playa negra, Costa Rica

The border crossing going into Costa Rica this day were relatively quick. We were now experienced border crossers and we knew what to expect. As we drove through Costa Rica we immediately noticed why we wanted to move here a year ago. The jungle turned thicker and the insects grew larger. The life around us became more abundant. We stopped at the giant supermarket on the way to Playa Negra. Dorian and I were shocked by the thousands of products that consumed the shelves. We had just came from a land where the locals raise their own food.

We continued our journey until we came to a fallen bridge. The road was impassable and Dorian and I once again were on a race with time. It was getting dark and we were forced to find an alternative route without street signs. We were unable to make it to Playa Negra that night so we shacked up in Tamarindo. Tourists flourish here. Even Pizza Hut exists here.
The next morning we were forced to take a short cut in the wet season through several mud pits. We literally crashed into the earth and drove in and out of huge ruts that swallowed El Grande Rojo's giant tires. This road was as gnarly as the road from hell in Guatemala. Fortunately our life was not in danger this time, only the life of our truck. We managed to make it one house away from Tony's house where we were going to camp when the giant mud pit that we risked driving through swallowed the front right tire. The entire truck began to sink into the underground river. We were officially stuck!

Dorian contemplated detaching our wench from the front of the truck and attaching it to the rear. We needed to get pulled out backwards. The road that lied ahead of us was to watery to pass. Tony's brother-in-law graciously helped Dorian for hours dig out the truck. Dorian was covered in mud from head to toe. He even arranged for two ox to try to pull us out. After that failed we luckily met the neighbor Juanito (a gringo from Orange County) who came to our rescue. He had a wench on his truck. After Dorian cleared the earth from the bottom of the truck they wiggled El Grande Rojo out of the mud pit. We were finally free. It was steaming hot and we were extremely tired and hungry.

Juanita invited us into his house to get cleaned up. We were so thankful to meet an instant friend. He made it clear that he was impressed that we drove all the way down. We told him pieces of our story and he reminisced about the times when he made the trip. He continued to hook us up when he introduced us to his best friend Jerry who lived next door. Jerry is a gringo who moved from Hawaii. He is in his seventies but doesn't look a day over fifty. He let us camp on his property for only $5 a day. We really liked our two new friends.

We continued to meet the people who lived here and contacted Brad who had the house for rent. The house needed alot of work. There were howler monkeys everywhere. We were almost going to move in and make our new life in Playa Negra when we got cold feet. Dorian and I made the decision to drive further south to Playa Hermosa. We made the six hour drive south through the cloud forest. We realized that Playa Hermosa was a better fit for us right now. I did not want to face the dry season in Playa Negra, Northern Costa Rica.

Gigante, Nicaragua

Dorian and I entered Nicaragua in the middle of August. The weather was hot this month with light rains in the evenings. We drove south and stopped for a night in a town called Leon. This was a colonial style hip town with few tourists. Overall, this country is poor and the government is very corrupt. It is important to be aware of your surroundings. We tried our best to avoid the policia, but it's difficult when they spot El Grande Rojo with gringo license plates a kilometer away. We battled numerous bribes.

Nicaraguans are called Nicas. The Nica's I met were very hard working and humble. A skilled worker like a fishing boat captain earns seven dollars a day. I noticed that the people here are affected by the recent war. Although they were the poorest people we met on our journey, they were the kindest. I quickly became close with a family in Playa Gigante. Eva, Silvio, and their two year old son Dale David worked for a gringo we visited named Dale Dagger. I enjoyed helping Eva with David when she was working. They are a really honest hard working family.

Dorian emailed Dale Dagger before leaving the U.S. after reading his story online. Dale was ship wrecked in Playa Gigante, Nicaragua in the seventies. Since then he bought property there and built a surf lodge. There is now a small Nica community there. We showed up on his doorstep ready to camp. He told us that we could camp on his property for free. We took the opportunity for a few days until I just couldn't take it any longer. Remember I had been camping for six months straight. Imagine! Dorian worked out a deal with Dale and got us into the five star surf resort with hot water and a porcelain thrown. We met Tom who runs the surf lodge. He was now our new roommate. Tom is a free spirit from the mid west who moved here a couple years ago. He took us fishing almost everyday on Dale's hand made outrigger. We caught fish after fish.

The surf in Nicaragua is awesome. Dorian surfed thick turquoise blue barrels with a few guys out everyday in September. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. In October everything changed. This is the rainiest month of the year. The ocean turned muddy and the surf turned stormy. Troy and Lanae our friends from Newport Beach flew out to visit us. Were they in for a surprise.

They took their chances on the weather and went for the adventure. We were late picking them up at the airport due to five stops from the policia and getting lost. They were almost going to make alternative plans until we showed up. I didn't realize that Dorian and I were now accustomed to the heat and the madness. Poor Troy and Lanae got a taste of adventure when we tried to find our way back to Gigante. There isn't any street signs. A four hour drive at least that we failed to tell them about prior. It was steamy hot and the truck was packed.

Our friends and Dorian scored good waves the first few days. We were able to make one fishing trip in a panga, not the cool outrigger Dale constructed. I was able to point out my favorite place in Nicaragua to Lanae on the boat looking over the amazing coastline. The coast is filled with green forest/jungle and had seamed untouched. It is a natural land that is free and wild unlike Southern California. We were stoked when Troy caught a giant mackerel. Tom also caught a big Dorado. We cleaned and fried the fish for dinner. It was awesome.

The weather turned south shortly after our fishing expedition, and we grew weary from the rain. There isn't much to do in Gigante when it's pouring and the ocean is muddy. We spent the last few days of Troy and Lanae's visit playing cards and drinking lots of ice cold Tonas. We were sad to see them leave, and hope to see them again soon.

The next week we were flooded in. Rivers had formed where streams once existed, and quickly flooded the dirt roads. It was impassable. After three weeks solid of none stop rain the sun finally showed up. We decided to take advantage of this break in the weather and try to reach Rivas. We put El Grande Rojo to a true test when Dorian made the decision to drive up a slippery muddy embankment to avoid a sink hole that had formed in the road. This type of sink hole is caused by ground water, and is like quick sand. It will swallow a vehicle. I was standing along the road praying that Dorian and our portable house wouldn't slide off. He made it safely up the slippery mud embankment a road crew had constructed. After that things started to take a turn for the worse, literally. The car lost traction and started to drift off the embankment and towards the sink hole. This was very bad. Dorian quickly straightened out the wheel and gassed it hard. Once he had a little momentum he veered hard left and went straight into a barb wire fence. After bouncing off, and taking a little of the fence with him, he gassed it again uphill. When he was almost to the top, and safe, he got stuck. He quickly reversed hard then floored it off the embankment, around the sink hole, and to safety. It was some crazy stuff!

Our visas were up for the second time so we needed to cross the border again. The first time we crossed into Costa Rica a month earlier we bribed our way back into Nicaragua on the same day which is highly illegal. We were now ready to officially finish our journey and head to Playa Negra, Costa Rica. Our friend Tony Roberts, an accomplished photographer who we also met at Dale Dagger's surf lodge hooked us up with a friend who was possible going to rent us a house.

Overall, we love Nicaragua. The people are great and the land is beautiful. The wild life in Playa Gigante consists of hundreds of crabs that wander the beach, a myriad of hermit crabs, unfortunately ticks and mostly farm animals. The Nicas in this town raise and eat most of their own food. That includes the hanging of giant pigs and chickens. There are wild monkeys sometimes on the road but the most commonly seen one wears a leash and his held against his will. The mosquitoes can be difficult to deal with but the beauty of the beach makes up for it. We encourage everyone to visit Nicaragua just be careful and watch your belongings. It will be an adventure for sure if you let it.

Honduras in one day

We drove through Honduras in one day. We took the Pacific coastal route. We were surrounded by green rolling hills and small villages. There didn't seam to be a middle class in this area. The pore are extremely pore and the rich are considered wealthy. We didn't have time to explore this country but we would have loved to check out the Carribean coast. We have met many other travelers who raved about it.

The police are very corrupt in Honduras. We were stopped five times during our day trip. The first bribe in Honduras took place directly past the border crossing when the officier insisted that there was a toll for that particular road. We couldn't argue through so we paid the small bribe and left without a delay.

Dorian and I got a little tougher throughout the drive. We put on our game face when we got pulled over. Dorian would play the cop's buddy while I basically yelled at both of them in English and Spanish. We had extremely good luck with this routine. The officer usually would back off thinking "Crazy Gringa." They don't usually want to work that hard for their money.

When we made it to the Honduras/Nicaragua border crossing there wasn't a guide to hire, so Dorian and I were on our own. We noticed that the Nicaraguans, "Nicas", speak differently than in the other countries. It was nearly impossible to communicate with the people working at the immigration office. A nice lady physically had to direct us to the correct office. It was confusing since the office was in the garage of the building.

We registered the truck, got our Visa's stamped and had the dog inspected. The people in line were trying to help us although none of them spoke any English. We were beginning to realize how nice the locals are in Nicaragua.

El Salvador/Honduras Border

Crossing into Honduras from El Salvador was difficult. This is the craziest and most confusing border that we have ever crossed. We camped at the border town in El Salvador the night before. A guide actually approached us as we woke up in the morning. We could not understand him. The hotel owner came out and started yelling at Dorian. We could not understand the guide or the owner. We heard the owner say "no vaya" over and over which means don't go. Dorian didn't like the tone in the old man's voice and told me to pack it up as quickly as possible. We broke down camp in record time and bailed.

The guide followed us and eventually showed us his badge. We realized that the hotel owner was telling us to not pay the guide. We wish we had understood him before. When the rest of the guides rush the truck. We made sure to hire a guy who spoke English. All of the guys working seamed shady including the guy we hired.

The process of crossing the border is insane. It would be nearly impossible to cross without a guide. Even with good Spanish skills. We were dragged in the heat across the town for more than three hours. The offices are unmarked and dirty. The guide zig zagged through the crowd to get us our necessary papers. The whole process is incredibly unorganized. We were unsure if our guide was legit but he did manage to get us across eventually. Other travels notified us that they went through the same tedious process. It didn't seam like we got ripped off or bribed. It was just very confusing and very unorganized.

El Zonte, El Salvador

Entering El Salvador wasn't that difficult. Other travelers informed us about the pushy and sneaky guides that want to help you cross the border. We made sure to be very firm when the guides rushed the car. Dorian and I demanded that we only wanted one guy who spoke English throughout the entire ordeal. We generously tipped our guide ten dollars at the end. I didn't even need to leave the truck.

We drove a few hours to El Zonte. Dorian knew of a surf camp there. The coast in El Salvador is beautiful. We drove along lush green headlands. Many locals sell watermelon along the twisty mountain highway. We searched for the dirt road and headed towards the beach. El Zonte consists of shaggy seafood restaurants and an amazing surf camp. The camp is so nice we enjoyed the clean bathrooms, refreshing pool, and the manicured garden. We also loved camping with the parrots and guard dogs. This is a great place to stay. They offer cabanas also.

The surf was good. Dorian was excited to get back into the water. The water is dark from the black rocky sand beaches and the locals were very unfriendly at first. They are still effected by the war. We got to know them one night over some beers.

We met Edwardo here. He is a french guy who manages the camp for an El Salvadorian family. Unfortunately the wages are very low here. He only earns five dollars a day and he works very hard. My Amiga in the picture visited me daily. I bought some interesting art from her. She was really pore and I didn't mind helping her out. I took her picture for a dollar. Isn't she beautiful.

We stayed in El Zonte for a couple weeks. Dorian was excited to surf every day again. The jungle was awesome although I did not see any monkeys in El Salvador. The dry season turns everything brown here like in Nicaragua and Northern Costa Rica.

We enjoyed visiting El Salvador although we only stayed in one other spot. The south west dirty border town.

The Coast of Guatemala

Dorian really wanted to check out the coast in Guatemala. We heard many rumers of the coast being swampy and pore. We had to find out for ourselves. Dorian had previously read about some surf breaks in Guatemala and he was desperate for waves. It had been over two months since he surfed.

The drive was great although it was raining. The road to the coast is luckily brand new pavement. When we arrived we realized that the rumors were true. The coast is swampy and it is the porest part of Guatemala. We were happy to camp under a covered parking lot instead of staying in the dirty hotel. That night the rain turned into a heavy storm that flooded the beach town's little streets.

In the morning Dorian wanted to check the surf. We were distracted by the long swampy river that blocked our view to the beach. The locals told Dorian to paddle across. He took one look of the chocolate brown river filled with trash and said "Lets get out of here." The beach seamed to be the local dump and Dorian did not feel like getting sick.

We also visited another beach in Guatemala closer to Honduras. The ocean was also brown and the beach was mainly used for fishing. The locals were going crazy. Signaling us to park. I did not feel very safe there so we turned around and headed for the Guatemalan/El Salvador border town.

We love Guatemala but we do not advise our friends to visit the coast.

Our Guatemalan Family

Even though we had our brakes fixed in Chichicastenango we still needed some repair on the truck. We stopped at the nearest city. A local mechanic showed up at the service station and directed us to his house. We couldn't understand him at all. We followed him to his yard and the entire family came out to greet us.

He told us it would take a few days for him to fix the truck. He had to take the bus to Guatemala City and get the correct parts. We were to camp in his yard. I immediately started socializing with the family. It was difficult to communicate with my little Spanish skills but we managed. Mama had seven children from a different husband who is not in the picture. In order to support her children and mother she married the mechanic and had one child. She has sacrificed alot for her family.

I taught the kids how to make bracelets and played with them all day everyday. Mama made us breakfast, lunch and dinner. She would feed us before her husband. Then her husband and their child would eat. The other children had to prepare their own food in a separate kitchen. The mechanic didn't seam to want them around.

Dorian became friends with the two sons. They practiced their Spanish and English together. He also learned how to fix the truck with the mechanic. He had an amazing experience with our new Guatemalan family too.

Dorian and I would lay at night in amazement of this family. We were so thankful of their acceptance. I tried to help out like everyone else. Mama was shocked when I started doing all the dishes after dinner. Eventually she just started treating me like another daughter. She asked us several times to move in for one year.

I fell in love with Grandma. She is ninety and so sweet. I would sit as close to her as possible on the ground while she sat in her chair on the back porch. She thought it was amazing that I didn't need a hair tie to put up my hair and how blond my hair was. She would put her hand on my leg and smile by the end of the night we were basically cuddling on the porch. We loved hanging out together.

I became really close with this family in just a few days. We taught each other so much. Mama gave me a ring to remember her by. A storm hit us as we were packing to leave but we didn't want to stay another night. We were warned not to walk around the town and the mechanic didn't even want the locals to know we were at his house. This is not an appropriate place for a gringo to live but we enjoyed every minute of this experience. Meeting this family was the most significant part of our journey.