and went swimming in the ocean.

When we were in Puerto Viejo we meet two Germans traveling together.  Bernie and Trixi were also planning on going to Bocas in Panama so we decided to travel together.  We all got on the bus together and headed towards the Panamanian border.  The border crossing went really smoothly.  We got a ride to the city of Almirante which where we caught a boat out to Bocas.  Bocas are a group of serveral islands off the northern tip of Panama.  We were able to find a nice hotel with the hottest showers since we left the US and some comfortable hammocks.

The first day Matthias, William, Julian and I took a short boat ride over to another island and walked along the beach.  The weather was a bit overcast and we had some wicked rain storms, which the Caribbean is famous for.  The beaches here are really picture perfect: white sand, lined with palm trees and crystal clear blue/green water.  The beers are cold, cheap and tasty.  The only problem on this small island was that the sand flies were absolutely unbearable.

The next day Matthias offered to stay with William and Julian.  Bernie, Trixi and I went on an all day boat/snorkeling tour around Bocas.  The first stop was to a place where the dolphins swim.  Next we anchored over a coral reef and spent an hour and a half snorkeling.  We pulled up to palm thatched roof cabins where we had lunch.  The coconut smell was so tempting and we all shared a plate of fresh lobster pulled right from the water.  After lunch we went to a beach where we spent about an hour and a half.  This beach had the softest, finest sand I´ve ever seen and the temperature of the water was perfect.  And no sand flies here!  After we left the beach we anchored one more time for a final hour of snorkeling.  The time away from the kids was very relaxing and I was happy to have some good friends to go with.

Our next stop was Boquete.  Bernie and Trixi aren´t flying out until Thursday so they decided to continue on with us and we all got a boat back to the mainland, a bus to David and then another old American school bus up to Boquete.  The bus ride to David was spectacular.  First we drove along the coast up into the jungle.  Every now and again you would villiages of thatched roof huts on stilts.  The drive up into the mountains was through lush green forests and the drive back down to the Pacific was drier and mountainous.  At times it reminded me of Switzerland, and at times of Arizona.

Boquete is a small town up in the mountains surrounded by cloud forests.  The air is dry and fresh and there is a strong cool wind.  There is a volcano nearby and lots of hiking trails.  I´ve found the sun, combined with the dry air and cool wind very peaceful and relaxing.  Later today we are going to go for a small hike and then meet up with Bernie and Trixi for dinner.

Panama has been great so far.  Not everyone speaks English here and it feels way less touristy to me than Costa Rica did.  In an earlier post I think I described Costa Rica as “a well oiled tourist machine”.  Panama seems much more laid back without the frantic shuttling of tourists to every last little corner of the country.  It also has an indigenous population.  The women still wear their traditional clothing (as they did in Guatemala and Mexico) and I find that much more interesting than skin-tight tank tops all the women (regardless of size) seem to be wearing in Costa Rica.  The traditional clothing that I´ve seen here so far has been a solid color, bright mumu-like dress with a large ruffle and rick-rack like trim in several places on the ruffle, sleeve, waistband etc.  It´s neat.

We may leave Boquete tomorrow, and head toward the Pacific coast.  After that our next stops will be Santa Fe, El Valle and then Panama City.

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