Welcoming in 2012 in Nicaragua... Nicaraguan style with the Flor, of course (we're talking flowers of sugar cane style now!) ...and then saying farewell to Alex and hello to the start of Jan Term.
Saturday, Dec 31, New Year’s Eve: threw on swimsuits for the day, ate breakfast, chilled out, and met up with Brie’s sister Tamara’s friend Martin (a Canadian mining engineer working in Mali, whose next assignment is in Burkina Fossa) and her novio Douglas.
 |
| We got all situated in Tamara's CRV, Max was safe and buckled, of course. |
 |
| The men got cramped up and cozy in the back with the baby stroller we never used. |
Cramming into Tamara’s Honda CRV, we took a 10-minute drive to a nearby day-use site and restaurant, La Abuela, around the lake. The restaurant was right along the lake with big docks to jump off. It was pretty breezy and sunny most of the time with high clouds passing overhead. Sunned, read, played in the water. Did jumps and flips and dives. Ate some foods. Left around 4:30pm to get ready for dinner out.
 |
Lunchtime practically on the lake (waves would splash up)
Photo courtesy of Brie. |
 |
| Sunning on the docks. |
 |
| View across the Laguna de Apoyo, inside the volcano crater. |
 |
| Novios on the Laguna de Apoyo |
Around 6:30, we drove to La Catarina to get dinner atop the crater. Gorgeous view. Windy. Would’ve been nice to eat up there if something was open. So we drove another half hour into Granada around 8pm. SO cramped in that CRV! Ate Italian food. Lots of tourists and people around to celebrate with much music.
 |
Matt, Alex, and I crammed into the back of the CRV for the 30 min trip into Caterina,
and then the majority of the additional 30 min. into Granada...
When finally, upon the cumulative effects of carsickness from riding backwards
and being cramped, Alex and I moved up to share the front seat,
and Matthew and Martin shared the back for the remaining 10 minutes to arrive at the restaurant. |
 |
| Aaaaaahhhhh, por fin! Stretching our legs!! |
 |
New Year's Eve dinner in Granada
(photo by Brie) |
 |
| The streets of Granada, New Year's Eve. |
We arrived back home at the Villas around 11:15, which was just enough time to serve champagne and other celebratory drinks (when in Nica… Flor!) We counted down the new year with our Flor de Caña rum and cokes, and sat around and chatted. Men smoked cigars outside. Then the power went down for ten min shortly past midnight.
 |
| Almond cake and array of bevies to bring in the New Year 2012. |
We were asleep by around 3:00am.
Jan 1, New Year’s Day:
Got up around 8. Packed and got ready to go. Breakfast by 9. Photos and good byes.
 |
This photo was actually taken on the first night at dinner, but I wanted
to show how Max's newest discovered skill is waving :) |
 |
| Matt, Brie, Max, me, Alex, Martin, Tamara, and Douglas |
 |
Alex, me, and baby (first-cousin, once-removed) Max, at the Villas,
after our last breakfast all together on New Year's Day. |
Check out just after 10, and then took the package deal-included shuttle back to the border, which took around 2 hours. Arrived at the border by noon.
 |
The molinas de viento (windmills), nearing the border,
on the drive back from Granada. |
 |
Lago de Nicaragua/Lake Nicaragua,
during the drive back to the border. |
Border: Nicaragua exit for $2 and showed our boletos "para cancelar de la alcaldia" that we have purchased upon entrance to Nica (Good thing we had saved them!). Stamped out of Nica in less than 15 min. Went to bathroom. Good thing. The CR entrance side was PACKED and we waited in line for about an hour.
 |
| This was around 12:30, when we were leaving Nicaragua and heading for... |
 |
| THIS! ...the line that twisted around outside of the immigration office at the CR border |
We were finally stamped and re-entered CR around 1:30, and in a predicament with the bus situation. No buses. No tickets being sold. Waiting. Considering options. (Everyone and their mother who goes to Nica for the holidays was coming back on that Sunday because Monday would be a work day and they had to get back to CR.) After standing around, considering taxis and asking for rides, we ended making series of questions and finally discovering the last available seats on a Liberia-bound bus $3 colones each again. Same driver as on our way to the border from Liberia two days before! Comfortable in our seats by the window in the very back (Score!), we were serenaded by 80s hit songs such as "It Must Have Been Love" and "It's My Life", as well as "I Just Had Sex" by the Lonely Island with Akon, blasting from the phone of the guy to the far left in the back seat from us three people over. Backstreet Boys "Quit Playing Games with my Heart" included.
 |
| Paintings from out the bus window, late afternoon traveling from the border to Liberia. |
 |
Back seat with a breeze from the window, and a tan on my right side,
to even out all that I get on my left when I drive! |
 |
LIBERIA TERMINAL: Pretty much our fave estación de buses
(or at least the most frequented bus station of our trip!). |
We arrived in Liberia at 3:45pm, hoping to catch a bus towards Puntarenas from there. No such luck waiting for the bus to Puntarenas that didn't come. Finally we went to another bus station (the one on which we came in to Liberia from SJ) and caught the bus, in perfect timing, that was leaving at 5. $12 to head to a stop just before Puntarenas (that was all my cash in colones I had left that I brought on the trip). We shared good conversations on the bus and also met a friendly man who helped us out with finding the right stop and travel details on this leg of our trip. We also watched the sun set over the plains of the Guanacaste region as we journeyed down the western side of CR. Gorgeous. We've seen sunrises and sunsets from the windows of cross-country buses :)
In the dark, we arrived at Cuatro Cruces where Whitworth professor Melinda and a friend/former student, Cynthia, picked us up at the nearby gas station. We headed up to Miramar to the Adventure Vista Golfo Hotel resort where they were staying. Ate dinner and went to bed around nine.
Monday, Jan 2: travel back to the Central Valley day.
We woke up around 6:30am, packed, took a walk through the jungle, and checked out and left by 7:45. We drove home to the CRC by 10am. With construction delays. Decent timing!
 |
| The room we all shared at the Hotel Adventure Vista Golfo in Cuatro Cruces |
 |
The early-morning hazy view from the balcony of our room at
the Hotel Adventure Vista Golfo, about 30-45 minutes up into the hills above Puntarenas,
overlooking whatever the water in between the Nicoya Peninsula and the Costa Rican
mainland is called (Golfo de Nicoya?). |
 |
On our morning walk around the resort's property,
pondering the foliage and jungle hillside |
Came back up just before 5 to the CRC for dinner with Lindy, Dinorah, Trav, Mel, and Cynthia.
I had a staff meeting, prepping/planning for the start of Jan Term, and worked in the Fun Times Room (a.k.a. the office) until 8:30pm. Lamesauce last night together. Sorry I had to work, Alex :(
Tuesday, Jan 3: The night was unrestful, with the anxiety of Alex leaving and the full week of work ahead to receive Jan Term student groups.
We left to take him to the airport around 10:15am. I went back to work and had a busy day while Alex traveled back to the US (but not without any hitches, as flights had been cancelled/rerouted and Alex had a bit of a mess to work out in order to get home). :-(
 |
Sunset that night, burning the skies down the hill from our CRC campus.
Already missing Alex, wishing I could share it with him. :( |
No comments:
Post a Comment