Off to Nicaragua!

We are entering Nicaragua today! At least that is the plan. We have booked a hostel room in San Juan del Sur. But since there are no bus timetables anywhere to find, we are giving ourselves the whole day to get there.

How to enter Nicaragua

With c*** you can never be sure what you need for which country to enter (if you can enter). In our reading we found out the following:

Since June 2022 you do not need a negative pcr test when you’re fully vaccinated (twice).
You have to fill out an online form, which was quite the challenge as it only existed in Spanish. (I guess my “babbel” membership as an attempt to learn Spanish hasn’t really paid off yet.)

*update: no one asked for this online form at the border

Drones are banned in Nicaragua

Unfortunately, we also found out in our reading that drones are illegal in Nicaragua and will be confiscated at the border. The idea of leaving the drone with our friendly hosts from El Coco did not make sense as we would be crossing the border at a different town again.
This is why we reached out to other travelers online who gave us different tips. We decided to go with this one:

take off the propellers of the drone so that it would look less like a drone,
take out the battery and SD card,
put the single pieces of the drone into different bags
and then throw away the box of the drone.

We also learned that they will scan all the bags but they won’t do a physical check on our bodies. So we decided to put the propeller-less drone into our rain jacket that we would wear when going through security. Just to make extra sure, Blake wrapped the drone into one of his boxershorts – honestly, who would want to look in there anyways?! 😋

Leaving our hotel early – for our standards

We left our hotel at 9 a.m. and walked for about 20 minutes to the closest bus stop. The timing was perfect (for once) as the bus was already waiting at the bus stop. (We only knew it would leave every half an hour, no idea about weekends though). This bus took 50 minutes to get to Liberia, which a lot of Canadians and Americans use as the launching point to fly into Costa Rica (2nd largest airport in Cost Rica). From there we caught the next bus to the Nicaraguan border in Peňas Blancas. Again, the bus was leaving in the next five minutes (only runs every 45-60 minutes), so we just had enough time to buy some baked goodies for the 1 hr 40min bus ride to the border.

Exiting Costa Rica

In the line for the exiting stamp of Costa Rica, we met a German guy and a Swiss girl and boy. Unfortunately, we only found out at the front of the line that we had to pay the exiting fee ($10) at a different booth. So we had to run through the heavy rain, paid the fee and had to stand at the end of the line once again – back to square one.

Entering Nicaragua

The five of us walked together over the border, showed the exit stamp in our passports and waited in the next line to enter Nicaragua.

You might think we’d learn from our mistakes but when we got to the front of the line, we were sent away again as we needed a ticket for showing proof of the covid vaccine. At least this time we were allowed to go back to the front of the line.

Blake, our drone in Blake’s pocket and I passed the security scan and – made it into Nicaragua!

Shuttle to San Juan del Sur

The five of us (with one in the front) squeezed into a taxi together since all of us were heading to the same first destination: San Juan del Sur.

San Juan del Sur

It was the first time on this trip that Blake and I stayed in a hostel (named Hola Ola Hostel). In order to get there, Olli (the German guy), Blake and I had to walk along the beach and cross a little stream.

And what is the first thing you do when you just arrived in a new country? Exactly, sign up for the hostel’s beerpong tournament. In the end you could win two tickets for the “Sunday Funday pool crawl” the next day, which is the biggest pool crawl in Central America that parties in four different hostels.

The competitiveness in me came out big time! But unfortunately, we only made it to the semi-final with one cup left on both sides.

07/08/2022 San Juan del Sur

Go surfing

The one thing San Juan del Sur is known for is surfing. Since we had already had our surfing experiences in Santa Teresa in Costa Rica, we skipped this activity.

Party at “Sunday Funday”

The other big thing every backpacker comes to San Juan del Sur for is: Sunday Funday. What a lucky “coincidence” that we were here on a Sunday.

Sunday Funday in San Juan del Sur is a massive day-long, pool crawl. If you’re a part of this legendary Central America renowned party you will start partying at noon, and essentially stop when you can’t stand anymore. […] Throughout the day, you’ll visit 4 different places (mostly hostels) with bars, pools, and DJs.
nationallitographic.com

The pros and cons of hostel life

Being in a hostel brought back so many fun memories from our twenties when we both traveled around Asia and Australia separately and stayed in hostels along the way. Other backpackers in hostels are just so outgoing and friendly!

I also noticed another thing when I woke up this morning in a four-bed-dorm with 3 other guys: I’m too old for this s***! It was hot, uncomfortable and smelly! So at 7 a.m. I fled from our room to sit in the common room area from where you could overlook the ocean and the Jesus statue (2nd largest Jesus statue world-wide after the one in Brazil).

I’d definitely still do hostels on this trip, but I’d prefer a private room with Blake next time. We are in our thirties now after all – just saying.

Fun pool crawl

The pool crawl was awesome!! Altogether we went to four different hostels – all with a pool obviously. Some of them were right at the beach and one was in the jungle, where we drove to in an old American yellow school bus.

The different DJs were all amazing! Blake was especially proud that we could still party as much as the 20-year-olds.

The last hostel was a club by the ocean where we danced barefoot on the beach in the rain and grabbed some street food quaesadillas afterwards to refuel.

What a great way to start our time in Nicaragua!

Continue reading:

08-11/08/2022 Ometepe

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Off to Nicaragua!