Santa Elena

When last I blogged (last Ftiday) I was on the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua staying at the Cornerhouse, a coffee house/b&b run by an Aussie and his Canadian wife.  I had a rather restless night there due to not having AC (very few hotels on the island have AC or TV) and having a 4 am rooster wakeup call.  The redeeming thing about my stay was their breakfast - part of the b&b.  I had what they called eggs benedict with a light lemon cream cream sauce.  Together with the fresh grapefruit/mandarin juice and roasted potatoes, it was great - not at all like the eggs benedict I had before.The best breakfast by far on my trip and it turns out the highpoint of my day  After breakfast I got the 9 am ferry back to the mainland.  I was with the Brit I met the day before.

From the ferry station, we got a collective taxi to the border.  We got there a little after 11 am.  First in Nicaragua, there was a short line to pay a $1 processing fee, then a mess (supposely 3 lines) that were to pay the $2 fee & get the departure stamp and finally two very young guys - with no uniforms of any sort - checking to be sure all the payments and stamps were present.  It was now about 12:15 and we were in Costa Rica.  I didn't much from Nicaragua so things were bound to get better in Costa Rica - right?  No way!

Costa Rica greeted us with a single line about a block and a half long.  At 1:30 we has barely moved a third of the distance.  Then suddenly about 2:15 the line started to move rapidly.From there we finally got through it and ended up with the passport entry stamp by 2:45 just in time for the bus to Liberia.  Funny thing is there was no one at the border that would prevent someone from not getting the entry stamp.  I thought that was odd but then about 5 miles into the bus ride we were stopped for passport inspection.  All in all very weird.  Once in Liberia I wanted to find a hotel I had read about on the Internet.

In its writeup, Hospedaje Las Delicious (see pic) stated it was a 15 minute walk from downtown.  Therefore once I found someone to point me in the right direction, I headed off.  But after about a km I knew something was wrong.  I stopped at the first public place (a police station) to inquire.  The un-uniformed guy there had to call someone to find out where this hotel was.  Then he advised me to get a taxi, so I did.  Two miles out of town later, I made it to the place.  It was off the road among homes with one small sign.  Nevertheless it was rather new and the room was nice, so I stayed that night - even though the woman owner spoke no English.  We communicated mainly via sign language.   I think I was her only guest.  Of course, I needed 3 more cab rides (I had to go back downtown for dinner and then return on Sunday to the bus station) before my stay ended.

The next morning my English friend and I started off towards Monteverde/Santa Elena. We had checked with everyone how we could best make the connections necessary to get there.  We found a good dral of confusion but finally decided to take the bus towards Puntarenas and get off a junction called La Irma.  From there, there was  scheduled 3 o'clock bus to Santa Elena.  We also understood there may be additional local buses.  Any way we got to La Irma just before noon.  A young backpacker couple also from England got off the bus for the connection.  A local lady there said that there was a bus about 1o'clock into the nearby town where it might be better to wait.  So that is what we did.  In fact another backpacker joined us now.  She is from Chicago and had taken a local bus to get to La Irma.  She also spoke more Spanish than the rest of us.  But of course that doesn't make her fluent.

We made it to the town of Las Junas at about 1:45 but found most all the busineses closed as it was Sunday.  With nothing rlse to do, we sat and waited...and waited.  About 3:45 a local taxi driver came and announced that the bus broke down in La Irma.  He claimed the next bus would be at 9 am on Monday!  We all were skeptical about this news since he wanted us to hire him.  So we declined to negotiate.  Sure enough we were right.  At 4:15 a bus came with Monteverde on its front.   However when ee tried to get on it, the locals wouldn't allow us.  From the best we understood the bus had to turn around.  So the bus left us and it didn't come back.  About 20 minutes later we all felt betrayed.  But just about then, lo and behold, a different bus appeared going the other way with Monteverde also on its front.  So in hindsight I guess the first bus had on the wrong sign as it going the other way! 

Any way, we all made it to Santa Elena about 6:30 and went our separate ways.   I was worn out after another day waiting so I quickly checked into Cabinas El Pueblo (see pic) as it was rated number 1 in TripAvisor.  My room was okay - big and bright - but seemed overpriced for the market.  Then to add insult to injury, they put onions in my omlet the next morning.  Thus I knew I needed to look elsewhere.  The first place I spotted was Tina's Casinas.  Although it turned out they didn't have any vacanies, I met up with their manager, Andreas.  Andreas speaks great English.  It turns out he went to highscool in Mercersberg, PA - having won a full scholarship at Mercersburg Academy.  Any way, we chatted and he suggested Cabinas Nora which was only a half block away.  I looked and liked Cabinas Nora (see pic).  Nora herself seems nice but her English isn't good so communication could be better.   Nevertheless, I booked two nights at Nora's and went back to see Andreas. Using his recommendations, I booked 4 tours with Andreas over the next 3 days.  As this post is way too long already, I will report on my activity tours tomorrow - hopefully with more pics.