We made it to Granada! It’s been a long couple days of transit. I find all the hustle and bustle of airport, bus stations and transport stressful. Keeping track of two kids, our things, the time, where we are supposed to be and when in another language is about the max of my multitasking skills. The flights to LA then onto Costa Rica were easy. The kids did great. Tommy had to assist a gentleman who collapsed in the back of the plane while he was in the bathroom with Lee. They made an announcement that they needed medical help but Tommy couldn’t open the bathroom door because the guy was on the ground in front of it. He squeezed out and left Lee in there so he could help the guy. We were seated in the back right next to him and once things calmed down a little, the flight attendant rescued Lee from the bathroom. He was just in there playing in the sink and was soaking wet when he got out. The flight attendants were impressed with Tommy’s handling of the situation and offered all the free drinks we wanted and gave us a little goody bag of things they seemed to have scrounged together; a million of those biscoff cookies, a travel bourbon, and a chocolate bar. It was pretty great. The guy was ok and they wheeled him off the flight at the end. We saw him being wheeled through customs looking like he wanted to throw up. Customs and immigration was fast and uneventful, the perk of a tiny airport. We got outside to the humid air and found a taxi to take us to our supposed hotel. The driver seemed to know where it was so I was hopeful. He said traffic was bad today because of a carnival “of lights”. He dropped us a block short of the hotel(which took us an embarrassingly long time to realize) and as we walked up there were 3 fire trucks in front and the street beyond was shut down and lined with people. We checked into the hotel which I was glad existed and was nicer then I thought it would be, put our things down and we’re out to the parade route in time for the procession of fire trucks, the bombero band and what would be the loudest marching bands for the next 6 hours. It was amazing! It just kept getting louder and the marching bands got better until it reached a fever pitch at about 10:30p. The route was lined with a million families and everyone was having a great time. We were exhausted and tried to go to bed at about 9 but the bands and the jubilant crowd wouldn’t allow it. Finally it died down and we were out.
We had to catch the Ticabus from Liberia to Granada and after a mediocre breakfast of beans, rice and eggs at the hotel we set out for the ticketing office. We fumbled through asking about getting Grants passport registered since he didn’t have a ticket and eventually got it together. There was a lot of conflicting info, the bus station is down that way, the bus station is down the other way, the bus comes at noon, the bus comes at 4:30... it was hard to know who to listen to. The 4:30 bus made the most sense and we walked by the bus station to make sure it was there. We had time to kill so Lee jumped on the trampolines in the park and we watched horses and bicycles gathered for another parade. This one was starting earlier and we never figured out the connection between the horses and the bicycles. It was another massive affair though and all the kids who were watching were dressed like cowboys and girls, it was pretty cute. We gathered our things and made it to the bus station. Got some more mixed up info from the security guard and the place was crazy! Buses pulling up and loading every few minutes, people going everywhere, ticket lines to every little town and us! Finally our bus pulled up, not in the station but out front(wtf) and we hustled in. It was a plush greyhound style number with a driver and an assistant. All the seats were full but it seemed so calm compared to outside! It took us about an hour to get to the border and as we pulled up to the exiting Costa Rica office it was getting dark and started pouring rain. The bus drivers assistant takes all the fees from the passengers and tried to keep everyone accounted for and in line, he was working his butt off! Then back in the bus about 5 minutes to the Nicaragua enterance. They gathered everybody’s passports into a garbage bag(this is one of those situations where you just have to blindly trust people, putting the adventure in adventure traveling!) and called all the people from Central America off the bus. That left us and about 4 other people wondering what was going to happen. Then we got called off to haul our baggage through customs and out the other side where everyone else was waiting. I will say that customs is very lax in CR and Nicaragua. You put your stuff on a conveyor, but not everything just whatever is big or what you want to put on there and it goes through a mostly ignored X-ray machine and you pick it up and keep going. It seems that women with children are very prioritized here. I love as waiting in the regular immigration line and a lady with a baby grabbed me and took me to a shorter line with a little picture of a pregnant lady, lady with kids and old people. How considerate! As we all waited in the rain for the passports another lady had the bus driver let all the women with children and elderly wait on the bus. We waved to Tommy standing in the rain. Getting through the border took about 2 hours. Finally passports were handed back and we were on the road again. They played a movie on the bus “First Dog”, it was dubbed in Spanish but Lee loved it(it was terrible but Dolly Parton did the soundtrack!). It ended just as we pulled into Granada. It was late, getting a Taxi was easy. We found our spot(after some u turns) and the caretaker was at the door to meet us. We Wales in and it was stunning! We found our bedroom and passed out. Side note, my boys are amazing travelers. They know how to hustle when I say hustle and stay close when I need them to. Lee can find someone to play with no matter the language barrier and Tommy and I know our limits and how to communicate. It’s pretty awesome.
We had to catch the Ticabus from Liberia to Granada and after a mediocre breakfast of beans, rice and eggs at the hotel we set out for the ticketing office. We fumbled through asking about getting Grants passport registered since he didn’t have a ticket and eventually got it together. There was a lot of conflicting info, the bus station is down that way, the bus station is down the other way, the bus comes at noon, the bus comes at 4:30... it was hard to know who to listen to. The 4:30 bus made the most sense and we walked by the bus station to make sure it was there. We had time to kill so Lee jumped on the trampolines in the park and we watched horses and bicycles gathered for another parade. This one was starting earlier and we never figured out the connection between the horses and the bicycles. It was another massive affair though and all the kids who were watching were dressed like cowboys and girls, it was pretty cute. We gathered our things and made it to the bus station. Got some more mixed up info from the security guard and the place was crazy! Buses pulling up and loading every few minutes, people going everywhere, ticket lines to every little town and us! Finally our bus pulled up, not in the station but out front(wtf) and we hustled in. It was a plush greyhound style number with a driver and an assistant. All the seats were full but it seemed so calm compared to outside! It took us about an hour to get to the border and as we pulled up to the exiting Costa Rica office it was getting dark and started pouring rain. The bus drivers assistant takes all the fees from the passengers and tried to keep everyone accounted for and in line, he was working his butt off! Then back in the bus about 5 minutes to the Nicaragua enterance. They gathered everybody’s passports into a garbage bag(this is one of those situations where you just have to blindly trust people, putting the adventure in adventure traveling!) and called all the people from Central America off the bus. That left us and about 4 other people wondering what was going to happen. Then we got called off to haul our baggage through customs and out the other side where everyone else was waiting. I will say that customs is very lax in CR and Nicaragua. You put your stuff on a conveyor, but not everything just whatever is big or what you want to put on there and it goes through a mostly ignored X-ray machine and you pick it up and keep going. It seems that women with children are very prioritized here. I love as waiting in the regular immigration line and a lady with a baby grabbed me and took me to a shorter line with a little picture of a pregnant lady, lady with kids and old people. How considerate! As we all waited in the rain for the passports another lady had the bus driver let all the women with children and elderly wait on the bus. We waved to Tommy standing in the rain. Getting through the border took about 2 hours. Finally passports were handed back and we were on the road again. They played a movie on the bus “First Dog”, it was dubbed in Spanish but Lee loved it(it was terrible but Dolly Parton did the soundtrack!). It ended just as we pulled into Granada. It was late, getting a Taxi was easy. We found our spot(after some u turns) and the caretaker was at the door to meet us. We Wales in and it was stunning! We found our bedroom and passed out. Side note, my boys are amazing travelers. They know how to hustle when I say hustle and stay close when I need them to. Lee can find someone to play with no matter the language barrier and Tommy and I know our limits and how to communicate. It’s pretty awesome.
1 comment:
You are the envy of us all. Love you. Papa
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