Our Wicked Walkabout

Well, we started our day bright and early arising long before the sun, 2:45 AM!

Grabbing our coffee to go, we got in the car and drove into the city. Excited about our upcoming trip well more tired than excited. I guess at that point!

Our lovely Juli dropped us off and we headed inside and checked in collecting our fellow travellers along the way.

Our departure from Ottawa was slightly delayed due to a frozen cargo bay. But after a half an hour, we were on our way.Only to Toronto, where we hung around for another three hours. Some of our fellow travellers had a liquid lunch and then we boarded the next plane de-iced and headed south.

When we landed in Costa Rica, we were all still very excited, and our coordinator Roland met us at the airport with the two buses.

The buses took us along through rush-hour traffic into Liberia, with a quick stop to pick up a box lunch. We were on our way! We were all excited, and looking forward to what we thought was our quick trip to the border and into Nicaragua

Little did we know that the next leg of our trip was actually going to take longer than the first two flights!

Leaving the airport. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset, but unfortunately, this meant the rest of the trip was in darkness so all the wonderful views and vistas were only black windows.

We arrived at the Costa Rica border and needless to say it was a very interesting experience. On the Costa Rica side, there was one border patrol, who basically just stamped us out. And then began the fun part a long walk across no man’s land in the dark.

We arrived at the Nicaragua border crossing and after first paying a one dollar municipal Tax, we entered the building to find a long lineup. No clue where they all came from.The entrance into Nicaragua was a bit more complicated with many stamps and pieces of paper and confusing bits and bobs, but finally we all got through and no one was detained!

Another walk through the darkness to where our new bus was waiting for us along with many many trucks waiting to cross the border. The driver and his assistant loaded all our luggage on top of the bus and we all crammed in to tiny seats and headed out .

Another one hour drive, this time in a bus with a constant beeping alarm. That was fun! Not! we finally made it to San Juan del Sur exhausted. And fell into bed!

The lighted metal structures at the Nicaragua border and throughout the country, known as “Trees of Life” (Árboles de la Vida), are large, illuminated,, yellow-to-multicolored sculptures installed by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. They symbolize peace, unity, and progress to supporters, while critics view them as expensive symbols of political domination and authoritarianism.