We had an early alarm this morning. With today’s itinerary still unknown, we potentially only had a few hours left in Granada and we wanted to go back to The Garden Cafe. Breakfast was fabulous. I had a fresh orange juice, an americano and avocado with cumin and chia seeds on artisan bread. Andy had a posh version of chapiollo which is the staple breakfast here – gallo pinto (beans), scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado, pico de gallo (tomato and onion salsa), tortilla and fresh fruit. We sat in the courtyard again and were rewarded with two new bird sightings – a small bluey-grey one and a medium sized one with bright orange feathers.
Last night, over beers (The Garden Cafe has craft beers; we’re seriously thinking about moving into this cafe) we’d made a plan. We agreed we didn’t want another day in Granada, so if this was our option, we’d hire a car and a driver and would spend our day in León.
We walked back to the hotel via Calle El Arsenal. Near the hotel, I finally got to cuddle the shy little kitten we’d seen over the last few days. The first time, he ran away as soon as we walked near him, but I got chatting to him and slowly, very slowly, he came forward and we had a nice cuddle.
The news that awaited us is that we’d be leaving in an hour for Costa Rica. And whilst we’re sad to be leaving Nicaragua early, this was definitely the right call. Monteverde, our first stop in Costa Rica, is activity and wildlife central, and spending an extra day there would give us the opportunity to do more activities.
The drive to the border was uneventful. Now, this is what I call a border crossing! Off the bus, navigating money exchange men, hawkers, food sellers, pickpockets and container lorries. The place was brimming with activity, and noisy. We walked approx 600 meters, and with the formalities complete, we boarded our new bus.
Welcome to Costa Rica!
At once, the landscape’s totally different. By the road, the housing and the fields look more affluent. In the distance, rugged hills with more shades of green than you’ve ever seen in your life.
We stopped for sunset. The views over the Gulf of Necoya were spectacular.
As we were arriving in Monteverde a day early, we were going to spend the night in a hotel slightly out of town as everywhere else was full. Andy and I were allocated room 11, and straight away I did think something wasn’t quite right. Looking at the rooms (the hotel has a standard motel shape where you’re facing all the rooms from the car park), the last door had number 10 on it. Turned out, our room was a shed at the back, near the laundry room. When we went in, we noticed a hole in the ceiling, a variety of small animals (some dead, other alive). The tin roof was rattling in the wind. There was no door to the bathroom, and no light in there either. The bathroom had a second door which opened onto the car washing area; the worst thing about it was that above the door, there were wooden slats with big gaps between them… which were obviously letting more animal life in, including mosquitos. We got our bags together, Andy grabbed Dennis and asked for a lift to town, explaining that we would not be staying the night there. It all turned out well in the end. The hotel where we were going to spend the next two nights had one room left and it’s lovely. Big, spacious, airy… and the best thing? We don’t have to move for three nights. Yeah!
With this sorted, we went out for dinner. The wind was gusty and strong (the day before yesterday, the wind was 100 km a hour, with heavy rain). The temperature is fresher than we’ve had in a long while, so the warm layers came out. So much so that we had a bottle of Malbec for dinner; no beers in sight!
Early night. Tomorrow is full on!
High drama indeed. I bet that Malbec tasted good. No doubt we’ll have border crossings like that in a couple of years time. That does sound like the worst hotel near miss I’ve ever heard of.
Yep, it certainly did. And with no need for an alarm, we slept for ten hours solid.
I enjoyed your ornithological insights. “A small bluey-grey one…” made me chuckle.
Any chance of a video one day so this could be a vlog as the young people say.
Ah, you probably would enjoy my other insights too then e.g. ‘oh, that was a pretty one’. That’s my king of bird spotting; I just love seeing them, I’m not too fussed about what they are.
We are taking videos, but the quality isn’t great as we’re rarely able to use the tripod to stabilise the camera. We’re still planning to put a few on Photobucket at some point. We’re finally in a country that has a fast and reliable internet connection and that will help with the uploading. We just need to review and edit them, that may well be the stumbling block as we find we don’t have enough hours in the day. We’ll try to work on that next. Here goes, I can’t say fairer than that.
I say live in the moment! Spend your time on the experiences and don’t spend too much time on technology while you are there.
Yep, we agree!