Costa Rica Driving Adventure Day 10: Somotillio, Nicaragua to My New Home in Jaco Beach Costa Rica !!!!

We were awoken early by horns beeping, doors slamming, people talking, etc. It happened at a constant pace starting at 6 AM. and resulted in near non-stop barking by the dogs. The last straw was the motorcycle revving its engine for 5 minutes, 2 feet outside my door at 7AM. Dean came up to my room and said "Kurt, lets get the Hell out of here". I agreed, as it was clear that there was no more sleep to be had at this place. I had fallen asleep in my clothes from the day before and just decided to not change and leave. The last 2 days I had 2 very short, cold showers and now I had this hotel that lacked all running water. I stink and I know it. Time to move on. As the sun was up and the rain was gone, I got a good look at our hotel and snapped a couple pics.

Yes, it was as luxurious as I had remembered from the night before. All of us felt a bit more relaxed in Nicaragua as it is rated as the safest country in Central America. Driving through Nicaragua felt like a time warp back to the late 1800's.

I have never seen so many people riding horse drawn carts, horses or just farm animals in general.  These were not the Amish but just regular people here in Nicaragua. Due to all of the obstacles in the roadways, if Nicaragua was a driving video game, it would be level 10. Nicaragua is also covered in trash but not to the point Honduras is. The people here are friendly. Bugsy decided to help me drive by sitting on the brake pedal.

Near Managua, the police pulled me over for passing in a no passing zone. There was one solid yellow line through the road so I don't know if this meant no passing or not. Anyway, the cop gave me a $20 ticket and told me to pay it at the national bank in Managua. However, such bank was now closed as it was noon on Saturday and wouldn't open until Monday. Until then, he would keep my driver's license. We all knew that at some point a bribe would be requested. We decided to sit on the side of the road and wait for the bribe conversation. We sat and sat and sat for over an hour. The two traffic cops then left. We were shocked. No bribe was requested. As I now had no license, Barney jumped into the driver's seat and we agreed that he would drive the rest of the way to Costa Rica. Two miles down the road, we were pulled over again by 2 different cops, to allegedly "Check our vehicle import papers". Amazingly, and coincidentally, the 2 cops that gave me the ticket reappeared and asked who was driving. When they were told it wasn't me, you could see the disappointment on their faces. Now the game became clear. They were hoping to catch me diving without a license in order to obtain a much larger bribe for a more serious charge. These guys should win an award for their acting skills. After the cop so kindly allowed me to pay him for the ticket ($20), my license was returned and we were off. This encounter brought back memories of the last time I was in Managua in 2008. I was then also pulled over and shaken down for a bribe. What a coincidence. Ten miles later we were again pulled over. This made the 3rd time in just over 10 miles. The cop tried to tell me I was swerving into the left lane. There was no center line on this road. It was complete b.s. The cop could sense that we were irritated and could probably tell we had just been through their little game. He let us go after a couple minutes. We were making good time and passed by San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua at 2:15.

We decided to keep going to the Costa Rica border. Almost home!!! While long, this border crossing was largely hassle free.

We got two helpers and finished here in 2:05. However, the bank to pay the pet import fees was closed and wouldn't open until Monday!!! Ugh! Our helper suggested we sneak them through the final inspection without stamps, so we did. Nobody asked to see the pet stamps upon exit and we were now in Costa Rica. However, we still had 3+ hours to Jaco. We stopped at Burger King in Liberia, which had wifi. We were now back in civilization. I ordered their new meal, a "Pescado Combo" and we were off after a 20 minute pit stop.  Due to heavy road construction the drive took a considerable amount of time. I decided to get a room instead of doing the key switch on our house so late. It was nice to finally be here. Hopefully, I will be into our new home tomorrow. It has been one heck of an experience making this trip. I am glad that I did this trip but I'm not sure I would ever want to do it again. Pura Vida!