August 14
It was nice to be on the opposite side of a Central American city’s rush hour traffic! We were out of Managua before 9 and within 15 minutes we were high on a ridge and in the clouds. The clouds were moving so fast and the wind was ripping. It was eerie… almost dark. We weren’t sure if an intense storm was on its way. I may have even described myself as “chilly” for about a second. But reading the landscape (i.e., no trees, all the buildings were short, no clothes lines, etc.) it became clear that it is often like this “up there”, so just keep going and eventually we will get back to some lower elevation. And within an hour we were. And when we dropped there, it got really hot again. But even with the heat, the ride and scenery and passers by were really lovely.
Two things I forgot to mention about Nic in previous posts. First, the sports. They are by far the most active and sport crazed country. We probably saw more than usual because it was weekend, but even today (Monday), pick up games all around. Soccer, baseball, and even a little basketball. Mostly men, but all ages. And second, the cows here actually have feet. That is probably only funny to me, but I want to remember that when I’m 80.
We were reasonably well rested after our fun night out so we rode straight to Rivas/San Jorge and arrived by noon. Hotel Hamaca let us check in early (gracias!), so by 1 pm we were exploring. First we walked around the shores of Lake Nicaragua. It has waves and a gigantic view of Isla Ometepe, which is a volcanic island with Vulcans Concepcion and Maderas. This lake is bigger than the entire country of El Salvador. Clw you will have to explain to me how there is a body of freshwater this big around so many anions and cations that is not salty. The entire island is a biological reserve and certainly has a “come to me” vibe; with all the time in the world Ernie and I would have taken a few days to check it out.
After our lakeside walk about we took a cab into Rivas. We really wanted to take a bicycle taxi (as the bicycle taxis here have the peddlar in the back and the passengers in the front), but the bicycle taxis don’t hang out in San Jorge, they only take people TO San Jorge then book their way back to Rivas where they make more money (4-5 km away). So we took a regular cab and asked to get dropped off at a store that sells stuff for tourists. We were on the hunt for Nicaragua stickers for our moto cases. We went into one shop and they said no, we don’t have stickers, but go here! And then gave directions which we couldn’t understand. We walked as best we could with what we could glean, then asked again at another shop. The owner would say no, we don’t have stickers, but go here! In total I think it was five stops, asking people or shops… Eventually we wound up in a shop where a woman custom screens t-shirts. We thought she could make us a custom sticker, which would have been really awesome! But no. Only t-shirts. So why did the local people send us to her? Well, turns out she had a cardboard box of stickers under the counter. She was very happy to let us rummage through the box looking for stickers. Ultimately all the stickers were basically brands of USA things relating to surfing, cars, trucks or music. We politely said no and tried to explain that we were looking for stickers to show our pride and appreciation for Nicaragua as we continued our journey south. Just before we left she waved me back in and gave me a handmade John Deere sticker. Handmade? Yes, handmade. It is two layers of solid sticker, a green sheet over a yellow sheet, and the green was exacto knived (verb?) to have a window of/reveal an outline of a deer, which when stuck atop a plain yellow sticker made a very non-identical version of a John Deere logo. She said “un regalo” (a gift) and smiled. I smiled hard and said gracias probably three times. It is decorating my iPad.
Stickerless yet smiling and hungry and thirsty we hunt for food. We head on foot to the highest church steeple to get us to the main plaza, during which we again get our daily dose incessant honking by taxis and catching up on shoe prices. Also found a great bano (see map pics), and really appreciated that the man they chose to portray was a white businessman. Most of the shops and towns seemingly sell the same thing over and over, but we did find one new item today: a “washcloth” of sorts… about 10 inches square, one side was a thin, real piece of loofah (the fruit) and the other side a thin, real piece of sponge (the animal). Around the edge was a hand sewn colorful bit of fabric to hold it all together. For reasons I’m not sure of they were kind of offensive to me as a biologist, but I wanted to buy one for everyone I know. We eventually get to the town square and it was a nice break from the chaos. The squares don’t usually have any vendors, so everyone is just on their phones or sleeping or reading. There are some good placards and monuments, so we educated ourselves on some Nicaraguan history and the FMLN we see flags for everywhere (the left-wing political party here). We see a restaurant with outdoor seating. We head over and alas, who is outside but another gringo (as it is about 2-3 pm and no native is sitting and eating at this time). His name was Daniel and we eventually joined tables. He left Spokane on his bicycle about a year ago and is taking his time. He does anywhere between 20-120 km per day, and he has a surprisingly small amount of gear. He had a great vibe, and it was fun to exchange notes and stories. We wish him the best with his journey and hope he doesn’t just go back to work when he makes it to Ushuaia.
We never ended up getting food at the restaurant with Daniel, so by now we were hangry. No time for a slow relaxing bicycle taxi back to San Jorge. We take a regular taxi and randomly select one of the restaurants on the lake shore. Ernie and I talked about Daniel as we shoved it in. There are a lot of ways to “do” a trip like this, and I guess everyone who does this kind of trip has to do it their own way. As Ernie said, “Some people do this in cars, some do this on motorcycles, some do this on bicycles, some walk. Some have probably even dragged a crucifix.” I guess what is important is that either you do it yourself the way you want to do it, or that the people you are doing the trip with are all on the same page. Luckily, Ernie and I aren’t even a degree of a sine wave apart.
August 15
Hola Costa Rica! Within the first few hours we saw blue morpho butterflies, LCB’s (little colorful birds) in blue, red, and yellow, and our biggest iguana yet. Ernie had an unconfirmed by me monkey sighting - ah! The northwest corner of Costa Rica was nothing like I expected as far as its habitat. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like an ecological pico de gallo. Take some jungle, lots of savannah, lots of scrubland, chop them up, stir a few times, then toss back out to the earth.
Our drive out of Nicaragua was, as we hoped, just lovely. The highway followed Lake Nicaragua for most of the way so it was delightfully scenic. Two crested caracaras (one right on the road in front of Ernie), and several dozen jaribus chillin’ on the side of the lake (and yes, I have never heard of that bird before today - just read about them and a large male can stand 5 feet tall). The presence of wind turbines told us that region is windy most of the year, so we hypothesize it's only a matter of time before Lake Nic becomes a windsurfing mecca.
Our border crossing was OK… we got rushed hard arriving to the Nicaraguan side, seven men in total I think. It was kind of pathetic. We shooed them all away but it took at least 15 minutes for them to leave us alone. They have a new building which is really nice, but of course nothing is labeled, so you walk back and forth a lot and only half of the time you spend waiting is worthwhile. I had a nice exchange with an older fat man and told him how much we loved Nicaragua. It came back around at one point when we were really fumbling about... he came and told us where to go. With passport stuff and moto stuff secured we head to the Costa Rican side. There is only one border crossing so it is setup to deal with a lot more people (think of the ropes/nylon band they use to make queue barriers at airports and banks, but instead of rope they are made of concrete barriers like you would find on the side of the highway). But it is off season so there were no more than a half a bus load of people at a time. There was no drama, no scammers. Just unlabeled windows and buildings, photocopies, and slow going. As expected, it took us three hours.
While we at the border we ran into three other adventure riders today, from the Netherlands. They started in Alaska and are also planning on going all the way to Ushuaia. And one was a girl! Woop Woop! Rock on chica. They were ahead of us in the border crossing process so they gave us some good tips. We also talked a bit about the upcoming Darien Gap (i.e., the stretch of the Pan American Highway that does not exist). Hopefully by the end of the week we will have a plan about how we are getting across it. Right now our two best options seem to be a sailboat from Panama to NW Columbia or flying them from Panama City to Ecuador (worst third option is shipping by boat with other cars). Flying everything costs more, but fits our “schedule” better as far being able to spend more time in southern South America (will take us at least two weeks to ride through Columbia). We both love the idea of watching our bikes get hoisted onto a 120 foot sailboat and slowly sailing across the warm calm waters of the Caribbean Sea. The reality however isn’t as attractive… hostel-style living, bunkbeds, curtains as doors, no sleeping, group cooking and eating. Grandma and Grandpa like privacy, planning our own meal times, and are terrified of five days of forced mingling…
Our other funny Grandma and Grandpa of the day - the Netherland adventure kids were asking whether we were on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and we said no. Then he asked about the Overlanders app, which I guess is an app just for social networking and info and other people doing the PanAm? We of course also said no… I turned to Ernie and said “Grandma and Grandpa have maps, not apps”. Ha!
Liberia, Costa Rica could be anywhere USA. I believe Ernie said “Indiana” and I said “Illinois”. There is a McDonalds, a Subway (which we may or may not have gone to), a Walmart. And ok ok yes we went to the Walmart… But for a reasonably good reason! We lost one of our most precious cords, the one that connects our headsets to the bikes, so we wanted to replace it (must have a spare!). We had the reusable bag but luckily it is so dirty already no one hassled us about proof of purchase. We are on the outskirts of town so the plaza/central is likely totally different than this part of town, but we were too tired to get back on the bikes and explore.
The mild, better-when-really-cold-cerveza of Costa Rica is Imperial. It's on par with Tona. It goes great with “Rapido y Furioso” (“The Fast and Furious”, and Vin Diesel’s spanish dub over is pretty good).
It was nice to be on the opposite side of a Central American city’s rush hour traffic! We were out of Managua before 9 and within 15 minutes we were high on a ridge and in the clouds. The clouds were moving so fast and the wind was ripping. It was eerie… almost dark. We weren’t sure if an intense storm was on its way. I may have even described myself as “chilly” for about a second. But reading the landscape (i.e., no trees, all the buildings were short, no clothes lines, etc.) it became clear that it is often like this “up there”, so just keep going and eventually we will get back to some lower elevation. And within an hour we were. And when we dropped there, it got really hot again. But even with the heat, the ride and scenery and passers by were really lovely.
Two things I forgot to mention about Nic in previous posts. First, the sports. They are by far the most active and sport crazed country. We probably saw more than usual because it was weekend, but even today (Monday), pick up games all around. Soccer, baseball, and even a little basketball. Mostly men, but all ages. And second, the cows here actually have feet. That is probably only funny to me, but I want to remember that when I’m 80.
We were reasonably well rested after our fun night out so we rode straight to Rivas/San Jorge and arrived by noon. Hotel Hamaca let us check in early (gracias!), so by 1 pm we were exploring. First we walked around the shores of Lake Nicaragua. It has waves and a gigantic view of Isla Ometepe, which is a volcanic island with Vulcans Concepcion and Maderas. This lake is bigger than the entire country of El Salvador. Clw you will have to explain to me how there is a body of freshwater this big around so many anions and cations that is not salty. The entire island is a biological reserve and certainly has a “come to me” vibe; with all the time in the world Ernie and I would have taken a few days to check it out.
After our lakeside walk about we took a cab into Rivas. We really wanted to take a bicycle taxi (as the bicycle taxis here have the peddlar in the back and the passengers in the front), but the bicycle taxis don’t hang out in San Jorge, they only take people TO San Jorge then book their way back to Rivas where they make more money (4-5 km away). So we took a regular cab and asked to get dropped off at a store that sells stuff for tourists. We were on the hunt for Nicaragua stickers for our moto cases. We went into one shop and they said no, we don’t have stickers, but go here! And then gave directions which we couldn’t understand. We walked as best we could with what we could glean, then asked again at another shop. The owner would say no, we don’t have stickers, but go here! In total I think it was five stops, asking people or shops… Eventually we wound up in a shop where a woman custom screens t-shirts. We thought she could make us a custom sticker, which would have been really awesome! But no. Only t-shirts. So why did the local people send us to her? Well, turns out she had a cardboard box of stickers under the counter. She was very happy to let us rummage through the box looking for stickers. Ultimately all the stickers were basically brands of USA things relating to surfing, cars, trucks or music. We politely said no and tried to explain that we were looking for stickers to show our pride and appreciation for Nicaragua as we continued our journey south. Just before we left she waved me back in and gave me a handmade John Deere sticker. Handmade? Yes, handmade. It is two layers of solid sticker, a green sheet over a yellow sheet, and the green was exacto knived (verb?) to have a window of/reveal an outline of a deer, which when stuck atop a plain yellow sticker made a very non-identical version of a John Deere logo. She said “un regalo” (a gift) and smiled. I smiled hard and said gracias probably three times. It is decorating my iPad.
Stickerless yet smiling and hungry and thirsty we hunt for food. We head on foot to the highest church steeple to get us to the main plaza, during which we again get our daily dose incessant honking by taxis and catching up on shoe prices. Also found a great bano (see map pics), and really appreciated that the man they chose to portray was a white businessman. Most of the shops and towns seemingly sell the same thing over and over, but we did find one new item today: a “washcloth” of sorts… about 10 inches square, one side was a thin, real piece of loofah (the fruit) and the other side a thin, real piece of sponge (the animal). Around the edge was a hand sewn colorful bit of fabric to hold it all together. For reasons I’m not sure of they were kind of offensive to me as a biologist, but I wanted to buy one for everyone I know. We eventually get to the town square and it was a nice break from the chaos. The squares don’t usually have any vendors, so everyone is just on their phones or sleeping or reading. There are some good placards and monuments, so we educated ourselves on some Nicaraguan history and the FMLN we see flags for everywhere (the left-wing political party here). We see a restaurant with outdoor seating. We head over and alas, who is outside but another gringo (as it is about 2-3 pm and no native is sitting and eating at this time). His name was Daniel and we eventually joined tables. He left Spokane on his bicycle about a year ago and is taking his time. He does anywhere between 20-120 km per day, and he has a surprisingly small amount of gear. He had a great vibe, and it was fun to exchange notes and stories. We wish him the best with his journey and hope he doesn’t just go back to work when he makes it to Ushuaia.
We never ended up getting food at the restaurant with Daniel, so by now we were hangry. No time for a slow relaxing bicycle taxi back to San Jorge. We take a regular taxi and randomly select one of the restaurants on the lake shore. Ernie and I talked about Daniel as we shoved it in. There are a lot of ways to “do” a trip like this, and I guess everyone who does this kind of trip has to do it their own way. As Ernie said, “Some people do this in cars, some do this on motorcycles, some do this on bicycles, some walk. Some have probably even dragged a crucifix.” I guess what is important is that either you do it yourself the way you want to do it, or that the people you are doing the trip with are all on the same page. Luckily, Ernie and I aren’t even a degree of a sine wave apart.
August 15
Hola Costa Rica! Within the first few hours we saw blue morpho butterflies, LCB’s (little colorful birds) in blue, red, and yellow, and our biggest iguana yet. Ernie had an unconfirmed by me monkey sighting - ah! The northwest corner of Costa Rica was nothing like I expected as far as its habitat. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like an ecological pico de gallo. Take some jungle, lots of savannah, lots of scrubland, chop them up, stir a few times, then toss back out to the earth.
Our drive out of Nicaragua was, as we hoped, just lovely. The highway followed Lake Nicaragua for most of the way so it was delightfully scenic. Two crested caracaras (one right on the road in front of Ernie), and several dozen jaribus chillin’ on the side of the lake (and yes, I have never heard of that bird before today - just read about them and a large male can stand 5 feet tall). The presence of wind turbines told us that region is windy most of the year, so we hypothesize it's only a matter of time before Lake Nic becomes a windsurfing mecca.
Our border crossing was OK… we got rushed hard arriving to the Nicaraguan side, seven men in total I think. It was kind of pathetic. We shooed them all away but it took at least 15 minutes for them to leave us alone. They have a new building which is really nice, but of course nothing is labeled, so you walk back and forth a lot and only half of the time you spend waiting is worthwhile. I had a nice exchange with an older fat man and told him how much we loved Nicaragua. It came back around at one point when we were really fumbling about... he came and told us where to go. With passport stuff and moto stuff secured we head to the Costa Rican side. There is only one border crossing so it is setup to deal with a lot more people (think of the ropes/nylon band they use to make queue barriers at airports and banks, but instead of rope they are made of concrete barriers like you would find on the side of the highway). But it is off season so there were no more than a half a bus load of people at a time. There was no drama, no scammers. Just unlabeled windows and buildings, photocopies, and slow going. As expected, it took us three hours.
While we at the border we ran into three other adventure riders today, from the Netherlands. They started in Alaska and are also planning on going all the way to Ushuaia. And one was a girl! Woop Woop! Rock on chica. They were ahead of us in the border crossing process so they gave us some good tips. We also talked a bit about the upcoming Darien Gap (i.e., the stretch of the Pan American Highway that does not exist). Hopefully by the end of the week we will have a plan about how we are getting across it. Right now our two best options seem to be a sailboat from Panama to NW Columbia or flying them from Panama City to Ecuador (worst third option is shipping by boat with other cars). Flying everything costs more, but fits our “schedule” better as far being able to spend more time in southern South America (will take us at least two weeks to ride through Columbia). We both love the idea of watching our bikes get hoisted onto a 120 foot sailboat and slowly sailing across the warm calm waters of the Caribbean Sea. The reality however isn’t as attractive… hostel-style living, bunkbeds, curtains as doors, no sleeping, group cooking and eating. Grandma and Grandpa like privacy, planning our own meal times, and are terrified of five days of forced mingling…
Our other funny Grandma and Grandpa of the day - the Netherland adventure kids were asking whether we were on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and we said no. Then he asked about the Overlanders app, which I guess is an app just for social networking and info and other people doing the PanAm? We of course also said no… I turned to Ernie and said “Grandma and Grandpa have maps, not apps”. Ha!
Liberia, Costa Rica could be anywhere USA. I believe Ernie said “Indiana” and I said “Illinois”. There is a McDonalds, a Subway (which we may or may not have gone to), a Walmart. And ok ok yes we went to the Walmart… But for a reasonably good reason! We lost one of our most precious cords, the one that connects our headsets to the bikes, so we wanted to replace it (must have a spare!). We had the reusable bag but luckily it is so dirty already no one hassled us about proof of purchase. We are on the outskirts of town so the plaza/central is likely totally different than this part of town, but we were too tired to get back on the bikes and explore.
The mild, better-when-really-cold-cerveza of Costa Rica is Imperial. It's on par with Tona. It goes great with “Rapido y Furioso” (“The Fast and Furious”, and Vin Diesel’s spanish dub over is pretty good).