Costa Rica 2018

I took the TicaBus, the apparent best service for buses. The bus was $27 for your own seat with AC. Plus I didnt have to make multiple connections on a Sunday and holiday schedule.  I saw few Chicken buses on the road today. Yet paying a premium price of $27, I thought I could trusr the driver to drop me off in Liberia. But he drove straight on through and missed it by 50km! Then he told me some story how he thoughr I was with these Chinese ladies etc, not taking any responsibility. On top of that, he said I could take the Chicken bus back to Liberia paying for it myself. Basically, the event embodies what I hate about Latin culture: taking no responsibility, blaming others, lazy and inefficient. The upside is I was only out $3 Chicken bus fare back to Liberia and I wasn't on that plane that went down today!

This guy claimed he was a doctor from Costa Rica and showed me his passport. He claimed his suitcase was stolen and neede $30 to get back to Costa Rica. I was so impressed by his story, i gave him $20. When he asked me for the other $10, I told him to go find another gringo. I Googled his name, and it comes back as some criminal.

This guy I assume was the father of the Sandinistas, not to be confused with Bernie Sander's supporters, the Sandernistas.

Wow, a Cessna 208B carrying 10 Americans fell out of the air 50 miles from here. Everyone died. That was the same model plane I just landed in Liberia on 4 days ago. The winds were bad today although I dont know if that is the reason. Apparently the same plane had to land at a different airport before ultimatly making it to the airport of departure because the winds were so bad!

The building next to the town center was built by some rum barron...

Beautiful dance performance in the town square. Granada has a distinct Italian colonial flare, after the town was torched by the American mercenary William Walker in 1860. Granada has a main street about three blocks long where there are restaurants that charge more money than back home!

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This was kind of a disappointing welcome to Granada as I have heard a lot of great things about it. This is the local commercial street. The chicken bus up to Granada was nutz! They packed EVERYONE in. I had people leaning into my lap where I sat. It actually felt claustrophobic. But it cost $4 vs $50 for a taxi. Plus I was mingling with the Nics.

After the volcano debacle, I got on the put put ferry and took a one hour ride back to the mainland. Then I got on the chicken bus to Managua and Granada. This is a pic of crazy Granada.

I was talked into climbing Concepcion over Madeira because it was cheaper. Concepcion is a 18km, 4500ft elevation gain! In other words, it is frigging steep and long. Madeira is 10km and 3000ft elevation gain. But Madeira is 40 min by car away from where I was staying. I negotiated a $50 group tour for $30 private tour. I ended up giving my guide about $10 of food away I was carrying up the mnt.  The thing is I only made it 1/3rd of the way up. The trail kicked my butt! It was steep, muddy, slippery, and humid. I am grossly over weight yet conditioned to easily walk 10km on a flat surface. Basically, I walked 3 hours of intense hiking using muscles in my leg I dont normally use. If I was 50 pounds lighter and 20 years younger, I could have done it. Only  25% of hikers complete the summit. At the point of this picture, the clouds envelop the mountain. So this was one of the last views over Lake Nicaragua. I saw the Motmot which is the national bird. I also saw Howler monkeys,...

Far from a finca, the place is a makeshift hostal. The place was $16 for a reason. Apart from the fact it is 2km from anything, the place is a jungle shack perhaps one step up in how the locals live. Bugs and mosquitos had easy egress into my room. It is hilarious they call themselves a finca which suggest ranch-like status.

The shower consist of a spigot and pipe out of the wall. Given it is so warm, hot water is not necessary. I discovered this served all 20 guests and 8 workers. I caught one woman making off with the toilet paper, a capital offense!

I had to have the guy put a screen on the one window as the mosquitos are an issue.

As the violent approached failed, the bull then commences to casually join his friends in the vehicle.

When playing possum didnt work, he decided on the violent loco approach. In fact, he headed right toward me! I had to run down the street as he headed my way.

The bull really didnt want to on a car ride

Bull takes Gandhi approach, non violent resistance.

Bull fought the entire way into the truck

2km to walk along road

The larger of two towns. I stayed several km outside of town

Colorful display of banners

Many different style of boats

The winds were whipping across the lake, blowing up a lot of waves. Appropriately there is a wind farm close by.

It is odd to consider, but if you look at a map of Lake Nicaragua, it looks like a giant uterous. Ometepe looks like female egg. And the larger volcano is called Concepcion. Very cloudy on top!

Pic of Che's face on boat. The party's red and black flag, with FLNP written in white

My boat to Ometopo, a one hour crossing of Lake Nicaragua. This massive lake is where the Chinese have contracted with the Nica goverment to build a very wide canal to accomodate the super tankers. But the deal has currently been put on hold for reasons I am not aware. The Colombus era Spanish explorers originally followed the River San Juan up to Lake Nicaragua from the Carribean! It is odd given that it is barely 15 miles to the Pacific Ocean from the lake, yet the lake dumps into the Carribean 75 miles away!

Bilboard near the port to Ometopo

Many young gringos here. I came across only two different Americans who were old like me in the last 24 hours, both ardent Trump supporters.

A large cruise ship was ferrying passengers to the town.

Surfer town. Some kid tried to sell me pot as soon as I arrived! The pic is deceiving as the place is anything but a peaceful place. I wanted to see a piece of this famous Emerald Coast of Nicaragua. The bottom line is this famous coast line consist mostly of $500 a night self-contained resorts or remote surfer lodges.

It was a complete bureaucratic circus which took me only an hour thanks to a kind Tico couple who I followed. Many lines and fees paid along the way. I ended up going to San Juan del Sur. Tomorrow I head in the 530am Chicken bus to Rivas and on to Ometope Isl to climb a volcano.

I bee lined it up to Nicaragua today from Liberia. It was "chicken bus" express! It was only $3 for a 2 hour bus ride. It is a better price than the $45 the taxi wanted to sell me on. Plus I made pleasant connections with the locals. The Nico version of 'chicken bus' is much more colorful than the Tico version.

Nice weather system ahead as we fly north for 50min to Liberia. I was told the plane model is considered the workhorse of small plane passenger travel which made me feel good.

The women made it fun as every bump we had, they would scream.  It felt good that at least the pilots knew the passengers were terrified.

I think I more than doubled her! The plane service had to weigh everyone. Maybe because it was a 10 seater Cessna. The flight was delayed THREE hours without even a peep from SANSA Airlines that this was happening. I wanted to change the airline name to MANANA Airlines. Finally, when we took off to Liberia, it was one big rodeo ride! The winds were kicked up pretty hard and we had a lot of sheer from the mountainous terraine. But we made it obviously.

I definitely got my money's worth from my airline ticket! I asked the toothpick woman before me to take a foto. I came in at TWICE her weight! I am sure I paid no more than her

The buffet consisted of a bounty of fruits, breads and other things. There was the traditional rice n beans, tamales, and fried bananas. There was someone on the grill cooking pancakes and eggs too.  

The city of San Jose can best be described as a massive sprawl of one and two story buildings. A rare occassion is there anything taller. I don't know if that is due to earthquakes or not as the entire landmass is the result of volcanic activity. I would say the city is not very attractive. Lots of fastfood places and a fair amount of poverty.

Christmas Eve, completely insane. It seemed everyone from the USA was in Costa Rica. A kind "Tica" (woman Costa Rica national) had me go with her in the local line which was much faster, but still an hour wait through immigration.

For Christmas, the hotel put on a fantastic brunch. Getting to the hotel from the airport took 30min and 30USD. This is after I thought I had negotiated the taxi down to $21. The taxi driver I had proceeded to try to be "my friend" which I wasn't opposed to until after I realized there was a pricetag involved!

I arrived in Houston Hobby Airport at 2am. My flight to San Jose Costa Rica was to leave at 9am. A SWA employee suggested I sleep in the chapel next to the USO office. I slept on the floor with the lights on until I was awaken at 5am by someone praying. I got up and proceeded to try to find another piece if carpet. But the airport was active by then.