With a combination of friends driving us, buses, taxis, and ferries...we actually made it across the border in very good time for public transportation. The actual border process is a huge mess...there are no signs AND tons of people bombarding you to buy passport papers, buy your very own passport stamp so you don't even have to cross, and flinging money at you to change your colones into cordobas. After you pass through Costa Rica customs (which is free), you have to walk a little less than a mile to the Nicaragua customs agent (which is not free). We ended up letting one of the guys that was hounding us to help us through the process and he actually proved to be super helpful! For example, the lines for the customs agent randomly close without telling the people in the line, so he would literally move us to get in certain lines to keep us moving AND since Nicaraguan customs only accepts exact change... he took us around to all the money changers to help us out. That process alone probably would have taken us an hour or so, so that was a great investment!
There was a huge wind energy farm along the road from the airport alongside Lake Nicaragua. I kept trying to see if GE owned any of them, but sadly no.
We stayed on Ometepe Island which is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (which is absolutely huge). Two enormous volcanoes make up the island (Concepcion (10-hr hike) and Maderas (8hr hike)). This is a pic from our ferry.
We stayed in some cute cabinas at Villa Paraiso Hotel. We got lucky with some great low season rates (which I now love the low season) and the food in Nicaragua is super cheap, so we ate pretty well.
We hung out in the picture perfect glass lake a lot. The water was like bath water...a little too warm but still refreshing. We heard that Santo Domingo (which is where we stayed) was one of the windiest places on the island but last weekend it definitely didn't feel like it.
The first day we went on a 3 hour hike to the San Ramon waterfall which is on the side of Volcanoe Maderas. The road to get there was only 15 kilometers but it took us about 1 hour because the roads are so rocky and they haven't paved the south island.
The next day we rented bikes and headed to 'El Ojo de agua' which was a huge natural spring pool. Since I might have been complaining about the bath warm lake water...these pools definitely shut me up...they were a little chilly. The springs produce 400 gallons of water a minute. The water flows into a river (where tons of kids and adults bath and do laundry) and eventually out into Lake Nicaragua. Also, the volcanic minerals are said to make you look 5 years younger after bathing!! Not so sure it worked for us this time ... I guess we'll have to go back!!
Here's John swinging from the rope swing. I did it too, but my picture wasn't as graceful :)
Overall, we had a great trip and can't wait to explore more of Nicaragua! However, we were thankful to be back home in Costa Rica! Also, on the way back, we picked up our car that is now fixed - woohoo!!! Adios amigos!!
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