“I climbed onto the bus and placed my hands in front of the bus driver like a beggar but instead of me asking for money I was letting him take the amount he required for the ride.”

I left my hostel in the morning and an American/Nicaraguan that stayed at the hostel hailed a cab for me. I jumped in with a bit of a squeeze as there were already two other people inside the cab.

I arrived at the bus station and shortly after I start chatting to a talkative 65ish year old man. He was from Southern Ontario and had been travelling around since the 70’s, his words “Home is Canada (Windsor), kinda”.  After about an hour the bus arrived and we boarded the greyhound type bus that was going to take us to Liberia.

The bus arrived at the border and at what order things happened is a blur. As you try to step out of the bus people are up at your face waving money and food for you to purchase. We had to get out of the bus, gather our stuff and proceed to the Costa Rican border to line up and pay our fees and show proof that you had a ticket leaving the country. Well…..

I reached the lady at the counter rather fast. I showed my flight ticket out of Nicaragua to Toronto to show proof that I was not staying in the country… she was not having it. I had to leave the line, with the help of a German skateboarder who knew Spanish went with me to purchase a bus ticket at some dingy hut for $25 USD showing that I will be traveling from San Jose to Managua. Money down the drain. Back to the line with 75+ people.. I butted the line all the way to the front meeting up with some people from the same bus. Missing a bus was not on my to do list.

I paid the fee to enter the country and we carried our route to Liberia.

Note: Drones are not allowed in Nicaragua. A guy had to leave it at the border and now he was crossing the border just to retreat his gadget back.

This is how Liberia went down.

The bus stopped at a random pedestrian island on a busy road. I was expecting I would be getting off at an official bus station, nope.

What I had in my backpack, Nicaraguan córdoba, USD money.

What I did not have, Spanish, Costa Rican colón, hostel for the night.

There were four things I needed to accomplish before the day ended.

Money. Food. Transportation. Accommodation

What to do: befriend the people that got off the bus with you. My temp friend happened to be a girl from Quebec. We both went out to look for an ATM, *hooray* but there was some issue with the ATM not allowing to give large amounts of money. Although the best part is that you were able view the amount you wanted to withdraw in the local currency or in USD.

$40 USD = 22,598.87 Costa Rican Colón

Money. Food. Transportation. Accommodation

What do you need coins for? For a bus. You take your money and buy something. What three essential things do you think I bought? Water, bread, chocolate?

*drum roll* An avocado the size of my hand, bananas, and a bag of chicken soup.

  

Money. Food. Transportation. Accommodation

It was around 3PM and I had to figure out how to get to my next destination.

I was initially supposed to go to La Fortuna to meet up with my two friends but I had realized they were not going to be there for another two days. So I decided to check out a different city.  The night before I was looking at possible places and I decided on Tamarindo.

I found a bus stop with a handful of people and I had started to say ‘Tamarindo’ in a tone of question. A older man in his 50’s started to speak to me in English and told me I was on the right side of the road. I then questioned him when the bus will show up and he simply said ‘Just sit and wait’. I sat with this man at the bus stop chatting for an hour or two. He mentioned that he learned English by watching his favourite sport, baseball. *around applause to baseball*

Money. Food. Transportation. Accommodation

I climbed onto the bus and placed my hands in front of the bus driver like a beggar but instead of me asking for money I was letting him take the amount he required for the ride.

During the 3ish hour bus ride; the bus frequently stop at small towns, I saw some wild bush fires and befriended an American.

The bus arrived at the town,  it was fairly dark and I had no place to stay. I followed my short term friend to a hostel she was going to stay at, Selina Tamarindo. Magically they had a bed for me since it was going to be a busy week due to Semana Santa. Due to promotions…

it was cheaper to book online than it was at the front desk.

Money. Food. Transportation. Accommodation

Tamarindo summarized in one word, crowded. Okay, I’ll be fair, prior to Tamarindo I was staying at a small fishing village with maximum 30 people on the beach. My first morning I did what I knew best, wander away from the crowd.

Summary: 

• Be aware if you are travelling during Semana Santa as it will be busy.
• If you are not limited with time, take the public transportation.
• Tamarindo felt catered for those that want to travel but wanted to still be at home with the typical US/Canadian amenities i.e. typical burger joints, karaoke bars