
Originally Posted by
Daddy-YO
In Managua to have a tooth capped, I visited TransNica, while the sculptured, ceramic piece sintered in the oven, to see if I could leave for CR that day. After the dentist glued it in place for the final time, I rushed & caught the last bus, 1:00pm, with 15 min to spare. $50 round trip Managua<=>San Jose; cost the same tho I only went to Liberia, CR. By 3:40 we were at the border. Exiting Nicaragua cost me $4 (132 cords) using the bus’ helper. The CR side was a quick walk thru (having my exit ticket). I hit their ATM for 20k colones - I thought I’d get a few bills, but nope, just one cartoonish-looking thing - cost me just under $33. Thru Liberia at 6:00 the bus left me and a surfer out on the highway a mile out of town in the dark. Apparently TransNica has no legal rights to stop in town. Fortunately the driver had phoned a ‘taxi’ friend (a red car, but not a taxi) who arrived behind the bus. He charged 1000 colones to take me to Hotel Boyeros but it was full & fully booked for the next nite. The driver couldn’t make change for the 20k, and so he took me to another place, Hotel Siesta - a nice enough place, clean with A/C, TV, wifi, hot water shower, pool, breakfast, full bed for 25k ($41) - and charged me 2000, which he had change for.
Tho the wifi was spotty, the Siesta hotel was pleasant enough that I opted for another nite there. A new, sweet, good-looking receptionist charged me 25,000, but said my credit card was rejected. I told her it’s good, try again. No problem. My bank later informed me that they refused to pay the earlier $25,000 (US dollars) charge. Colones can be a pain in the ass. There I met a retired Canadian living in Granada with a young babe and her daughter and we pal’d around, shooting the shit over meals & beers. The Toro Negro just past the central park had excellent buffalo steaks.
My return ticket was open. TransNica gave me a number in CR to call to make a reservation. After a day in Liberia I decided to go back. So I called & called on day 2 - no one ever answered. Looking on their FB page it instructed me to send a message to their WhatsApp number with a foto of the ticket and one of my passport data page. Which I did. Without a response an hour later I phoned Managua and they set me up directly. Their last bus out of San Jose left there at 9am. I estimated it’d get to Liberia 1:00 to 1:30. Managua told me noon . . . and to be there early. An hour later their WhatsApp replied: 12:30, be early. The bus stop is across from the Taco Bell, under the overpass. I got there at 11, had a chicken chalupa and several self-served refills of ice tea in TB’s A/C’d box. Outside grease was in the air: McD’s and Bugger King sat on the other two corners of this intersection, KFC half a block away. From what I thought was McD’s PA system I heard two songs on continuous loop: the Police’s “I’ll be watching you” and “I want to get away. I want to fly . . . yeah, yeah, yeah.” Then I realized it was this gringo couple that jumped in front of traffic when the light changed red. The gal, with thick glasses and short shorts, sang with a microphone (bluetoothed to speakers?), while he, too tall, strummed a guitar that I don’t believe any could hear. Then they’d pass with straw hats in hands by car windows mostly closed and scramble back to the shade of the overpass when the light turned green, Traffic was pretty heavy.
My bus arrived at 1:16. We were at the border in an hour and left by 3:30. I didn’t give the assistant who collect passports (& money) mine. He said it’d cost $22 (CR + Nica). The CR foreigner exit fee cost me $8 tho the receipt & customs guy said $7 (not sure who was skimming). At least I was able to dump the last of my colones here. Entering Nicaragua cost $10 (Inst. Nica Turism) + $2 (Min de Gob). US dollars. They would/could not accept Cordovas. I said, “But this is Nicaraguan money.” Silence. Nonetheless, mission accomplished - got another 90 day visa. And none of this HO-border nonsense about filing a 7-day advance notice of crossing. I may have saved a buck or two going thru customs on my own, but it really wasn’t worth it. Tho the two lines were short when I arrived, the agents took forever with some people. When a new line opened I passed thru.
They have really beefed up the wall around the Nica side (higher reinforced cement block and rolls of new razor wire) plus there’s extensive construction of modern office buildings going on. It’s a stark contrast to the shade tree filled CR side. It’s a barren, dusty, dry, sun-bleached expanse - like an unwelcome mat.
The comfort & speed of an A/C’d luxury bus was nice. The A/C was just right - I didn’t need to bring a jacket. (Years ago I froze on a TicaBus.) On both legs of my journey the TransNica bus was only a third full, if that. Everybody got two seats with enough left to move to for an interesting movie. Seats leaning well back made for easy napping. I only spent two days, but CR is expensive. One can be philosophical about it: two days of relaxing diversion. But strictly looking at the bottom line, Migracion Central in Managua would have only cost me 1500 cords, under $50. Being older and married to a Nica for 12 years, I seemed to have lost my sense of adventure. Not that I didn’t enjoy my Liberian liberty.
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