Getting to Nicaragua
20 10 2004We got up, fussed w/ the ducha caliente in our room that we paid extra for… But no worky. The gal at the front desk came to fuss w/ it, then took us to the communal shower which was working, or so we thought. Meghan had a cold shower so she told me to just use the one in our room. To my pleasant surprise, the electrical taped, non-grounded device decided to work
. We then took a short walk into downtown Alajuela, taking a few pics and stopped in to Carlos’ restaurant Versailles, where we had some great (our first) gallo pinto con huevos, pan, y queso. There was some creamy white stuff served w/ it. It marginally tasted like sour cream. Carlos showed up while we were there so we got a photo of him.
At the airport, there was a minor problem because the dumbass (Me) had reserved the flight to managua under ‘Steve’ but my passport has my full name, duh. It was quickly taken care of, and we were on our way. In Managua, we were greeted by my main man Wilson, who showed us the way out of the main airport, down the alley, past the construction, to the La Costena office. He is a cool walkin chill cat. He got everything squared away for us at the ticket counter. I tipped him a buck for his effort. We each had to step on the baggage scale so they could weigh us for the flight. Had a snack: peanuts con limon y sel are very lemony.
Flight to corn island was a trip. Old noisy small plane, well piloted, but two noisy props. The air conditioning only worked when the engines were running. We got to Corn Island and waited for our bags to be unloaded by wheelbarrow into the thatched roof hut. Some people getting off the plane with us had guns with them
. We then asked about the boat to Little Corn and the guy first told us that the last one was at 4 pm. It was now 4:12. We then found out that the last boat left at 4:30, plenty of time to get to the dock. We took a taxi for $2. We were supposed to make reservations for the return flight but forgot in the confusion of the hurried trip to the dock to catch the last boat. We paid 6 cordoba for two tix on the boat. by this time, it was very hot, so I took off my pant legs. I love convertible pants. Meghan and I felt very uncomfortable on big corn. When we got just outside little corn they stopped the boat and said pay. It was 90 cordoba =~$6 for the 45 min rough ride on the twin outboard boat.
First thing we did on LCI was hang out at the dive shop for 20 mins and chat with Lucy while getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Finally made the 10 min walk thru the jungle to Casa Iguana (our hotel), where we banged a dive tank to get Cathy to show us the room - we were lucky, we got the $55 room (w/ ensuite bathroom) for $25, since we had pre-booked and they had a bunch of backpackers show up and book the cheaper rooms solid before we got there. Shrimp & rice & salad for dinner, choc/peanut butter cake 4 dessert. Casa Iguana is nice - everything runs on the honor system, mark down what you eat/drink.





