We had decided to leave Nicaragua by crossing the huge Lago de Nicaragua, 40 times as big as lake constance between Germany and Switzerland.
In the early afternoon we boarded the ferry and just 15 hours later, we arrived in San Carlos on the other side. During the ride we had a clear view of the surrounding volcanos, the sunset and sunrise. Definitely a great way to head into Costa-Rica! The boat stopped three times to load and unload goods in the middle of the night. But we had our comfy sun chairs and even got some sleep.
After hanging around for 4 hours in San Carlos we could get our passports stamped and board the little river boat which would take us upstream into Costa-Rica. The journey upriver was dotted by trees laden with birds, little houses/shacks, howler monkeys in the trees and the odd turtle slipping back into the muddy river. In Costa-Rica we caught a bus and a miserable hot 4 hour ride later we ended up in Ciduad Quesada, which everybody calls San Carlos. There seem to be only about 30 different town names in all of central america... Another 2 hour ride, express this time, we arrived in San Jose.
A refreshing shower later we splurged on the argentinean restaurant next to our Hostal Van Gogh. A wonderful tenderloin to forget all the deep fried pollo, rice and beans, tacos and all the other maize based things. Central america isn't a place you visit for it's food...
After a healthy breakfast cooked by our host we headed of to visit the different parques and plazas. We even did some shopping: I have now two pair of shorts again, the other reeked so bad I couldn't wear them anymore ^^.
Of course there was time to stop and have a cold Imperial, it has been a while since the last ;)
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