Border trip from Costa Rica To Nicaragua

Dec. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- For many of our “perpetual tourists” in Costa Rica, doing the border run to update their visa is a chore.  To me it is a welcome chance to take a short vacation.  I boarded the bus in the rain on a Tuesday in San Jose headed for the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, which is roughly a six hour drive.  At the border one never knows what they will find.  At times it can take a couple or three hours to go through immigrations and customs in Costa Rica and in Nicaragua, or you can slip right through.  Even when it takes a long time, I generally like the time at the border.  There is time to eat some of my favorite local food from Nicaragua.  I always get a couple of quesillas or an order of vigorone.  Quesillas are a special type of cheese found in Nicaragua, along with a sort of pickled onion relish wrapped in a thick tortilla-like shell.  Vigoron is a mixture of fried pork skins, mushy yucca, and cabbage salad with a chile sauce wrapped in a banana leaf.   It is a great place to people watch with all the money changing taking place and locals selling their wares.  Tica Bus is very good about guiding you through the process on both sides of the border.  Once finished at the border, you can do one of several things.  You can take the bus onto Granada or Managua.  Granada is approximately another hour and Managua is approximately an hour and a half.  Granada is a great colonial town with much to see and do in the area.  I will get more into Granada at another time, but this time I wandered into San Juan del Sur.  I always try to stay at Hotel Azul Pitahaya.  I have stayed at the hotel at least 4 times and can't praise it highly enough. It is not 5 star and not super fancy. It is immaculately clean with AC, cable tv, wireless internet and has breakfast included.  All of this for a single costs $35 per night.  In the front of the hotel is Barrio Cafe, which is a nice little coffee shop and restaurant. It seems to be a favorite for tourists, locals and expats as well. The staff for the hotel, as well as the restaurant is very friendly and attentive. It is located right in the center of town on the main street and is approximately one block to the beach. You can see more on their website  at  www.hotelazulsanjuan.com/.
 This is the sixth time I have been here and it is mostly a lazy vacation for me, although there is plenty to do in the area to keep you busy.  There is a shuttle that will take you to Playa Maderas, which is great for surfing.  Or you can take a private taxi.   The ride is approximately 15 minutes by car from San Juan Del Sur.  It can be slightly longer in rainy season.  Maderas is a consistent, sand bottom, beach break, which picks up both north and south swells.  It can hold up to double-overhead waves, but most days it is not so intimidating.  There are several peaks in the area, with the best tide usually being the mid-incoming tide.  High tide down to mid-outgoing also breaks well also most of the time.  While Playa Maderas can be very crowded, you can usually find a bit of space around one of the peaks.  
San Juan Del Sur Surf and Sport offers a sunset cruise for approximately 2 ½ hours, which at $16 is one of the best deals I’ve ever found on a tour in Central America.  They have good fishing gear and will show you some fun inshore fishing if you like or you can just sit back and enjoy the sunset view.  
The bay directly in from of the beach in SJDS is fairly calm and great for taking a dip after lounging on the picturesque beach, lined with various restaurants and bars.  Some people will find the pace slow, but is a great little beach town for lounging, swimming, surfing, meeting fellow travelers and sharing a Tona (local beer) at one of the many beach bars. One such bar is Henry’s Iguana Beach Bar and Restaurant.  The upper deck offers a great view of the bay.  The beer is cold, the beach drinks tasty and they have a wide variety on their menu at very reasonable prices.  Food in general is very reasonable in SJDS.   In the times that I have visited, I have found the town  to be clean, safe and friendly to visitors.  So, next time you need, or just want to cross the border, this is a great place for a mini vacation from Costa Rica.

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