Day 112
Whilst in San Marcos I stayed at a nice hotel which was a little expensive at $40 per night although breakfast was included in that price. However nice it was in San Marcos, I tend to get restless when I am off the bike for too long so on Monday 15th April I set off for the capital city, San Jose.
The road from San Marcos to San Jose wound up in to the mountains and provided some spectacular views and great riding but too soon it was over and I started to descend towards San Jose.
However the pleasant morning ride was, it was over too soon. The nearer I got to San Jose, the worse the condition of the roads became and the more traffic began to congest them. I found my hotel in the Western edge of the city which was small but very nice for the $35 that I paid for it.
However I was a tad early to check in so once I had parked the bike I ordered a coffee and waited for my room to be available. To my surprise a member of hotel staff brought me a wooden stand that held a long muslin pouch under which my coffee cup sat. Apparently the muslin pouch contained ground coffee and I then sat and watched him pour the hot water in to the pouch which he then stirred with a spoon. The hot coffee then drained out in to my cup, I thought that this was a very unusual method of making coffee but it was well worth the effort as it did taste very nice.
After finishing my $4 coffee I showered, changed in to my street clothes, and I then got an Uber in to the city centre. I walked around the city centre for a few hours and although there were a number or older buildings that were quite impressive the city had a run down, worn at the edges sort of feel to it.
A lot of the shops were permanently closed as indicated by the for sale and for lease signs on the closed roller shutters and as a result the city felt as if it was slowly sinking in to decay. I decided to walk back to my hotel which took me about 40 minutes or so and during my walk I passed by two public parks which were full of people sitting on benches chatting, mostly young couples, but there were also a lot of drunks lying passed out on the grass and on benches. The stench of stale urine wafted through the air as I passed these parks. Not nice.
I had decided to try to cross the border in to Nicaragua the next moring so when I returned to my hotel, after having a few coffees and cigars in the rear courtyard, it was an early night for me.
Day 113
As I had previously encountered problems at the border between Panama and Costa Rica I decided to get to the Nicaraguan border as early as I could, the distance from my hotel San Jose to the border was about 180 miles which I knew would take me 3 or 4 hours to get to, so I left my hotel in San Jose at 7 am.
It was a clear sunny morning and as I rode out of the city and I had not gotten very far when I encountered a toll booth on the road. I paid the small sum of 50 Colones (10 US Cents) and I then I was free to ride up road 32 which goes through a National park.
At that time of the morning as the road rose up in to the mountains it was quite cool but not cold enough to warrant me stopping to heat up. The scenery and roads in the National park were both well worth the ride but I had no time to stop and admire the views.
I arrived at the Costa Rican side of the border at around 10 am.
The Costa Rican side was quite painless. I first had to pay my exit fee (see below) by typing my name and passport number in to a machine that looked like an ATM. Once I paid by card, the only way possible, I went to the immigration window and got my exit stamp in my passport. Then I found the customs who told me that as I was planning to come back to Costa Rica I could suspend rather than cancel the TIP for my bike, so that’s what I did. I’ll see if this worked when I return to Costa Rica.
I then rode to the Nicaraguan side where I was immediately stopped and I had to show my passport, driving licence, and my bike ownership document. This took about 10 minutes for the three woman who stopped me to look at, read, and photograph my documents. I was also asked numerous questions about where I had come from (a tad obvious if you ask me), where I was going (again a bit obvious), and why I wanted to enter Nicaragua. Then they gave me a customs declaration form (CDF) to fill out and directed me to the fumigation area to have my bike sprayed with some poisonous shit.
Apparently there is some alleged bird flu epidemic in the country so all vehicles must be sprayed on entry, I wonder if they think that all of the vehicles entering their country had run over chickens on their way to the border because that’s the only way this bullshit makes any sense to me.
I then had to go to immigration inside the main building to get my entry stamp and be allowed admittance In to Nicaragua .
Again, the woman on the immigrtation desk wanted to see my passport, driving licence, and my bike ownership document. She also wanted my CDF that I had completed. Again 10 minutes of reading and photographing, and asking me the same obvious questions as before, then she needed my destination which was a hotel that I had booked on Booking.com. I showed her my phone but of course it was in English which she could not read. Another 10 minutes of her looking up the hotel on her phone and eventually I got my entry stamp in my passport and a stamp on my CDF once I had paid the entrance fee.
Next, I had to unload the bike and bring all of my bags in the main building to be put through the x-ray scanner. The woman operating the machine asked for my CDF, scanned all of my bags and made me open my side bags, apparently she had never seen a small multi purpose toolkit or rubber inner tubes for a bike before but I then got her stamp on my CDF. Then I had to go and wait outside for 3 customs offers, 2 men and a woman, to inspect my bike. I took off the seat and stood beside my pile of bags whilst they carried out their inspection.
Again I was asked for my passport, driving licence, my bike ownership document and my CDF by one of the men. The other man and the woman just stood and looked at my naked bike. Once the man had again photographed everything I got his signature on my CDF. I then went to the customs office window in the main building where I was asked to show my passport, driving licence, my bike ownership document and my CDF. Again after a lot of reading and photographing I got a stamp on my CDF and I was told to go to the next window to get my TIP.
However, then the tourist office guy who had a desk next to the TIP window snaffled me for my tourist tax. Then I went to the TIP window where again i was asked for my passport, driving licence, my bike ownership document and my CDF. Another 10 minutes of reading and looking at the computer passed and as I suspected the United Kingdom is called Reino Unido in Spanish so unless you know what to look for you wont find it under U on a Spanish language computer. Eventually i was asked to confirm my country was Reino Unido and when this happened I got my TIP.
Then I went to the cashiers window which was the next one along from the TIP window and I paid for my vehicle fumigation and my TIP. Then outside the front door of the main building I had to buy insurance for the bike and thereafter I was free to legally enter Nicaragua.
The exit fee for leaving Costa Rica was $8, the fee for entering Nicaragua was $13, the cost of my TIP for the bike was $3 for 30 days, the cost of the insurance for the bike was 450 Cordobas (just over $12) for 30 days, the tourist tax was $3, and the fee for spraying my bike with poison was $4. a total of $43. It seems to me that border crossings are supposed to be there in order to keep people safe rather than to facilitate another form of Government taxation but maybe I’m just a cynic.
The only real positive thing that I can say about this border crossing is that at least the border crossing area was purpose built and not situated in the middle of a town. Once clear of the border crossing area I stopped for a coffee and a cigar and I bought a local mobile SIM card for $10 for a 7 days unlimited internet.
Then I set off and after about 300 yards I came to a bridge over the river so I stopped and took a photo.
I rode up North along road 25 and after a few hours I decided to take a short detour to the Eastern shore of Lake Nicaragua. I arrived at the town of San Miguelito but my access to the shoreline was limited. I stopped at a dead end road where I could walk to the shore and I took a couple of photos.
I got back on the bike and by late afternoon I was in a hotel in Juigalpa which I got for about $25. One bonus was that I was able to park the bike directly outside my room.
