Nicaragua/Northern CR!!

Whoa this has been one crazy but amazing week!

We had a week vacation off of school and there was an optional organized trip with USAC to Nicaragua and Northern Costa so I chose to do that. We left at 6am on Saturday of last week and headed to Granada, Nicaragua. We got to the border at 9:30am and waited for over 4 hours!! to get our passports stamped (just to leave Costa Rica). 4 hours waiting in line. It was ridiculous. It wasn’t even that there was a ton of people. It was more that the system was wicked unorganized and they would just stop letting people in for like 20 minutes at a time because they didn’t have enough workers or something. So we got to Granada at 5 and got our free “lunch” at this delicious pizza place. I think it may have been the best pizza I’ve tasted in my life. No exaggeration. Then we went out for a bit. A few of us shared a pitcher of sangria then I got a mojito (which I think is officially my favorite alcoholic beverage at this point and time).

The next day we went for a horse carriage ride around the city, a boat tour of small islands that people bought and built huge houses, a trip to Massaya National Park to see the volcano and then shopping at the Massaya Market (got lots of presents for people!). It was quite a busy day but extremely fun! Oh, and then I went for a little run around the Nicaragua Lake (the 2nd largest lake in all the Americas!) it was beautiful near sunset.

The next day we traveled to San Juan del Sur which is a small fishing city near the border of Costa Rica we went on another boat tour but this time they took us to this really exclusive white sanded, clear water beach and we just hung out and explored for an hour or so. Then I ate lobster for dinner! It was delicious! Not the best lobster I’ve ever had… but still, lobster.

The next day we headed back to the border (waited only 2 hours this time) and ended up at this absolutely amazing, exclusive, secluded, resort type hotel called Buena Vista (Great View in English). It was like a place where old retired people go on vacation or honeymooners go. It was crazy beautiful and quiet and I can’t even describe it. There was no city or noise or homeless people or stranded dogs or trash everywhere. It was almost like paradise I guess you could say, even if that sounds wicked cliché and cheesy. That night we just relaxed, walked up to the sunset bar to see the sunset (absolutely amazing), danced a little, hiked a little on these hanging bridges, it was great.

The next day we went horse back riding! It was so much fun! Haha, definitely not like horse back riding in the states. There were people who had never been riding before in their lives, and people like me who’ve only been like once or twice and these horses trotted, they cantered, they went really fast haha. It was scary but really fun at the same time! We horse back rode to this spa where we went into a steam room, then gave ourselves mud baths, then swam in hot springs swimming pools for a few hours. it was insane. It was like a 5 star resort or something. I ordered a $6 drink because it was vacation and I decided to splurge. It was called El Orgasmo (the orgasm) and it was almost orgasmic haha. It had bailey’s irish cream and amaretto and I’m not sure what else haha. That afternoon we went canopying (which I had never heard of I didn’t know what to expect). It was by far the best part of the trip!!! we hike up a mountain for about 20-30 minutes. And then got down by ziplining 10 different lines. It was amazing!! Such an adrenaline rush. One of the times of the canopy guys asked me if I wanted to “superchica” and I was like “uhh sure” not knowing what I was getting myself into. Turns out that “superchica” means “superwoman” and it basically when you go down the zipline with someone else and you put your legs around them and you don’t hold on to anything (they’re just holding on to your legs and the harness it connected to the line) and you basically fly! It was crazyyy. So I did that twice. And then went once upside. I’m definitely doing canopying again. I think we’re doing it in 3 weekends actually when we go to Monteverde for our last school trip.

The next day we went to a waterslide in the morning. It was alright. It was actually more scary then fun. We had to wear helmets (which were really thin and wouldn’t have saved us if we hit our heads on something) and we had to wear these leather diapers so our butts wouldn’t get scraped up. Haha we looked pretty ridiculous. It was scary cuz we were going to fast it felt like we were going to fly over the edge of the slide sometimes and./or hit our heads on the side haha.

Then we just had some free time and hung out by the pool, played some game, and packed up our stuff. Then 4 hour bus ride back to Puntarenas.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. Canopying was definitely my favorite part of my time here in Costa Rica so far! Pictures will be coming soon :)