Jennie's Nicaragua Adventure Part 3

  We travelled from Vancouver to Liberia, Costa Rica via Toronto, arriving late afternoon on Tuesday, November 28, 2023. From there we took a taxi to the border, where you then have to walk over to the Nicaraguan side. Fortunately there were not many people and we were able to get through quite quickly. I was expecting my friend Irma to meet us, but her car had broken down and so she sent Michael instead. It was a bit of a crazy ride, he was using Google Maps to find the place, and he roared down the unpaved Chocolata highway with its many bumps.  At least in this part of Nicaragua no one seems to have addresses, and you find places by a pin on Google Maps. We were directed to turn into Bosques del Mar, which is a gated community not open to the public. The security guards must have thought we were going there - on the other side more security guards let us out. Although at this point it was dark, I realized we were very close to the casita, as we then drove across the river w...

 While at most of the places we stayed we could cook our own meals, we went out for meals a couple of times. While at Rancho Chilamate, I discovered a delightful little family-run restaurant nearby called Rustica which I ended up going to several times. Food was scrumptious and very inexpensive. In San Juan del Sur, we tried Dale Pues on Avenida El Abanil for lunch. It has a garden inside and the food was great. It also had a little store and we found some nice t-shirts there. Another good place to visit in SJDS is Nica Naturals, that sells the natural products made at Costa Dulce, such as shampoo and soaps, as well as specialty natural foods. We also enjoyed several seafood meals at the little beach restaurant in Playa Marsella called El Islote Bar and Grill.

  In pursuing my photos I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the Buena Vista Surf Club, where we stayed for the first couple of days, so these come from its website. After Costa Dulce, this place was a disappointment. The cabin was extremely dark, and the place was almost deserted after the first day, so kind of a strange vibe. Very little air circulation, sleeping under a mosquito net, with a fan, which was barely adequate. And there was no door on the bathroom which was definitely weird. As for the Buena Vista (Good View), the vegetation was so dense that you could not really see much of the ocean. There were many birds. Close to the surfing paradise of Playa Maderas, the steep hill coming back was a bit challenging. Again, compared to the tranquility of Playa Escameca, I found Playa Maderas with its three restaurants and many surfers not my favourite place, although it is extremely beautiful. On a walk trying to reach Playa Marsella, I discovered some tropical fish and ...

 While Ela's Place was a great little beach house, Playa El Remanso was not my favourite beach, as it was not that clean and there were too many people. I did go for a swim, and then headed back on my own as I was getting together for supper with Christina. Unfortunately I managed to miss the turn-off to our place and walked way too far. I turned around and slipped and fell in a mud puddle, hurting my knee. Some men were walking behind me, who made me feel uneasy as it was a very isolated area, but I asked them for directions and they told me to head back. I tried another direction and ended up going up a hill. By then the 10 minute walk back was well over 30 minutes and I was hot and tired. I felt like sitting on the road and crying. A man came up the hill on his motorbike, with his wife and baby on the back. They stopped, she got off with her baby, and he offered to give me a ride, even though I was in my wet bathing suit. He quickly found my place, even though I didn't know ...

 

On Wednesday we headed to San Juan del Sur (SJDS)  to meet our lawyer. To get there we trekked down to Playa Maderas and took the shuttle. First we went to pick up a nice red truck we had rented, as well as going to get sim cards for our phones. San Juan is located on a beautiful bay on the south-western Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Formerly a sleepy fishing town, it now attracts surfers and mainly young adventure travellers as there are a string of absolutely gorgeous beaches nearby to the north and south of this town.  There are many hostels catering to young travellers, as well as beautiful homes in the surrounding hills that can be rented for holidays. There is also a friendly and fairly large expat community of Canadians - they even celebrate Canadian thanksgiving in SJDS! This is the place to buy groceries and gas, find souvenirs, and try out their restaurants. We drove up to the northern tip of the bay to look at Cristo de la Misericordia, and to take pictures of th...

This is a nice view of Playa Marsella taken from Playa Maderas, the next beach to the north of it. I had hoped to walk there along the beach but discovered I couldn't. To get to Playa Marsella from the casita, you walk for about ten minutes down a dirt road along a small river, part of which is mangrove. When you get to the beach you see this sign - Danger - Crocodiles. Fortunately they are just in the river and not the ocean! As you can see, this is a tranquil and absolutely gorgeous beach which is great for swimming. Apparently there are waves for surfing during the rainy months, which roughly coincides with our summer, and that in Nicaragua is called winter.  We went to El Isolate Bar and Grill to celebrate our arrival  at Playa Marsella after months of negotiating  and finally closing on the purchase of the casita. There is a second restaurant on this beach but it was never open when we were there.

           

Not quite the paradise we were hoping for! It was very disheartening to see the condition of the casita. Not only had the kitchen and corner shelves been removed, but the ceiling fan was gone, as were the attractive light covers, and even the hook embedded in the concrete wall for the hammock. The walls were dirty and full of holes. We had planned to spend a few days at the casita, but given its sad state we decided not to. I was going to sleep in my hammock, but I had nowhere to hang it. Spending time in a tropical paradise is not all fun. Ken spent several hours scrubbing out the toilet, while I cleaned the sink and swept and mopped floors. We also explored the garden and did a fair bit of weeding. After that we took a walk down to Playa Marsella for a swim. On the way back we met the property managers of Tres Tortugas, three fancy looking villas for rent with a pool, who were also Canadians. We also saw some howler monkeys. Fortunately, I had found some other interesting spots to vi...

Rancho Chilamate is located 20 minutes south of SJDS, close to Playa Hermosa. The hacienda is solar-powered. The owner Meg, from the States, lets her horses roam around the property, keeping the grass well trimmed. It had a huge ranch style living room and communal kitchen with very high ceilings that we were able to use to cook our meals. While I enjoyed this place, the space was shared with the owners, who often hung out at the pool and played music non-stop, not always to my taste. At night giant toads would come out that were about four to six inches long. And the starry night sky was absolutely gorgeous. They took me horse riding into the beautiful surrounding countryside. I imagined living on a small farm in that area in another lifetime... While looking to escape the noisy pool, I went for a walk down by the river and ended up getting bitten by the neighbour's dog. From then on it seemed that wherever I went, dogs seemed to sense my new fear and would come up to me and follo...

 On Friday we headed to Rivas to do some shopping. We were relying on Google Maps to get us there - about an hours drive away. That was a mistake! While there is a good paved road between San Juan del Sur and Rivas, Google decided we should take the scenic route, along the Chocolata, which added a good 30 minutes to our trip. But the trip was beautiful, we were glad to have taken that route even if it was a dirt road full of potholes. Before we got to Rivas something happened to my phone, and Google Maps switched to a Cyrillic language which I believe was from Azerbaijan. There was nothing I could do to get it to go back to English. In any case English wasn't the best choice because Google was mangling the Spanish pronunciation so badly it was hard to understand. For example Tercera Calle would be Tra Calle. In Rivas we were able to purchase a fridge, stove and mattresses for the casita, although the store would not take credit cards, and the local atm would only dispense a maximum...

First we drove to San Jorge, where we caught a ferry to the island of Ometepe. I think there were three cars on the ferry, which took about 30 minutes to cross. Ken forgot to put the parking brake on and the car almost rolled off the ferry... View of the Concepcion volcano on the northern part of Ometepe which is shaped like a figure 8. We took a leisurely drive around the southern part of the island, around the Maderas volcano. Lots of people were drying rice, often on the road itself.  It was also a day for collecting bananas, which were piled high in trucks that were driving around and collecting them.     Loading in San Juan   Concepcion     Rice drying on the side of the road  

    Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii   Tobacco at a nearby farm   Red Ginger Alpinia purpurata   Turmeric Curcuma longa Lipstick Tree Bixa orellana   Coralbush Jatropha multifida   Parrt's Beak Heliconia psittacorum   Canna Lily   Peacock Flower Caesalpinia pulcherrima     Devil's Backbone Euphorbia tithymaloides Indian Coral Tree Erythrina variegata

  Casa Isla Bonita   Concepcion We stayed at Punta Santa Maria in a cute little house with hammocks on the porch on Lake Nicaragua, which apparently is the only freshwater lake in the world with bull sharks in it.      We went for an afternoon kayak ride where we saw a huge iguana, endangered parrots, and many other beautiful tropical birds.