April 14 – April 16, 2018

We were nearing the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and decided we needed one more beach stop before we crossed. We headed towards San Juan del Sur, a touristy beach town, and, as it turns out, also a cruise ship port.

There were not a lot of camping options for the town, so we headed towards the cruise ship harbour where we had read you could camp, in a secure parking lot, for cheap, with bathrooms available. When we arrived, the first guard Derek talked to said, yes, no problem, but that he would need to talk to his boss as to what the fee should be. We drove in, then were approached by a different security guard. He said, no, we could not park there for the night, as the person who is supposed to collect the money was not there. Soon there were four guards standing next to Derek’s open window, discussing whether we could camp there or not. Suddenly it was okay as long as we parked in a particular area, in the far end of the lot. Somehow we got the impression our presence was something they didn’t want to promote and our experience suggests this is why we were required to park where we did.

We set up, close to the enclosed area for the cruise ship tourists. We have never been on a cruise, but it appeared to us that the cruise passengers are brought by a small shuttle boat to the harbour area which is surrounded by high fences topped with razor wire. Inside another secured but open air area near to where we were parked, vendors were selling all types of handicrafts. This all while being serenaded by a small brass and drum band playing the same five or ten marching band songs over and over again for at least 3 hours as different batches of tourists were managed through the buying squeeze chutes. When the Saints Come Marching in, Anchors Away, and a couple other tunes I recognized but don’t know the names of. The band was not tight, the trumpets had trouble hitting their notes, and they did not seem to improve as the day went on.

We decided to take Piper for a walk and a swim on the beautiful crescent beach, then returned to our camper to cook dinner. By this time most of the cruise ship people had been shuttled back to the ships.  We cannot imagine what would have possessed the dozen or so remaining clients to stay and listen to the night club act, as a Spanish singing man, who can only be charitably described as a crooner, continued to howl for hours well past midnight.

We decided in the morning to move on to a different spot in town. We were dropping off some laundry when we ended up talking to a Canadian man who spends about 4 months per year in San Juan del Sur.  He recommended the beach at the small village of Ostional down the coast.  He said we could stay for free right next to the ocean. Sounded great, so we drove there and spent a bit of time playing in the waves, hid in the shade of our tarp in the late afternoon sun, watched pelicans dive for sardines, cooked ourselves a nice dinner and then drifted to sleep to some music quietly emanating from a small local bar at the end of the street.

The beach at Optional.  The headlands in the distance are in Costa Rica.

The next morning we drove back to San Juan del Sur, picked up our laundry and had breakfast We then headed towards the border with Costa Rica. We both enjoyed Nicaragua, and we felt truly welcomed. The majority of the people we saw on the road sides returned our waves with a genuine smile, and often groups of young men would make this whistle sound to get our attention (lots of people use different whistle tones here for communication), then give us big thumbs up. The beaches are beautiful, deserted, and many have big surfing waves. There are lots of volcanoes, monkeys and colourful birds and flowers everywhere.

There are a lot of tourism activities with various degrees of adventure available in Nicaragua. We had thought we would have participated in a bit more than we did, but we were having trouble getting inspired to actually sign up for anything…..are we becoming blase?  I am not sure.  For example, there are a lot of zip-lining opportunities, but we have both zip-lined before and although fun, it’s not a great way to see things.  Additionally, we encountered some of the hottest temperatures of our trip here, up to 37 degrees C and it has been difficult to get out and see everything with the freshness we might applied earlier. We feel that we have seen a lot of churches, a lot of ruins, and a lot of colonial cities and find ourselves drifting more towards beautiful places to camp rather than touristic must-sees.

What we are not tired of though is the trip. As we approach 6 months on the road, we are as excited as we were when we left Okotoks to see what is around the next bend in the road, across the next border and into the next continent. So if a “must see” museum gets missed along the way or a “do not miss this” national park gets skipped, I guess that is okay.  We knew, coming into this trip, that we wouldn’t be able to see everything, and the beauty of travelling this way is getting to decide on most days what makes the top of your day’s list of activities.