Surprised, he? How I got here so quickly and why – I‘ ll tell you tomorrow.
Good night
Anja
Ok, it‘ s not tomorrow anymore, but I‘ ll tell you anyway.
Since I only got a 5-day-transit-visa for Nicaragua there was no way that I could cycle all the way to the border to Costa Rica. So I took a bus from Managua to Costa Rica. The ticket cost 22 US $. It was no problem to put the bike on the bus and they didn‘ t charge me for it.
The bus left Managua at 7am. I got a glimpse of the Lago de Nicaragua, Central americas largest sweet-water lake. Actually I had planed to take a boat across the Lake and stop at the Isla de Ometepe in the Lake – but that‘ s history.
Crossing the border on the bus was pretty easy. At the migracion of Costa Rica everybody had to take their luggage out of the bus, put it on a bench and open it for a check which wasn‘ t taken too serious. A guy who worked obviously for the customs told me that I could leave my bike AND the trailer on the bus. „No custom-check for you“, he told me. Ok, fine with me, I thought. Then he pushed me a bit to the side and told me that I should give him a tip now. I asked him why. He said because he didn‘ t check my luggage. I told him to check it then, but he was obviously not interested in it. He wished me a good trip in a not too happy voice and walked away.
After climbing quite a lot we reached San José duly at 5pm. Together with Birte from Germany I looked for a hostel recommended in my guide-book, but it wasn‘ t where it was supposed to be. The second choice was easier to find. The staff at the „Hostal Tranquilo“ wasn‘ t very tranquil at the beginning though, they were rather unfriendly. We stayed anyway. Then walked up the road a bit to get dinner. I was starvimg! A double-hamburger and fries and a beer. I felt a lot better after that. Birte always seemed to be kind of confused what made me laugh at first and then just annoyed me. For example she had her money hidden at different places in her bag and on her body. Then she always thought she lost some money, or rather that it was stolen. Too much for me after a long day.
Though a guy in my room snorred a lot I slept pretty good. Guess I was glad that I left Nicaragua without any other problems…