Costa Rica
Our plans for the Xmas holidays included travelling with Anne and Vlad. We decided that Costa Rica would be a fantastic place to spend New Years. It is warm, tropical, and with lovely beaches!
We headed out from a very cold Calgary to Houston, where we stopped for a day. We landed in Liberia airport, and it was a warm day. Our airport pickup took us to the Cocomarindo apartments, which was near the beach. It was also about a ten minute walk to the center of town.
Our next step was to head to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Our van was supposed to pick us up from a hotel that no longer existed! Luckily, we knew of some other hotels where it made a routine stop, and found it waiting for us.
The hotel for that night was the Grano El Oro, probably the best hotel in the city (
Hotel Ratings). It was an old colonial mansion converted to a classy boutique hotel. The rooms were a bit small, but the hotel setup was rich. The hotel restaurant had a fancy French cuisine. We ate seafood, as usual. The service was excellent.
Next day, we met up with Anne and Vlad, and headed to the beach city of Jaco. The property manager of our rental house met us. He was from the US, and a missionary of some sort. He told us that it was more expensive to live in Jaco than in the US! The beach was a short five minutes away, and the house had a pool. The heat was brutal in the afternoons, with temperatures around 35 c. The evenings were fantastic. We ended up in a beachside restaurant every day, because they had free Wi-Fi and fantastic mojitos!
The next couple of days were spent going to the beach, sipping fresh coconut water (the vendor was right on the beach, and the price was a dollar. The only hiccups were that Lillian doesn't go into the water, and Anne hates to be left along when Vlad and I go. Silence is the worst form of punishment for her :)
For New Years, there was a fireworks competition between each of the buildings, on the beach. Before the party started, plenty of people were lighting flying lanterns, and sending them up.
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| First sunrise of 2015 |
After a lot of fireworks, Flor de Cana rum, and general noise that is an integral part of a Latin American Fiesta, we headed to our rental house, happy and tired!
A couple of days later, we headed to San Jose. The hotel we stayed in was a resort, very close to the airport. It was a lovely hotel, with fantastic restaurants. It has been built in a colonial hacienda style. There were multiple swimming pools, a golf course, and a wedding platform on the golf course.
On leaving, I reflected about Costa Rica. It is a very green country, with lots of tourism and a relatively high cost of living. It is also one of the only countries of the world without an army! The military was dissolved decades ago, and only a police force exists now. That
We took a flight on a puddle jumper to Managua, Nicaragua. Lillian wasn't sure the aircraft would make it, since she hasn't been on anything that small. We barely went above the mountains!
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| If you are in Latin America, there has to be a soccer stadium! View from aircraft |
Managua was more of developing country city, with lots of traffic. It didn't feel as poor as some of the other countries in Latin America. Apparently the law and order is much better than all the other Central American countries, which are now the most violent in the world.
We started our first tour to the city of Granada, the old capital of Nicaragua. It was about two hours out of Managua, but a relatively scenic drive. The main highlight of the city was the Le Catedral de Granada, a yellow coloured church with a red dome.
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| Iglesia de Merced |
We were then taken to the native Museum, where the pre European civilization was highlighted. Native religious sculptures, along with traditional native games and themes were shown in this museum.
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| A native game |
An interesting stop was the now non functional railway station in Granada. Apparently the railways had been discontinued for the last 20 years. The government is looking to Chinese investors to restart the railway network.
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| Abandoned train |
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| Former train station |
The next stop was the graveyard of the upper classes. I have seen a similar graveyard in New Orleans, in the US, where elaborate graves are made by the upper classes. I wonder if this is to impress God or the People? An unusual section was the graveyard for the Presidents. Since Granada was the capital for a long time, the Presidents lived in this city, and had their graves here. There is a section where only the Presidents are buried.
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| Grave of the Presidents |
We then walked over to the Town Center. It was an idyllic place, on a warm day. Everyone seemed laid back, and there was no rush, except for the one laned traffic. A lot of retired Americans, Canadians, Europeans are moving here due to the low cost of living, and the decent security environment.
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| Municipality building in Granada |
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| The Sandinista museum - say no to the dictator Somoza |
Our next stop was the city of Leon, another main city, and a rival to Granada. It wasn't as pretty as Granada, but there were a few pretty buildings. We stayed at the very boutique Hotel Azul (
weblink). It was well located, and had a very nice restaurant serving Asian and Central American food.
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| Church of la Recoleccion |
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| Iglesia del Calvario |
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| Dictator Somoza and Uncle Sam being trampled by The People |
Now came the most adventurous part of our trip. At about 2 am, we took a minivan with the Gekko Explorer company (
weblink). They were going to take us through four countries. The only other place one can do this is South Eastern Europe. Our first border was at around 4 am, into Honduras. Here was the most unsafe country in the world, and I was a bit nervous. But it was quick, in fact the quickest of all the border crossings, since there was no one there.
We went through fairly quickly and stopped at a beach town called El Tunco.A warm place, a beach spot full of backpackers. We had our lunch in a Greek restaurant, but it was hot (over 35 c). The van was a bit cramped, but played movies and had the slowest WiFi in the world. The next border crossing was into El Salvador, an another very violent country. Armed guards in gas stations, cops everywhere!
The Guatemalan crossing seemed a lot more benign. It is a relatively safer country, but still in the top 15 countries in terms of homicides.
We finally reached our destination, the city of Antigua, in Guatemala. We were two hours behind schedule, and so it was late at night. We headed to our hotel, the , which is spread over two blocks. It had multiple gardens, pools, and native artifacts.
The next day, we started our tour of the city of Antigua.
Antigua Guatemala means "Ancient Guatemala" and was the third capital of Guatemala. Antigua Guatemala (Spanish pronunciation: [anˈtiɣwa ɣwateˈmala]) (commonly referred to as just Antigua or la Antigua) is a city in the central highlands
of Guatemala
famous for its well-preserved Spanish
Baroqueinfluenced architecture as well as a number of ruins of colonial churches. It served as the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala
. It has been designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
.
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| San Pedro hospital |
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| Inside the Le Mecred Church |
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| La Merced Church |
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| Cannons to defend Antigua from pirates |
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| Traditional bath tub |
The next day we headed to Lake Atitlan.
Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America with a maximum depth of about 340 metres (1,120 ft). It is approximately 12 x 5 km with around 20 km3 of water. Atitlán is technically an endorheic lake, as it does not drain into the ocean, but substantial seepage feeds two nearby rivers. It is shaped by deep surrounding escarpments and three volcanoes on its southern flank.
Our starting point for the boat ride was the town of Panajachel, which is on the shore of Lake Atitlan. The town has been overrun with tourists, but is helping the local economy recover after years of civil war.
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| A native woman of Panajachel |
Late that night, or technically the next morning, we did the reverse trip from Antigua to Leon. As we should have learnt, the van arrived two hours late in Antigua, around 6 pm. We had a quick dinner at the Hotel Azul, where the manager Lucy with her usual efficiency produced dinner in quick time, so that we could have a bite before taking a taxi for a two hour journey back to Managua. We were really dead tired when we hit the sack that night. We have been travelling on the road for about 20 hours, through four countries!
Our final tour on this trip was in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. As mentioned, it has become a fairly decent city, having been a lot poorer not that long ago. There was a neat beach resort, with multiple restaurants and bars, right next to the lake. There was also a Hugo Chavez street, as expected in a nominally anti-American country!
We spent our last evening drinking $1 beers and great seafood, which was very cheap too. It was sad leaving the country, but good to head home too.
We spent our last evening drinking $1 beers and great seafood, which was very cheap too. It was sad leaving the country, but good to head home too.
The next stop was the graveyard of the upper classes. I have seen a similar graveyard in New Orleans, in the US, where elaborate graves are made by the upper classes. I wonder if this is to impress God or the People? An unusual section was the graveyard for the Presidents. Since Granada was the capital for a long time, the Presidents lived in this city, and had their graves here. There is a section where only the Presidents are buried.
