The Vagrant Gypsy Life

Day 324 Sun 24/7

Another day spent mostly on the road… Left Liberia at 06:30 on a bus to the border (Peñas Blancas). Arrived in Peñas and the border crossing was smooth and the folks extremely efficient and friendly. The cops would carry on conversations while checking your luggage.. Welcome to Nicaragua, but now please pay USD 12.00 to enter the country and oh, another USD 1.00 to get into the bus “station”. There was a bus getting ready to leave for Granada/ Manaus when I was done with the formalities. Granada was about 2 hours away, but I managed to fall asleep and woke up in Manaus. Off at the terrible bus terminal at Manaus and on to a smaller bus to Granada. It is strange to see so many “retired” school buses from the US doing duty on the roads in Central America. I have now seen quite a few of them in Panama and Nicaragua.

Arrived in Granada around 13:00 and was told by the taxi driver that it would cost me 20 Cordobas (about $1) to get to the hostel, but he settled for 10: developing quite the bargaining skills now!

Granada is another very pretty, tranquil colonial town. It is enjoyable to wander the streets.

Day 325 Mon 25/7

Spent most of the day at a crater lake called Laguna Apoyo. A very restful day indeed. Also wandered around Granada a bit more and managed also to get a nap during the day. Exciting life!

Day 326 Tue 26/7

Visited a coupel of villages named the Pueblos Blancos after some of the houses that used to adorn the villages. I didnt see any of the old houses in either of the villages. The main draw of San Juan de Oriente is the pottery making. There are a lot of workshops around the small village of around 3000 people. Catarina is another village that seems to be right on top of SJdO and the walk there took me less than 5 minutes. The main draw in Catarina is the viewpoint over laguna apoyo and Lago Nicaragua.

After a hearty lunch of vegetable soup and tortillas, I visited the CHocoMuseo, which had the same display as the one I visited in Cusco in Peru. Made for a very short visit, that!

Spent quite some time chatting with a couple of fellow travellers at the hostel. Didnt sleep much the night since I was kept up by something that bit me during the night: not sure if bed bugs or mosquitos.

Day 323 Sat 23/7

Since I had but barely around 17 or 18 days, I figured I’d rather make it to Nicaragua than spend the time in Costa Rica. The decision made for a long day on the road!

Woke up at around 05:30 and left Isla Colon by the boat at 07:30. It was, as usual, pouring cats and dogs at that time. The boat was luckily covered and the boat ride, surprisingly smooth! I expected it to be a bit rough. Managed to find more folks and shared a cab to Changuinola where the bus to San Jose would leave at 10:00. The taxi got there with time to spare.

The border crossing between Panama and CR is the longest I have had to wait to cross borders in my entire trip and I have crossed borders more times than I care to remember! The Panama side was quite inefficient as they only had one queue to handle both exists and entries, not to mention the fact that there was only 1 person working there! Had to also pay USD 3.00 to leave Panama. The Costa Rican side was a bit quicker, since they had 2 folks working. A glance at my passport, no questions asked, and voila, I was in CR after spending about 2 hours at the border!

Arrived in San Jose around 04:30 local time (an hour behind Panama). A total driving time of about 5.5 hours. I decided that I would try and get closer to the border and hopped on another bus to a town called Liberia in the north. When I arrived there, I was told that there was a festival going on there, which meant that it took me a while to find a place to crash and at $12.5, quite expensive for about 6 hours of sleep.

Day 320 Wed 20/7 - Day 322 Fri 22/7 Left Boquete around 10:00 am and arrived in David at 10:30 and hopped on a bus to Almirante at 10:40. The ride to Almirante lsted about 4 hours and then it was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 316 Sat 16/7 - Day 319 Tue 19/7 After the 6 comfortable hour bus ride from P City, arrived in David at 06:30, and managed to get the bus at 07:00 to Boquete. Boquete, a small coffee town reminiscent of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 314 Thu 14/7 Left the island at 08:30. I wanted to stay a night more, but it rained most of the night and was still raining when I woke up! Off the island at 08:30, taxi to the city at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 314 Tue 12/7 The long day started at 04:30. Shower, put bag away in storage, wait for taxi. When the taxis did arrive, they didnt have enough space and since I was the only one not in a group, they ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 310 Fri 8/7 Last day in Colombia; farewells and off to the airport at 09:30 for the 12:30 flight. The taxi driver was not the best I have had and tried to overcharge me. However, I knew how much it ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 308 Wed 7/7 Back in Bogota after saying godbyes to the folk at Villa and a 3 hour bus ride. Yet more beautiful landscape. Rain didnt seem to make the driver slow down much and we made it to Puerta ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 304 Sat 2/7 - Day 307 Tue 6/7 If the weather in Mompos werent so hot and muggy, I would have stayed there a couple of the nights I spent in Villa. Villa is at 2000+ metres and makes for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 302 Thu 30/6 Mompos is a lovely, sleepy, colonial town on Rio Magdalena, which was well worth the effort it took me to get there. I left the hostel in Cartagena at 6:00 and got on a collectivo to Magangue ... [Continue reading this entry]