Having been in Costa Rica for almost 5 months, and having made several exits from and entries to Costa Rica for visa purposes, finally myself and Ana were able to take a breather and set aside a few days of pure destressing, recreational tourism...as part of our monthly border run! So, what to do with the requirement of leaving Costa Rica for 72 hours... and a little money to splash out on?
Ana had previously done her homework on places we could possibly visit, and having come across a blogspot with a bit of info about a trip to "San Juan del Sur" on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, we unanimously decided that this would be our safe-haven for 3 days.
Leaving on a 6am TICABUS, and after a six-hour trip, we arrived at the border of "Peñas Blancas"... and after two hours of border stuff we were on our way again. I call it "border stuff" here for want of a better description... and for the sake of uncomplicated euphemism - since almost always, there is some unexpected surprise, whether it be entertaining or inconvenient.
30 minutes from the border we came to a town called "Rivas" right on Lake Nicaragua.
After getting a taxi driver to take us to San Juan Del Sur for $10 (180 cordobas) ... once on our way, we passed signboards with the distance to our destination, starting at 20km... 18km... and not having been aware of the layout and relation of the towns to one another distance-wise, we realized that what we were paying for the taxi was a pittance, especially when about half of the road was paved, and the other half... well, unpaved. And so we went, from paved patches to bumpy dirt patches, and after the taxi driver started a friendly banter, I knew I would give him more money than agreed on upon arrival. Needless to say that was the best value for money for any service we paid for the whole trip, as I later learned from the driver who brought us back on our return to Rivas - it costs about $5 for the petrol for each one-way trip... so the profit on one of those trips would be $5 maximum, not to mention the wear and tear on the already beat-up old model Mercedes Benz. By the way, that is the going rate for trips to San Juan del Sur, and Ana forbade me to pay the taxi driver more than the agreed price on our return ride a few days later.
Upon arrival and after taking a squiz at 4 different hotels we quickly found a hotel room one block from the beach for $20 a night - which had cable TV, a double bed with clean sheets, a fan and a private shower, which was a basic set-up, but perfect for us since we wouldn´t be spending a lot of time indoors when there was surf and sunshine just around the corner. We opted for a cheaper hotel room so that we could spend what we saved on our budget on better dining and tours.
Dumping our luggage in the hotel room, we raced to the beach to have a long-awaited lunch at one of the many restaurants hugging the beach-front.
Just 3 wooden steps take you from the restaurant under thatched roof to the beach sand.
For the whole of our stay, I had to quench an insatiable thirst with all kinds of fresh natural fruit juices, some of which I still remember the taste - but the names of which - not even so much as on the tip of my tongue. Here in Central America they are experts at making juice out of just about any fruit, many of which have no name in English since they are only found locally. You´ll never guess the shape and size of the original fruit as you sit and contemplate the contents of your glass, unless you´d seen it before.
Our first sunset in this tranquil little fishing town...
...with a little practice you can get both heads in with a semi-straight horizon.
There´s something about sunsets that make you want to jump for joy...
Our first night out to dinner. They had delicious pastas and seafood dishes on the menu.
The beginning of our first full day, in search for breakfast and photo ops.
The verticals and horizontals not so straight... not sure whether it was me or the shop, but the colours are rich.
We found a very relaxing café called "El Gato Negro" where we had breakfast every morning... and lunch once.
We got a little laxadasical after a big breakfast and browsed through some of the books.
They have a large selection of books that you can either buy or sit and read.
More fruit juice just before heading out
Sunset once again... Just sitting in the same spot you can click away and get dramatically different photos as the quality of the light changes rapidly.
Looking at the display screen of the camera instead of through the viewfinder, one tends to balance shape and form rather than the horizon... which is a lesson in retrospect.
A few of the fishing boats and sport fishing vessels anchored out in the bay.
I love these soft, rich golden tones... and especially my wife, a willing model.
Darker and richer skies. It´s a little difficult deciding on where to put the horizon in a photo when you also have strong lines in the shore-line and little breakers.
I must give credit to Ana for some o f th ese photos, since I can´t remember which ones either of us took.
The next day we hired a 4-wheeler for 5 hours and headed up the coast, around the peninsula to "Playa Madera"...
I wish we could have stuck around here for the sunset, since the horizon cleared up later on to reveal a spectacular sunset once again, but it was about to get dark and we needed at least 30 minutes on our return trip.
We agreed that we would come back to this beach when we returned to San Juan del Sur again (in the near future!). The quality of the sand and colour of the water were fantastic... a little less volcanic sediment than usual, which reminded me of the sand in Durban
Back at San Juan del Sur after a dusty ride, it was great to take a quick bathe.
Awwww! Do we have to return the 4-wheeler? One last pic.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we decided to get up early on our last morning to take a walk on the beach before heading back to Rivas to catch the TICABUS back to Costa Rica.
