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There is a camera on the knot on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea AKA camera alert!

Before G joined up with us and put our blogging back on schedule we left off in Nicaragua! We left with a promise to ourselves that we would come back on our journey north; we had Traci’s birthday coming up and we all decided that surfing was the priority! So we packed up our belongings and headed to Tamagringo aka Tamarindo.

After the ferry, taxi, bus, border crossing, bus, and final bus we arrived in Tamarindo, which was surprisingly empty and quiet even considering that it was low season. As we were walking with our giant heavy bags down the main drag, a hotel manager stopped us and asked us if we needed a place to stay. He offered us a kitchen and three beds, and once Traci had talked him down in price it was a deal that was hard to refuse!

During that evening after a very exciting bike (apparently riding a bike after a few years is not as easy to remember as the saying would lead you to believe!) and grocery run R decided to try out the couch surfing website in an attempt to find a fellow surfing host. She was successful and we made contact with a wonderful gentleman with a hotel in Playa Langosta. He offered us an even better deal that we could not refuse so we packed our bags and moved down the beach.

The hotel in Playa Langosta was awesome! We had a small pool bordered by hammocks, a mini kitchen in our room, free bike and surfboard rentals, and two great Swiss boys and one wonderful Venezuelan neighbor who arranged a sailing tour for Traci’s birthday!

The morning of Traci’s birthday was welcomed with pancakes and a failed attempt to surf due to poor tide timing. So instead the day was spent with frutas con leche, ocean swimming, and beach relaxing until our sail boat was ready for us.

The sail trip was not only an adventure on the ocean, it also had food and free rum and punch with a great live band! You can imagine after a few punch drinks, things can get a little crazy; let’s just say that by the end of the sailing adventure there was a camera at the bottom of the ocean and a new rule that R is not allowed to touch electronics while around moving vehicles or bodies of water! (This also implies that the reason we have no photos from Nicaragua onwards is entirely to blame on rum… and we hope to remedy this situation in Panama, the Central America travler’s dreamed-of shopping locale)

Once on land we then proceeded to get a ride home from some nice gentlemen (well, at least as far as we remember) and then after some pool time ended up at Pacifico bar on lady’s night where we danced the night away to a live band, but had to deal with a very rude entrance girl, who I recommend avoiding at all costs (she quite nearly ruined the night, and after all we had been drinking and dancing that’s saying a lot)!

The next day was followed with much-needed surfing recovery and relaxation day. We arranged scuba gear rental for the following morning to try to perform dive and recovery for the lost camera in the ocean. But no luck! We did meet some fantastic dive people from Italy at Agua Rica; they were so wonderful to us and went out of their way to help us recover the camera that we know if we pass through again we would love to book a tour with them!

After the unsuccessful recovery mission and the nonstop surfing it was time to move on and head to Mastatal to make chocolate! But first we stopped in San Jose to meet up with our wonderful Peruvian friend, Gonzalo. We made dinner and took him out to a movie, laughing and talking the night away :-)!

R is in charge of our next post about making fantastic organic chocolate in the middle of the Costa Rican mountains, and then we will be caught up while G continues to update on the current trip! Only took us 2 plus months and an intervention from the organized sister to get on schedule!

ALERT! If anyone feels like practicing their rescue scuba skills and finds my camera that is located in Tamarindos Port under the large sailboat docked the farthest from the beach PLEASE return and there will be a reward that includes a haircut and hug from R (and she hates touching), a surf lesson or/and snowboard lesson (probably not in the same location), a hand holding scuba session, as well as immense gratitude from us :-)! These rewards are indeed up for barter if you show up with the camera intact with memory card; however, we will except pieces of camera with memory card (really I just want the memory card!)!

Tags: Costa Rica, late... but not dead, Mastatal, Nicaragua, San Jose, Tamarindo

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Categories Costa Rica, Our Travel Stories
Author H

The art of turning a lie into a friendship; AKA we love Nicaragua!

21 May

We went to Nicaragua on a whim and had done little to no research as to what to expect. We went to San Juan del Sur to surf a little then ended up on a double volcanic island in the middle of a massive lake. We hiked both volcanos, saw a lake at the top of the smaller and breathed in toxic fumes at the top of the other.

We tried out a variety of lodging options in the southern part of the country, ranging from $1.50 per person to camp in a driveway in a rough neighborhood outside the window of a new born baby on the full moon that encouraged all the dogs in town to lose their minds and voices (not a lot of sleeping to be had), to $5 a night to crash on the couch of a party hostel, to our favorite option: $7 a night to stay at San Fernando on Ometepe in our own cabina directly on Lake Nicaragua with the nicest owner and puppy we have yet come across. We ABSOLUTELY recommend Don Ramon’s place at San Fernando, he is wonderful, caring, and a fantastic host!

The most amazing part of Nicaragua, however, was meeting our guide Ronmel on Ometepe. Not only did he guide us to the top of Volcán Concepción (which is exactely what one would think scaling the side of an active volcano would be like) but he also gave us the history of Nicaragua’s civil war and a Spanish lesson that we actaully learned a lot from! He was incredibly patient with R’s slow pace and falling behind, as well as Traci’s working through a phobia of heights like a champion. If you ever are going to be on Ometepe island and feel like experiencing some breath-taking views look him up in town because his company is more than worth the effort! (plus he goes up 3 times a week, so you can coordiante that into your schedule quite easily).

We learned a lot about our future travels on this trip in Nicaragua: not every place is green and lush, water is often not potable, people really don’t recycle in the world, also, lieing is a sport when money and/or lack of knowledge is involved. There is no way to take anyone at their word, even if they are the most lovable person you have ever met. But we learned to embrace the culture for what it was, and the people are so warm and inviting you almost stop caring that they are lieing to you!