Costa Rica

We have now said goodbye to Nicaragua and moved on to Costa Rica but as ever the journey was an interesting one. To be honest I wasn't that sad to leave Nicaragua and the day we left was super rainy. We had arranged for a guy to take us to Rivas, an hours drive through the pot holes and rivers and from there we were going to book our ticket to Costa Rica and head to the Isla Ometepe for a couple of days and then return to get the coach...but it was raining so hard that the guy who was driving us advised us to give the Isla a miss, there was a storm (tormenta) heading in from Mexico or somewhere which they thought would be quite strong and the ferry crossing may be a problem. Plus he thought it wouldn't be much fun in the rain and we agreed.

So we jumped in the pick up truck and tied the surfboards and the two backpacks on the back (it was literally pissing down!) Charles got in the front with the driver and me Will and Sam piled in the back with the three day packs. We set off at a leisurely place when suddenly we came across a river which looked pretty flooded, the guy checked it out and decided that we could make it through, put his foot to the throttle and we cruised through the first river. Shortly after we came across another river which was even more flooded and this one was surrounded by guys who were also debating whether to cross, they all watched as we drove down to the river and got out their cameras to film us when we got stuck... Will was telling us that if the truck tipped over not to panik, to be honest I wasn't too worried and after a few minutes of discussions we set off and made it through... It wasn't long until we reached another (even more flooded river) this time there were quite a few vehicles waiting to cross and even more people watching but once again our driver put his foot down and we got through to much cheering from the other side... the last river was the worst and believe it or not we ended up reversing our way through this one (who knows why) but we made it through. The whole journey was meant to take just an hour and ended up taking 3 hours! We filmed the reversing incident so I'll try and upload it.

We arrived in Rivas at 1:50 and decided that if we could make it we would try and get on the last bus to Costa Rica - we ran to the ticket office and arrived at the terminal almost as soon as the bus pulled up. The Tica bus took us from Nicaragua to Liberia an hour from the border where we jumped off and decided to get a taxi to Tamarindo - we got off in a petrol station (again) and tried to get a taxi - eventually a guy agreed to take us for $55 (way more expensive than Nicaragua).It was getting dark so we decided to look for a hostel when we arrived - the first place was very expensive $100 per night but the second place Will checked out and charged $30. Here we spent our worst night yet (yes, worse than charles's snoring). The hostel was hot and noisy, the room was lit by a street light outside and had the thinnest curtain so it was like sleeping in a disco with all the lights turned on... It was 2am when Sam finally got to sleep and me and Will were awake for even longer! We got up early and walked to find a place we liked and now we are staying in a nice apartment on a little complex, we have two rooms, a TV, a bathroom a kitchen, a pool, internet access and there is no-one else staying here. So thank goodness we should all sleep well tonight. (by the way, Sam was not effected by the night in the hostel, he said it was cool and we had a laugh - but that's not how i remember it)

Health wise all is well apart from Sam has a little ear infection so is banned from surfing for a couple of days - don't worry it's just a bit sore, no redness, swelling or smelly excretions. So all is well now (except Costa Rica's a bit pricey so we might not stay that long.)