My lethargy toward blog posts is already in evidence – I haven’t written since Utila, Honduras.
In some respects we haven’t done a whole lot since then. Scuba diving was a substantial experience; but since then we’ve covered a lot of distance by bus (perhaps covered more hours than actual kilometres), wandered around colonial towns, rode motorbikes on beaches and around volcanoes, rode a horse named Bryan, and…
Ok actually we’ve done plenty. I’ve just been lazy. Internet has been sporadic.
Nicragua was thoroughly enjoyable to travel through. The itineraries made a lot of sense, the distances weren’t huge, the people friendly and the coffee & chocolate rather good.
The scenery varied sufficiently to keep someone with a short attention span interested.
This morning we departed the Isla (Island) de Ometepe on a very slow ferry. The island was formed around two volcanoes (one mildly active) inside Lake Nicaragua – an enormous fresh water body in excess of 8000 square kilometres.
A fascinating place, in some ways a window into the agrarian lifestyle / economy that, realistically, persists in most of the world today.
I rode a horse for the first time. Didn’t enjoy it much to be honest. I’ll take the motorbike option any day; on this particular day a 150cc Li Fan chinese dirt bike. Fun ;-) Don’t often get an opportunity to ride on beaches.
So after another full days’ travel (it seems impossible for transit days to take anything less than the entire day) we are here in the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.
And what a contrast it is. We could be in absolutely any city; Melbourne even. It was raining and – imagine our collective shock – slightly cold. Around 20 degrees right now I think, which after our tropical acclimatization really does feel chilly with some wind.
Nothing too exciting here – interesting to me in just how much more devoloped and richer a place it is than the other Central American nations we’ve seen, but a commercially focused capital city it remains. The little things like slip lanes on freeway entrances reminds me of what the broad term “development” encompasses.
Sadly we’re not spending any time in the “real” Costa Rica. Time constraints for our travel buddies, and the costly nature of this place has encouraged us to pass right on through tomorrow morning to Panama. Specifically Bocas del Toro; a collection of islands in a Caribean paradise just in time for Jess’ birthday.
Tags: costa rica, nicaragua, ometepe, rtw, san jose