A day I would prefer to forget. Needs must, but ten hours on a bus, two hours crossing borders, ahhhh.
The border crossing was farcical. We all piled off the bus to leave Nicaragua, and stood around in a chaotic dusty field besieged by hawkers until summoned one by one back on board by customs officials.
The bus then drove us 100 yards, and off we all got again. this time with luggage. Queued through immigration and security, and got back onto the bus. Eventually.
Pros: its cheap.
The ticabus express I took was pricier than chicken buses (I 'chickened ' out doing the border that way) but at 30 dollars for a days travel it is good value.
Cons: stuck for hours on a bus which never stops, foul coffee courtesy of locals leaping on at traffic jams (better than no coffee though), bus ' toilets'. Ugh.
But the distance itself is not great and as I have already pushed the budget flying over Honduras and El Salvador this time over land it had to be.
And I duly arrived in San Jose, only two hours late, probably counts as on time here.
By which time I was finally losing the plot and almost in tears struggling with my luggage, exhaustion, dehydration, hunger, until a lovely young Canadian couple picking up a camper van literally scooped me up at the terminal and gave me a lift to a hostel.
They saved my sanity and also saved me valuable minutes to find the ATM before dark. New country means new currency...means always a mission to be solvent.
So, eventually fell into bed at 9 am after 5 am start, in cosmopolitan San Jose the flickering streetlights, of the city twinkling outside my window.
The border crossing was farcical. We all piled off the bus to leave Nicaragua, and stood around in a chaotic dusty field besieged by hawkers until summoned one by one back on board by customs officials.
The bus then drove us 100 yards, and off we all got again. this time with luggage. Queued through immigration and security, and got back onto the bus. Eventually.
Pros: its cheap.
The ticabus express I took was pricier than chicken buses (I 'chickened ' out doing the border that way) but at 30 dollars for a days travel it is good value.
Cons: stuck for hours on a bus which never stops, foul coffee courtesy of locals leaping on at traffic jams (better than no coffee though), bus ' toilets'. Ugh.
But the distance itself is not great and as I have already pushed the budget flying over Honduras and El Salvador this time over land it had to be.
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| Welcome to Costa Rica! Configuration of two rivers, one blue. One brown |
By which time I was finally losing the plot and almost in tears struggling with my luggage, exhaustion, dehydration, hunger, until a lovely young Canadian couple picking up a camper van literally scooped me up at the terminal and gave me a lift to a hostel.
They saved my sanity and also saved me valuable minutes to find the ATM before dark. New country means new currency...means always a mission to be solvent.
So, eventually fell into bed at 9 am after 5 am start, in cosmopolitan San Jose the flickering streetlights, of the city twinkling outside my window.
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