Kari and I had a marvelous time together in Granada, Nicaragua! Kari has to leave the country for 72 hours every three months in order to stay in Costa Rica, since she does not have a residency visa. Three months ago she traveled with some of the other Sojourn teachers to Panama City. This time I offered to go with her on a trip - just the two of us. To save money, we planned it ourselves, making our hotel reservation based on the recommendation of a friend from Nicaragua. We could have gone through a travel agency for around $400 apiece, but we ended up spending $166 each!! Aren’t we good missionaries?!?
We traveled by bus. The trip to Nicaragua was uneventful. (I'll write an entry soon describing the return trip adventures!) We left around noon and arrived around 10PM. The border crossing was definitely third world, but we managed better than most, thanks to my cane! Since I’d had foot surgery only 4 weeks previous, I decided to take my cane along, not only to help me walk, but to give me a “passport to grace.” Don’t think I was playing my sympathy card! Honestly, the cane was my salvation! People were very gracious and accommodating.
One interesting note about the bus ride… the roads in Nicaragua at night are narrow, dark, rough and unmarked (no center lines, no any lines!) Get a seat in the back if you want to avoid a heart attack. What you can’t see can’t hurt you!
Before the trip we had investigated how much a taxi should cost from the bus station to our hotel. The first taxi to happen by, seeing our foreign faces, wanted double that price. We should have forked over the extra two dollars, since we ended up waiting and hunting for another taxi for at least another 20 minutes.
We walked into our hotel lobby and were “wowed.” The lobby was gorgeous! Our room was small, but clean, with a decent, clean bathroom. Initially we were disappointed when we saw that our window did not look out on the street. But, after a good night’s rest, we opened our curtain and looked out on the lovely courtyard, and decided our view wasn’t half bad!! The attached photo shows you that view. Tomorrow I will write about our second day there.
We traveled by bus. The trip to Nicaragua was uneventful. (I'll write an entry soon describing the return trip adventures!) We left around noon and arrived around 10PM. The border crossing was definitely third world, but we managed better than most, thanks to my cane! Since I’d had foot surgery only 4 weeks previous, I decided to take my cane along, not only to help me walk, but to give me a “passport to grace.” Don’t think I was playing my sympathy card! Honestly, the cane was my salvation! People were very gracious and accommodating.
One interesting note about the bus ride… the roads in Nicaragua at night are narrow, dark, rough and unmarked (no center lines, no any lines!) Get a seat in the back if you want to avoid a heart attack. What you can’t see can’t hurt you!
Before the trip we had investigated how much a taxi should cost from the bus station to our hotel. The first taxi to happen by, seeing our foreign faces, wanted double that price. We should have forked over the extra two dollars, since we ended up waiting and hunting for another taxi for at least another 20 minutes.
We walked into our hotel lobby and were “wowed.” The lobby was gorgeous! Our room was small, but clean, with a decent, clean bathroom. Initially we were disappointed when we saw that our window did not look out on the street. But, after a good night’s rest, we opened our curtain and looked out on the lovely courtyard, and decided our view wasn’t half bad!! The attached photo shows you that view. Tomorrow I will write about our second day there.
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