The plan was to head from Ometepe to El Castillo, a fortress town that held off the Brits, French and various marauding pirates and buccaneers for more than four hundred years at the south eastern coast line, current border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It was taken shortly by a young Horatio Nelson and gang, but dysentery got the better of the forces and they retreated from the Spanish…. There is a link on certain days of the week to San Carlos, a small border town from Ometepe running only weekdays. We found ourselves slightly less entertained there than anticipated and decided to make a move sooner than later; three days earlier. We got up at 4am to get the bus and then connected with the 6:30 am boat to the mainland which apparently linked to a bus …. And then another bus which would take us to San Carlos routing around south of the lakes …. Or not? The ferry across to the mainland was a very under powered boat which was probably left behind by the Spanish in the late 1800s, and took forever it seemed, however, it provided the service for not too much money!
As it turned out, the buses didn’t provide the link and we found ourselves at the border having taken two chicken buses and with no other options than cross or head back north to Managua from where there are “definitely” buses. We crossed the border refusing to cover ground once more, slightly disappointed; it is in the books for next time though. The border was a bizarre affair, with touts selling border cards on either side of the border for a couple of pence. These are of course free of charge at the counter. We didn’t buy the cards out of principal, but did get charged a fee for entering the border area and then two dollars each to leave Nicaragua. The short walk to the Costa Rican border control was fine and then the queue for the stamps was fairly horrendous. The larger buses crossing between the countries all seemed to be at the border simultaneously which created the queues. The border behind us, we found a line to join for buses to Monte Verde apparently; not that there are direct buses there. There was no indication of a bus ticket counter or anything, if you are heading that way and are travelling cheaply, it is opposite the passport check exit/entrance, next to the Douane sign, on the right. The bus will sell you tickets onboard, but you won’t necessarily get a seat. We managed to get a seat somehow. Then into Costa Rica! The bus rolled along spending much of the trip in the other lane, and stopping frequently for Police checks. We assumed that they were for illegal immigrants and drug mules and watched a couple people frog marched off the bus. The Police weren’t too bothered about any western types, but the process was annoying and arduous.
We had done some reading about how to get to Monte Verde and somewhere in the back of my head a name Tiburon popped up as we saw the sign. I spoke to Jen about it and an Alabama drawl suggested from the standing spaces that was the way to Monte Verde and it would be a good idea to get off! As it happened we made some good friends, Sean and his cousin Dow from Alabama and spent a couple more days in their company. The buses or cross country coaches have standing room = if you didn’t know, the aisle in the buses are all fine to be filled up. We then stood in an aisle for 40 minutes to Tiburon where we had to wait until the following day for the bus to Monte Verde and St Elena and passed the time eating a very late lunch. On arrival we found a small hotel in a very small town, clean tidy and much appreciated coolness away from the heat of the past weeks. The hostel was cheap and cheerful, the Chinese food tasted just like anywhere else in the world and well Tiburon was a stop off point for a lot of people we saw the next day heading towards Santa Elena/Monte Verde. There are two buses a day from Tiburon at the more acceptable time at 12:30 costing fifteen hundred Colones each btw. The chicken bus bounced along and then hit the 30 km dirt track.
We met Dow and Sean again who had come in from their accommodation in the Arenal area to head across to Monte Verde at the bus station by chance almost and boarded our bright yellow school bus. The road from Tiburon was incredible and in some instances we had no idea how such a huge bus was able to drive down such incredibly steep dirt tracks, however looking out of the windows at the incredible steep hills dotted with cows and sheep, the drive was vaguely reminiscent of drives through Switzerland, an abundance of greenery all around with plenty of livestock and not too many people! The one village we passed through had some kind of celebration which was starting to get busy, with a huge number of horses saddled and ready to go, a fair ground and lots of parked horse trucks everywhere. It looked like fun, but we needed to get to Santa Elena so we stayed on the bus and carried on. The bus found another tarmac road and then we were there, Santa Elena. The first assessment was that it looked like a small ski resort out of season, small chalet style places with nice wood, but then there was the tropical rain which reminded us where we were… Heading out later that afternoon for some internet access we found a great bar/restaurant/café called the Tree house, which was more expensive than anything I have come across since London!!! We paid $10 for a coffee and a milkshake which I thought was extortionate! However, the place was built around a massive rubber plant tree, Ficcus something or other I believe. The internet was also pretty decent but not good enough for us to go. Ducking beneath the branches to get around could provide problematic for those who have drunk one too many cocktails.
As we had turned up in a group of 6 and it was definitely low season, we got a decent deal at Cabinas Eddy which was very clean, comfortable and had a nice kitchen to use. This actually saved us a bit of cash and it was great to cook our own food once more. We got $8 each, but I think the usual prices were more like $12 each. Set back from the road, it was nice and quiet and they also helped out organize our adventures for the next few days. MT
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