San Juan… Nicer roads and more people

We cruised easily into San Juan taking the main road from Rivas 15 Kilometers (after the hour drive on unpaved roads) to the turn off which took us another 30 Kilometers on paved road back down to the coast.  It might be nice for the Nicaraguan government to put in a coastal road but then again that it just my suggestion.

San Juan is the party place for 20 somethings looking for cheap drinks, marijuana and hostals.  We tried 4 nicer hotels with pools who were booked up or not interested in our mongrels before we found the “Cork Beach Hostal” no pool but a nice courtyard where we and our doggies could rest up for a few days.

We spent the first day getting settled in, eating and drinking liter Tonas, and discussing our next moves.  After 4 days of rough roads and rough accommodations, moving every day and not feeling quite comfortable we needed the down time.  We moved our mattress as well as our fridge into the room so we had access to ice cold beer and could sleep on something that didn’t resemble a lumpy floor, and rested.

We didn’t even move the next day, we drove the short drive down to Playa Hermosa (apparently the actual beach our friend Harry had recommended) but didn’t even look around before driving back, taking a dip in ocean and then curling up with a book for the rest of the day.  Our only venture out was to see if we could find boogie boards, which we did find for the horrific price of $250 EACH!

Feeling rested after a day out of the car and less stressed as I had booked 11 days in Costa Rica at two different spots, we decided to spend our last full day in Nicaragua driving to Managua to visit PriceSmart (it is the Central American version of Costco) to see if we could find some less expensive boards.  We hit the road at 7 a nice early start with the plan of getting there and back by 12:00.  At 10ish we were just outside of Managua when we got stopped at our first police road block (we had been waived through three prior to this).  I reached over to grab my note book with the car paper work and our copies of our driver’s licenses and passports only to realize in horror, it WASN’T there!!!!  Fritz had moved it out of the car to keep it safe and not brought it back!!!  So ½ an hour later (and $20 poorer) we continued onto Managua.

Just into Managua there was another police blockade, they motioned us over, but then we were passed by an Ambulance so Fritz thought that was all and that we could continue on our way… WRONG!  Five minutes later a very frustrated police officer (on what looked like a moped) pulled over next to us and motioned us off to a side street.  I knew we were in hot water this time, not only had we run from the law but we didn’t have any of proper paperwork for the truck.  I immediately got out of the truck and did the only thing I could think of doing, I started to cry.  The poor police officer didn’t understand why I was so upset, and I explained that we were lost, that I hadn’t wanted to come to Managua, I was scared and now we had done something wrong and I didn’t know what it was.  He told me to translate to my husband to ALWAYS STOP when he sees policemen, to ALWAYS CARRY the paperwork, and to take better care of me, he handed him back his license and off we went with no fine paid.

We found the PriceSmart but they didn’t have boogie boards, safely back in our Hostal (now at 2 PM) I had a couple of Mojitos!