I ended up getting one good day of Costa Rica surfing after a fair break in the weather. We drove up to Playa Grande, a popular surfing beach north of Tamarindo. It’s in a national park, so there’s no development around it. The waves were pretty consistent at high tide. The beach is pretty pristine. Not much there other than other surfers. A refreshing change.
Tamarindo, on the other hand, is a rather touristy beach, that also hosts surfers who come in for the best waves in Costa Rica’s northern pacific coast. It’s a little too “developed” for my taste though. When you’re in a latin country, and you see nothing but english signs everywhere, you know something is wrong. I did go out to Tamarindo at night a couple of times with some of Scotty and Rosie’s friends. That was ok, a nice diversion from the rather slow pace of things in Flamingo and Portrero, where they live.
The weather was pretty cruel to me though. The rainy season (or as they call it, “green season”) starts at the end of August, and my luck, it started right on time. Out of about a week, I got essentially 2 good sunny days, the 2nd being my last day there. But that’s how it goes sometimes.
Leaving Playa Flamingo, after saying bye to Rosie and Scotty, I got on the WRONG bus. The one I got on took a rather long route to Liberia, where I was to catch my bus back to Nicaragua. So, it took 4 hours instead of the usual hour and a half to get to Liberia. I was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to get a room for the night. There was no bus back to Granada/Managua until the next day anyway. The cab driver I found took me over to a decent hotel that was fairly cheap. I had a home for the night.
After dinner, I did take a little stroll through Liberia, but being Sunday, there wasn’t much going on. Everything was shuttered except for a couple of bars. There were no people on the streets whatsoever. So I figured that all there was to do was go back to the hotel and watch the emmys on cable. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that!
I managed to get on a bus the next day, and off I was to Granada. I really had to go to Managua, but had no real desire to spend anytime there if I could find a nice place in Granada instead. So I opted to jump off in Granada. The bus ride back was quite nice, since the road borders Lake Nicaragua, and you get a beautiful view of Ometepe volcano and its surrounding islands. I got a couple of nice shots as the bus went by, and luckily it was sunny and clear.
The last time I was in Granada, Monica and I ate lunch at a very nice place down the street from the hostel we stayed at. It was called “El Club”. After jumping off the bus, I went straight there to see if there was any room. There was and it was quite reasonable. The only thing that sucked was that I would have to head up to Managua about 3:30 to get my bus in time.
The hotel arranged a taxi for me, and I was all set. That night, I walked down the street to a courtyard bar I had been to before called “Cafe Nuit”. Not long after I got there, Meika walked in! It was great seeing her, she had just gotten back from another stint up at Laguna Apoyo. We got caught up a bit, and when I looked at my watch, I realized it was almost 1 AM. I had to catch the cab in less than three hours after that, so regrettably I had to call it a night. I said goodbye to Meika again, and off I went to the hotel.
My taxi was on time, and off we went to Managua. It was a fairly painless ride. I got to the TICA station with time to spare. While waiting for the bus, I noticed Allasdair, a 19 year old brit I knew briefly from Utila, but didn’t really get to know until I met him through Monica and Meika during our time in Nicaragua. Interesting thing about Allasdair is that we look quite a bit alike, mainly because of our hair. He’s one of the few people I’ve met that has the same kind of bizarre curly hair that I have. We had a running joke going that I was his dad when we talked to people. Pretty hysterical. Anyway, he was heading to Guatemala City as well, so that was cool.
This was the most draining part of the trip. It takes 12 hours to get to San Salvador from Managua. Then, you have another overnight in San Salvador before you can get on another bus to Guatemala City. Allasdair and I split a room at a hotel upstairs from the TICA station. We went out that evening, but there was not much going on being a weekday. So there wasn’t much to do other than head back to the room.
Next morning, we were Guatemala City bound. This ride was a little less draining, only taking about 3 hours. When we crossed the border, I called Mitzy to let her know that we’d be at the station in a couple of hours. Mitzy was in the neighborhood, so she offered to pick us up.
BTW, a couple days after I left Guatemala City to start this trip, Mitzy had an accident. She was doing a test run for a triathlon she was participating in on the pacific coast of Guatemala, and ended up getting hit by a car. She luckily managed to escape any serious injury other than a broken arm. I got the news via email from Rocio, Mitzy’s cousin and faithful member of the Guatemala City Gang about a week ago.
Anyway, Mitzy was back to her good ol’ self again, with the exception of her rather substantial cast on her left arm. Allasdair needed a ride to where he can catch a chicken bus to Chichicastanengo. He had about a week to work his way up to Mexico City where he was to catch his return flight back to the UK. Mitzy, of course, offered to bring him to the bus terminal. But it really would have helped had she KNOWN where it was. It was a nice scenic trip through the belly of Guatemala City, and after asking about 20 people, she managed to find the right place. Lucky for Allasdair, there was a bus ready to go and waiting.
After that, Mitzy took me to a hotel so I can crash for awhile. Later on, we met up and went and saw “Click” at the mall. I’m not a big Adam Sandler fan, but I do admit that this film was pretty smart and entertaining. So it was a refreshing change.
Next morning, I was on another bus back to Rio Dulce. I was getting really worn out by buses, which is why I chose to stay overnight in Guatemala City. I could have caught an afternoon bus, but I was simply too drained to do so. As luck would have it, the bus got stuck in traffic for TWO AND A HALF HOURS, due to a major accident up the road. This meant that a 5 hour bus ride was now going to be something like 7 hours. Yay.
To add insult to injury. The bus got stopped at a police checkpoint, and the cops made all the men get out of the bus, including me. They searched everybody, went through bags, etc. I had my laptop with me, and one officer asked me twice if the computer was mine. After the obvious “Si” from me, he asked me to present a receipt. I told him I didn’t carry the receipt with me everywhere I went. They started talking about holding on to the computer. I told them that was not possible, nor was it necessary, since the computer was mine. I’m not sure what the cops were going to do if they were to forcibly take the computer from me, but I made it clear that I would not allow that to happen, without getting upset or nervous. After a couple of minutes, they backed off, and let me back on the bus. Geez…
So, now I’m back in Rio Dulce. Everything was ok while I was gone, except that Cosmo has been MIA for days at a time from the boat. I’ve been back for 3 days and have not seen him once, so I’m a bit concerned. He was doing this kind of thing before I left last time, but at least he was coming back at night. Daniel, who’s been taking care of the cats while I’m gone, said he saw Cosmo on several occasions, but never on the boat. I have to assume he’s ok, and he’s having some fun on land. We’ll just have to wait and see if he comes back.
So in a couple of days, I’ll be back on a plane, first to the states for a couple of days, and then onward to Europe. The main purpose of this trip is to pick up and deliver my mom’s ashes to Italy for final burial or storage. I’ll be taking a rather scenic route on the way over there, however.
And I’m STILL working on my mom’s story. It’s more difficult for me to wrap up than I thought, but I’m not rushing it, I want it to be right, for my sake.
More to come…
