Living in Costa Rica for One Month
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BTW
BTW
Kurt,
It looks fantastic, have a great time in your new home of Costa Rica.
Cheers,
kneifl
BTW
Kurt,
It looks fantastic, have a great time in your new home of Costa Rica.
Cheers,
kneifl
Congrats to you and your family Pug. 01/01/2014 I came home from a two year assignment in Latin America. I brought home the diet and eating habits. 10x healthier than what we do in the US.
I created a blog and did a day by day blog of the trip with details and pictures. Unfortunately, after I arrived in Costa Rica I got involved in a lawsuit over something I posted on the blog. I got really pissed over it and deleted my entire blog. The link Kneifl put up is to my wife's blog, which is her day to day blog of what we are doing now. She was scared to dive down with me so she flew down after I got here. I made the drive with 2 friends of mine. I can put up some pics and tell the story in more detail if you want me to. I did plenty of research before making the drive. I didn't actually want to drive but wouldn't have been able to live with myself if one of my pugs died on a plane. As far as Spanish, I had 4 years in school but you forget a lot when you don't use it. I am not fluent but working on it. Lori knows very little Spanish but she is working on it.
This is for you MadJack:
The day I left Michigan, I had to take the pugs and our cat Bugsy to the vet. Bugsy is banned from flying due to having a short nose that causes breathing problems. I waited until the last day to take them for their final check as you must enter Costa Rica within 10 days of the pets final vet check. Then we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Lansing to get the USDA pet travel approval documents. The USDA screwed up twice. First it gave me approval only to enter Costa Rica, then on the second try, it left out Honduras. Idiots! Lucky I was paying attention. This caused a delay of an hour and a half. We then headed home to finish loading the SUV for the trip. We ended up leaving around 5:00 PM with a day one goal of Terre Haute, IN. We made it there around 11:00PM or so. We stayed in a dumpy hotel that had a prostitute out front. I was really tired so it didn't matter too much. I was worried about my cat being good but he was the best behaved of the bunch.
On day 2, I reserved a hotel room in Mcalester OK. It was quite a long drive this day. I passed through IL, MO and 1/2 of OK. My dog Oscar was having a really hard time this day. He was panting really heavy. I had to call his vet in MI to see what to do. She recommended Benadryl and to cut down on the amount of hours driven per day. As Oscar was sick, Lori ordered me a pizza that she called in from MI to be delivered to my hotel room. I didn't want to leave Oscar alone. Everything so far was going as planned. I had mapped out the destinations each day ahead of time and to date was two for two. The next day I would be picking up Barney in Dallas and Dean in Austin, then heading to Laredo for the night. Interestingly, I was only Facebook friends with Barney and Dean and had never met either in person. My brother was supposed to make the trip with me instead but canceled 30 days before departure. This led me to asking all of my Facebook friends if they were interested in going. Barney quickly accepted. I bought him a plane ticket from Florida to Dallas and agreed to pay for his hotel rooms and border crossing fees. Two weeks before departure, Dean contacted me and wanted to go. I knew Dean a little better having talked to him on the phone about 10 times over the past few years. Also, I thought it would be safer for 3 men to go instead of 2.
The day I left Michigan, I had to take the pugs and our cat Bugsy to the vet. Bugsy is banned from flying due to having a short nose that causes breathing problems. I waited until the last day to take them for their final check as you must enter Costa Rica within 10 days of the pets final vet check. Then we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Lansing to get the USDA pet travel approval documents. The USDA screwed up twice. First it gave me approval only to enter Costa Rica, then on the second try, it left out Honduras. Idiots! Lucky I was paying attention. This caused a delay of an hour and a half. We then headed home to finish loading the SUV for the trip. We ended up leaving around 5:00 PM with a day one goal of Terre Haute, IN. We made it there around 11:00PM or so. We stayed in a dumpy hotel that had a prostitute out front. I was really tired so it didn't matter too much. I was worried about my cat being good but he was the best behaved of the bunch.
On day 2, I reserved a hotel room in Mcalester OK. It was quite a long drive this day. I passed through IL, MO and 1/2 of OK. My dog Oscar was having a really hard time this day. He was panting really heavy. I had to call his vet in MI to see what to do. She recommended Benadryl and to cut down on the amount of hours driven per day. As Oscar was sick, Lori ordered me a pizza that she called in from MI to be delivered to my hotel room. I didn't want to leave Oscar alone. Everything so far was going as planned. I had mapped out the destinations each day ahead of time and to date was two for two. The next day I would be picking up Barney in Dallas and Dean in Austin, then heading to Laredo for the night. Interestingly, I was only Facebook friends with Barney and Dean and had never met either in person. My brother was supposed to make the trip with me instead but canceled 30 days before departure. This led me to asking all of my Facebook friends if they were interested in going. Barney quickly accepted. I bought him a plane ticket from Florida to Dallas and agreed to pay for his hotel rooms and border crossing fees. Two weeks before departure, Dean contacted me and wanted to go. I knew Dean a little better having talked to him on the phone about 10 times over the past few years. Also, I thought it would be safer for 3 men to go instead of 2.
Day 3
I left Mcalester and headed south. It was nice to get into TX where the speed limits go up to 85mph. It was also nice to be in warm weather finally as MI had a brutal winter. Oscar started feeling better with his Benadryl. I also realized he did much better with the ax blowing in his face so I kept the SUV cold. Otherwise, there was a lot of panting. I tested Barney that I would pick him up at the Dallas airport at 1:30. It was kind of weird traveling with someone I only knew from Facebook and two prior phone calls. We got along great and had much in common over our beliefs about the downfall of the U.S. And it's corrupt government. He also helped quite a bit with the dogs, which was great for me. I found out that Barney has 7 kids and is the owner of a marketing business. He also speaks Spanish well and lived for a time in Mexico. His familiarity with Central America would be handy. We left Dallas and headed to Austin to pick up Dean at the Austin airport. Dean lives in L.A. And works in the entertainment industry. He was on assignment in New York and I bought him a ticket to Austin to meet us there. I know Dean somewhat as he used to work for the Alex Jones Show, which I have been a guest on 13 times. Dean no longer works there, but we have kept in touch over the years. His favorite city in the world is Jaco, Costa Rica, which just so happens to be where I bought a house. We picked up Dean and kept driving south. There is not much in south TX except was mostly bare terrain. Dean quickly bonded with My cat Bugsy and Bugsy sat on Deans lap most of the rest of the trip. Dean planned to document the trip with his video recorded in order to make a documentary about the trip, which is currently in the works. We ended up staying at the Redroof Inn in Laredo, TX, which is very near the border. Strangely, we did not see one Caucasian person in Laredo. Also, it was weird to see prices( like at gas stations) quoted in Mexican pesos. We planned the trip so that we would crossover the border early on Sunday when the riff raff of Nuevo Laredo was in bed or in church. Nuevo Laredo, MX has serious problems with drug violence. Just 5 days after we crossed over, 5 people were hung over a bridge that we drove over.
I left Mcalester and headed south. It was nice to get into TX where the speed limits go up to 85mph. It was also nice to be in warm weather finally as MI had a brutal winter. Oscar started feeling better with his Benadryl. I also realized he did much better with the ax blowing in his face so I kept the SUV cold. Otherwise, there was a lot of panting. I tested Barney that I would pick him up at the Dallas airport at 1:30. It was kind of weird traveling with someone I only knew from Facebook and two prior phone calls. We got along great and had much in common over our beliefs about the downfall of the U.S. And it's corrupt government. He also helped quite a bit with the dogs, which was great for me. I found out that Barney has 7 kids and is the owner of a marketing business. He also speaks Spanish well and lived for a time in Mexico. His familiarity with Central America would be handy. We left Dallas and headed to Austin to pick up Dean at the Austin airport. Dean lives in L.A. And works in the entertainment industry. He was on assignment in New York and I bought him a ticket to Austin to meet us there. I know Dean somewhat as he used to work for the Alex Jones Show, which I have been a guest on 13 times. Dean no longer works there, but we have kept in touch over the years. His favorite city in the world is Jaco, Costa Rica, which just so happens to be where I bought a house. We picked up Dean and kept driving south. There is not much in south TX except was mostly bare terrain. Dean quickly bonded with My cat Bugsy and Bugsy sat on Deans lap most of the rest of the trip. Dean planned to document the trip with his video recorded in order to make a documentary about the trip, which is currently in the works. We ended up staying at the Redroof Inn in Laredo, TX, which is very near the border. Strangely, we did not see one Caucasian person in Laredo. Also, it was weird to see prices( like at gas stations) quoted in Mexican pesos. We planned the trip so that we would crossover the border early on Sunday when the riff raff of Nuevo Laredo was in bed or in church. Nuevo Laredo, MX has serious problems with drug violence. Just 5 days after we crossed over, 5 people were hung over a bridge that we drove over.
Day 4
I started the day by exchanging money in Laredo for pesos and buying Mexican car insurance. The insurance cost $125, what a ripoff. As we approached the border, Barney took a picture. Bad idea. The border police stopped us, took his camera and erased some pictures before giving it back, questioning us and letting us go. The Mexican border is confusing. You can drive in an area within 20 miles of the border without documents for your car or pets. However, if you plan to go farther than that, you must get approval for the car and pets at the U.S. Border. However, nothing is marked, and the building you need is one mile away. A border guard suggested we hire a helper that works for tips. We did so and it was worth it. He made the process very easy. I tipped him $20 and we were off. The streets of Nuevo Laredo were bare as it was Sunday morning. All of the warnings I heard of the dangerous drug gangs sounded like nonsense. This was a place much less scary than Detroit. Until we reached the second border checkpoint, about 20 miles in, there were numerous police and military checkpoints. We got stopped at one and the SUV was searched. It was no problem and only resulted in about a 5 minute delay. We crossed the second border checkpoint and the police and military checkpoints became few and far between. Northern Mexico is made up of mountains and desert. The landscape reminds of the outskirts of Las Vegas. At no time did I feel unsafe this day. I had planned the route after thorough internet research to avoid the dangerous areas as much as possible. The plan was to take as many toll roads as possible to avoid the cities. The tolls through Mexico ended up costing around $150 but it was well worth it. As we didn't know how far we would get this day we hadn't booked a hotel room ahead of time. I assumed that finding one that accepted pets wouldn't be a problem. Wrong! We stopped in San Luis Potos? for the night. It is a town of 1 million plus. After being denied entry to several hotels due to having pets, we found one that accepted pets. After I brought in 2 dogs to the room, I was called to the front desk and told that it was one pet maximum and that I would have to put the pets in a kennel overnight. We kept looking. We then stopped at another hotel. Dean and I got out to talk to the desk worker. We told him that we needed a room. He tilted his head and looked at us funny. He told us that they only had rooms for six hours at a time. Dean and I thought this was weird but told him we would need 12 hours and had dogs. The desk worker was then speechless. Finally, Dean and I realized we had stopped in a short term sex motel and the desk working thought we wanted to have gay sex with dogs. LOLOLOL. We kept looking. After 3 hours we were getting desperate and found another hourly motel that would take the dogs but it lacked a.c. With Oscars panting problem I had to decline. After 4 hours, we found the only hotel in town that would take pets. It was a luxury hotel that cost $200 per room per night. By this point, that was no problem. We went out to eat and got a few beers and went to bed. Since we had a long day and a nice room, we decided to leave the next day at noon. I was happy that everyone was getting along. I was a little concerned about going through Mexico City the next day as many people had warned me about it. I even had on friend who guaranteed that I would get carjacked and my car stolen.
I started the day by exchanging money in Laredo for pesos and buying Mexican car insurance. The insurance cost $125, what a ripoff. As we approached the border, Barney took a picture. Bad idea. The border police stopped us, took his camera and erased some pictures before giving it back, questioning us and letting us go. The Mexican border is confusing. You can drive in an area within 20 miles of the border without documents for your car or pets. However, if you plan to go farther than that, you must get approval for the car and pets at the U.S. Border. However, nothing is marked, and the building you need is one mile away. A border guard suggested we hire a helper that works for tips. We did so and it was worth it. He made the process very easy. I tipped him $20 and we were off. The streets of Nuevo Laredo were bare as it was Sunday morning. All of the warnings I heard of the dangerous drug gangs sounded like nonsense. This was a place much less scary than Detroit. Until we reached the second border checkpoint, about 20 miles in, there were numerous police and military checkpoints. We got stopped at one and the SUV was searched. It was no problem and only resulted in about a 5 minute delay. We crossed the second border checkpoint and the police and military checkpoints became few and far between. Northern Mexico is made up of mountains and desert. The landscape reminds of the outskirts of Las Vegas. At no time did I feel unsafe this day. I had planned the route after thorough internet research to avoid the dangerous areas as much as possible. The plan was to take as many toll roads as possible to avoid the cities. The tolls through Mexico ended up costing around $150 but it was well worth it. As we didn't know how far we would get this day we hadn't booked a hotel room ahead of time. I assumed that finding one that accepted pets wouldn't be a problem. Wrong! We stopped in San Luis Potos? for the night. It is a town of 1 million plus. After being denied entry to several hotels due to having pets, we found one that accepted pets. After I brought in 2 dogs to the room, I was called to the front desk and told that it was one pet maximum and that I would have to put the pets in a kennel overnight. We kept looking. We then stopped at another hotel. Dean and I got out to talk to the desk worker. We told him that we needed a room. He tilted his head and looked at us funny. He told us that they only had rooms for six hours at a time. Dean and I thought this was weird but told him we would need 12 hours and had dogs. The desk worker was then speechless. Finally, Dean and I realized we had stopped in a short term sex motel and the desk working thought we wanted to have gay sex with dogs. LOLOLOL. We kept looking. After 3 hours we were getting desperate and found another hourly motel that would take the dogs but it lacked a.c. With Oscars panting problem I had to decline. After 4 hours, we found the only hotel in town that would take pets. It was a luxury hotel that cost $200 per room per night. By this point, that was no problem. We went out to eat and got a few beers and went to bed. Since we had a long day and a nice room, we decided to leave the next day at noon. I was happy that everyone was getting along. I was a little concerned about going through Mexico City the next day as many people had warned me about it. I even had on friend who guaranteed that I would get carjacked and my car stolen.
Day 5
Our goal today was to get through Mexico City without a problem. This was surprisingly easy. There is a new toll road 20 miles north of Mexico City that goes east and avoids the city completely. We didn't even get a view of Mexico City at all. We kept driving and we're going at a high speed as people in Mexico often drive near 100 mph on the toll roads. The day was pretty uneventful. After the hotel room debacle of the night before we booked a room at the Intercontinental in Puebla, which is another Mexico City with a population of over a million. There website say two pets per room are allowed. Since we were getting two rooms and had 4 pets we thought it would be no problem. Wrong! When we went to check in at the hotel I was told: 1. That there were only 10 pet rooms at the hotel and 9 were full, 2. Only 1 pet per room is allowed and 3. Each pet must be under 15 lbs. I had 4 pets, 3 of which were over 15 lbs. After the hotel problems of the night before we decided to sneak the pets in. We covered each in a blanket and snuck them past the front desk one by one. It worked. We again went out for drinks. This time at 3 different bars. It was a lot of fun. We decided to get to bed somewhat early as we had decided to try to make it to the Mexico-Guatemala border the next day, which was quite a drive.
Our goal today was to get through Mexico City without a problem. This was surprisingly easy. There is a new toll road 20 miles north of Mexico City that goes east and avoids the city completely. We didn't even get a view of Mexico City at all. We kept driving and we're going at a high speed as people in Mexico often drive near 100 mph on the toll roads. The day was pretty uneventful. After the hotel room debacle of the night before we booked a room at the Intercontinental in Puebla, which is another Mexico City with a population of over a million. There website say two pets per room are allowed. Since we were getting two rooms and had 4 pets we thought it would be no problem. Wrong! When we went to check in at the hotel I was told: 1. That there were only 10 pet rooms at the hotel and 9 were full, 2. Only 1 pet per room is allowed and 3. Each pet must be under 15 lbs. I had 4 pets, 3 of which were over 15 lbs. After the hotel problems of the night before we decided to sneak the pets in. We covered each in a blanket and snuck them past the front desk one by one. It worked. We again went out for drinks. This time at 3 different bars. It was a lot of fun. We decided to get to bed somewhat early as we had decided to try to make it to the Mexico-Guatemala border the next day, which was quite a drive.
- Mar 14, 2012
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Day 6
When we came out of the mountains of central Mexico it got really hot. As we approached Veracruz on the east coast, the temperature was approximately 100 degrees. There was still no sign of any drug dealers or riff raff. South east Mexico is not as populated as central Mexico and is a lot greener. The roads seemed like an indycar racetrack. At one toll booth, I saw the worst wreck I had ever seen. A car approached the toll booth at what must have been 100mph and veered left and drove under a semi. You could barely tell what remained was even a car. The dead driver was covered with a tarp but his arm was sticking out from underneath. Gruesome. We kept driving and driving and had underestimated how far the border was. We ended up stopping at Tuxtula Gutierrez, which was about two hours from the border. We pulled into town and the first hotel had outside doors. This was awesome as we knew we could sneak the pets in. We did and were so tired, we ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed. Barney was very nervous about heading into Guatemala. A friend of his had been robbed there at knife point by a cop last year. Yikes! I was really not too concerned from what I had read on the internet though. I read that the Guatemalan borders were a real pain in the ass. We'll see.
When we came out of the mountains of central Mexico it got really hot. As we approached Veracruz on the east coast, the temperature was approximately 100 degrees. There was still no sign of any drug dealers or riff raff. South east Mexico is not as populated as central Mexico and is a lot greener. The roads seemed like an indycar racetrack. At one toll booth, I saw the worst wreck I had ever seen. A car approached the toll booth at what must have been 100mph and veered left and drove under a semi. You could barely tell what remained was even a car. The dead driver was covered with a tarp but his arm was sticking out from underneath. Gruesome. We kept driving and driving and had underestimated how far the border was. We ended up stopping at Tuxtula Gutierrez, which was about two hours from the border. We pulled into town and the first hotel had outside doors. This was awesome as we knew we could sneak the pets in. We did and were so tired, we ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed. Barney was very nervous about heading into Guatemala. A friend of his had been robbed there at knife point by a cop last year. Yikes! I was really not too concerned from what I had read on the internet though. I read that the Guatemalan borders were a real pain in the ass. We'll see.
Day 7
We planned on crossing into Guatemala and driving across it to the El Salvador border. We drove the last two hours to the Mexico border. However, the building where you receive your exit documents was not there. We asked a local who told us it had been moved 30 miles back from where we just came from. Ugh! However, he told us he would travel with us and help us for a tip. We agreed. Midas, my puppy did not like him and growled at him, which he never does. We backtracked a half an hour to get the exit documents for the SUV and pets. It took about 30 more minutes to get the exit documents. Then 30 more minutes back to the border. By the way, none of this is marked and signs are almost nonexistent. We kept our helper to go through the border. So far so good. None of the many buildings at the border were marked. The helper kept hitting me up for fees, pet fee, copies fee, car fee, passport entry fee, etc. I got the feeling we were being taken advantage of and I gave him the boot. We then got another helper who helped us finish. He told us the first guy ripped me off to the tune of $90. Sadly, I probably would have tipped him $100 for all of the help he did give us. Before I got rid of the first helper, he told us to avoid Guatemala City at all costs as it was unsafe. He suggested we spend the night in Escuintla. However, it was raining in Guatemala and getting dark so we stopped in Mazatenango. This was a real Guatemalan city free of U.S. influence. There was not a tourist to be found. Prices were dirt cheap, about 50% of U.S. prices. We hit a restaurant/bar and got some drinks and walked around town. It felt completely safe. Unlike in Mexico, the hotels here did not have much of a problem with pets. I tried a new method this night. I carried my smallest pug to the hotel front desk to ask if they accepted pets. It worked. As we walked around we found the city market. We agreed that the next morning we would hit the market before we left town.
We planned on crossing into Guatemala and driving across it to the El Salvador border. We drove the last two hours to the Mexico border. However, the building where you receive your exit documents was not there. We asked a local who told us it had been moved 30 miles back from where we just came from. Ugh! However, he told us he would travel with us and help us for a tip. We agreed. Midas, my puppy did not like him and growled at him, which he never does. We backtracked a half an hour to get the exit documents for the SUV and pets. It took about 30 more minutes to get the exit documents. Then 30 more minutes back to the border. By the way, none of this is marked and signs are almost nonexistent. We kept our helper to go through the border. So far so good. None of the many buildings at the border were marked. The helper kept hitting me up for fees, pet fee, copies fee, car fee, passport entry fee, etc. I got the feeling we were being taken advantage of and I gave him the boot. We then got another helper who helped us finish. He told us the first guy ripped me off to the tune of $90. Sadly, I probably would have tipped him $100 for all of the help he did give us. Before I got rid of the first helper, he told us to avoid Guatemala City at all costs as it was unsafe. He suggested we spend the night in Escuintla. However, it was raining in Guatemala and getting dark so we stopped in Mazatenango. This was a real Guatemalan city free of U.S. influence. There was not a tourist to be found. Prices were dirt cheap, about 50% of U.S. prices. We hit a restaurant/bar and got some drinks and walked around town. It felt completely safe. Unlike in Mexico, the hotels here did not have much of a problem with pets. I tried a new method this night. I carried my smallest pug to the hotel front desk to ask if they accepted pets. It worked. As we walked around we found the city market. We agreed that the next morning we would hit the market before we left town.
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Day 8
We were making pretty good time and still had 3 days until the pet import papers expired. I wasn't overly concerned as we only had 1/2 of Guatemala to cross, El Salvador and Nicaragua to reach Costa Rica. The market was crazy. It was something you would see on the Amazing Race. There were hundreds of people cramped into a very small area. There were probably well in excess of 100 booths at the market. You could buy almost anything here, including live chickens. Women carried large baskets on their heads. What was really weird is that the people were very short. The men probably averaged 5'4" and the women 4'10". I felt like a NBA player. I bought a plate of French fries for 50 cents and a bag of blackberries for a buck. Dean was busy interviewing people at the market for his documentary. It was not easy as Dean doesn't speak Spanish and very few Guatemalans speak English. The Guatemalan people are extremely friendly. At no time did we feel unsafe here or witness any kind of corruption or drug use. I think these countries get too much of a bad rap from the U.S. We headed out to El Salvador, which was supposed to have easy border crossings. At the border, I got a helper for each side. I was very cautious after our experience at the last border. However, unless you speak fluent Spanish and have plenty of time to wander around the border area to find hidden buildings, it's easier with a helper. Each helper did a good job and after almost two hours (the average border crossing time) we were into El Salvador. We started driving across El Salvador and were surprised at how nice the roads were. Here, the roads were nicely paved and had two to three lanes in each direction. In Guatemala, the roads were ok but we're usually just one lane in each direction. As it started getting late we were near San Salvador. We drove into San Salvador to find a hotel. It looked like a war zone. Every property was surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire on top. There were people with automatic weapons everywhere, even in convenience stores. The sun was going down and Barney got a little concerned as we did not have a hotel room. We stopped at the Intercontinental hotel, the same chain we had stayed at in Puebla, Mexico. This hotel, however, did not take dogs. They suggested we try the hotels on the road behind it. I went into one to see if they took dogs but soon realized it was an hourly rate hotel for gay people. Oops! A gay bar was right next to it. Barney would later get kicked out of it for asking for a drink because he wasn't gay. LOL. After a few minutes we found a hotel that took pets but told us that our room would be inspected for damage before checkout. Whatever. The front desk worker told us to not walk outside as 10 people get murdered there per day! We hit a restaurant bar that was nearby. We got an incredible amount of food for not much money. However, Barney and Dean would both get sick later and blame it on this food. The next day we were to cross into Honduras, drive across its 80 miles, enter Nicaragua and stay in the historic city of Leon. Honduras is supposedly the most corrupt Central American country. I read on the internet where one couple had been pulled over by the police 13 times in a Honduras' 80 miles. In a Honduras, you must carry a fire extinguisher, 2 triangles and reflective tape. I bought them all and was ready for Honduras.
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Day 8
We were making pretty good time and still had 3 days until the pet import papers expired. I wasn't overly concerned as we only had 1/2 of Guatemala to cross, El Salvador and Nicaragua to reach Costa Rica. The market was crazy. It was something you would see on the Amazing Race. There were hundreds of people cramped into a very small area. There were probably well in excess of 100 booths at the market. You could buy almost anything here, including live chickens. Women carried large baskets on their heads. What was really weird is that the people were very short. The men probably averaged 5'4" and the women 4'10". I felt like a NBA player. I bought a plate of French fries for 50 cents and a bag of blackberries for a buck. Dean was busy interviewing people at the market for his documentary. It was not easy as Dean doesn't speak Spanish and very few Guatemalans speak English. The Guatemalan people are extremely friendly. At no time did we feel unsafe here or witness any kind of corruption or drug use. I think these countries get too much of a bad rap from the U.S. We headed out to El Salvador, which was supposed to have easy border crossings. At the border, I got a helper for each side. I was very cautious after our experience at the last border. However, unless you speak fluent Spanish and have plenty of time to wander around the border area to find hidden buildings, it's easier with a helper. Each helper did a good job and after almost two hours (the average border crossing time) we were into El Salvador. We started driving across El Salvador and were surprised at how nice the roads were. Here, the roads were nicely paved and had two to three lanes in each direction. In Guatemala, the roads were ok but we're usually just one lane in each direction. As it started getting late we were near San Salvador. We drove into San Salvador to find a hotel. It looked like a war zone. Every property was surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire on top. There were people with automatic weapons everywhere, even in convenience stores. The sun was going down and Barney got a little concerned as we did not have a hotel room. We stopped at the Intercontinental hotel, the same chain we had stayed at in Puebla, Mexico. This hotel, however, did not take dogs. They suggested we try the hotels on the road behind it. I went into one to see if they took dogs but soon realized it was an hourly rate hotel for gay people. Oops! A gay bar was right next to it. Barney would later get kicked out of it for asking for a drink because he wasn't gay. LOL. After a few minutes we found a hotel that took pets but told us that our room would be inspected for damage before checkout. Whatever. The front desk worker told us to not walk outside as 10 people get murdered there per day! We hit a restaurant bar that was nearby. We got an incredible amount of food for not much money. However, Barney and Dean would both get sick later and blame it on this food. The next day we were to cross into Honduras, drive across its 80 miles, enter Nicaragua and stay in the historic city of Leon. Honduras is supposedly the most corrupt Central American country. I read on the internet where one couple had been pulled over by the police 13 times in a Honduras' 80 miles. In a Honduras, you must carry a fire extinguisher, 2 triangles and reflective tape. I bought them all and was ready for Honduras.
Day 9
We drove the two hours to Honduras and were prepared for the corruption. Honduras is a trash pit. Even the flag at the border was in tatters. There was trash everywhere. There was a car that had caught fire that looked like it hadn't been moved since the 1980's. Cows were walking all over the border area causing my dogs to bark. Helpers swarmed our car. Most looked drugged or drunk. We again got a helper. As we waited to complete the crossing I cleaned out the SUV. I had a box full of trash and asked a guy where I could find a trash can. He said that he would take it. He did, and walked 5 feet and threw it on the ground with all of the other trash. There were no trash cans to be found. The crossing again took just under two hours. Dean kept talking about how Left Eye Lopez had died in a car wreck on this very road. LOL. The condition of the country did not improve as we drove through it. It is a trash pit throughout. As we left the border it started raining heavily. As we passed through each police checkpoint, there was nobody to be seen as they had all gone home due to the rain. It rained all the way to Nicaragua and we never saw even one cop. However, the rain was heavy and we had to drive slow. We thought that most of Honduras did not have electricity as it seemed dark. However, as it got dark and we approached the Nicaragua border, we realized that there was a power outage. The border was pitch black and it was raining heavily and lightning was everywhere. There was several inches of water on the ground. The helpers swarmed our car saying that the border was closed but for various prices, they had friends who could get us through. We didn't know what to believe. We decided to investigate ourselves. We found that the Honduras side of the border crossing was open and being run with 3 flashlights. Inside the main building was three inches of water. We again got a helper. He got us through the Honduras exit procedure quickly but then told us the pet exit fee was $30. I knew it was free from what I read on the internet. I was still going to give it to him though as he had helped out greatly. However, I only had $18 worth of Honduras money and U.S. $100 bills. Nobody had change for my U.S. $100 except one guy who wanted to give me $80 back in Honduras money. I told him no, gave the helper $18 and we sped off to Nicaragua. Nicaragua had a generator at the border and had light! It was still pouring rain. Numerous stray dogs went inside the border buildings to get dry. Some were fighting. I found it ironic that I had to go through so much trouble at the borders to get my dogs in when strays were running all through the border buildings without an issue. We needed the original and two stamped export papers from Honduras to allow the pets to enter. I only had an original and no copies. The Nicaragua side had no copy machines and directed me to Honduras for copies. However, the Honduras side had no power and the helpers were pissed at us. I remembered that I had two unstamped sets of the pet documents I had brought from MI. They decided that they would accept the original stamped document and these two unstamped copies. We were into Nicaragua! On our way out of the border area we ran into a man from Connecticut named Jose. We had rsn into him at several other border crossings. He told us that the Honduras cops were looking for us because the helper there we had problems with tole the cops that we ripped him off! We took off out of there quickly. It was still pouring rain so we stopped at the first hotel inside Nicaragua in Somotillo. This hotel clearly took pets as there were numerous strays running around the grounds and in the lobby. Each room cost $13 and sadly, they were overpriced. The rooms were cinder block unprinted rooms similar in size and shape to prison cells. There was no running water. You had to dump water into the toilet so it would flush( each room had a large barrel of water). The tv was about 9 inches and was in black and white. There was no internet or wifi in the entire town. Thankfully, there was a.c. For the dogs. We ate dinner at the only restaurant in town where your meal choices were meat, chicken or beans and rice. There was no menu. We ate outside under a tent like structure. I ordered a rum and coke and got an entire bottle of run with my coke. Sweet! Barney and Dean stayed and drank for hours with the owner of the restaurant. I was whipped and went to bed.
We drove the two hours to Honduras and were prepared for the corruption. Honduras is a trash pit. Even the flag at the border was in tatters. There was trash everywhere. There was a car that had caught fire that looked like it hadn't been moved since the 1980's. Cows were walking all over the border area causing my dogs to bark. Helpers swarmed our car. Most looked drugged or drunk. We again got a helper. As we waited to complete the crossing I cleaned out the SUV. I had a box full of trash and asked a guy where I could find a trash can. He said that he would take it. He did, and walked 5 feet and threw it on the ground with all of the other trash. There were no trash cans to be found. The crossing again took just under two hours. Dean kept talking about how Left Eye Lopez had died in a car wreck on this very road. LOL. The condition of the country did not improve as we drove through it. It is a trash pit throughout. As we left the border it started raining heavily. As we passed through each police checkpoint, there was nobody to be seen as they had all gone home due to the rain. It rained all the way to Nicaragua and we never saw even one cop. However, the rain was heavy and we had to drive slow. We thought that most of Honduras did not have electricity as it seemed dark. However, as it got dark and we approached the Nicaragua border, we realized that there was a power outage. The border was pitch black and it was raining heavily and lightning was everywhere. There was several inches of water on the ground. The helpers swarmed our car saying that the border was closed but for various prices, they had friends who could get us through. We didn't know what to believe. We decided to investigate ourselves. We found that the Honduras side of the border crossing was open and being run with 3 flashlights. Inside the main building was three inches of water. We again got a helper. He got us through the Honduras exit procedure quickly but then told us the pet exit fee was $30. I knew it was free from what I read on the internet. I was still going to give it to him though as he had helped out greatly. However, I only had $18 worth of Honduras money and U.S. $100 bills. Nobody had change for my U.S. $100 except one guy who wanted to give me $80 back in Honduras money. I told him no, gave the helper $18 and we sped off to Nicaragua. Nicaragua had a generator at the border and had light! It was still pouring rain. Numerous stray dogs went inside the border buildings to get dry. Some were fighting. I found it ironic that I had to go through so much trouble at the borders to get my dogs in when strays were running all through the border buildings without an issue. We needed the original and two stamped export papers from Honduras to allow the pets to enter. I only had an original and no copies. The Nicaragua side had no copy machines and directed me to Honduras for copies. However, the Honduras side had no power and the helpers were pissed at us. I remembered that I had two unstamped sets of the pet documents I had brought from MI. They decided that they would accept the original stamped document and these two unstamped copies. We were into Nicaragua! On our way out of the border area we ran into a man from Connecticut named Jose. We had rsn into him at several other border crossings. He told us that the Honduras cops were looking for us because the helper there we had problems with tole the cops that we ripped him off! We took off out of there quickly. It was still pouring rain so we stopped at the first hotel inside Nicaragua in Somotillo. This hotel clearly took pets as there were numerous strays running around the grounds and in the lobby. Each room cost $13 and sadly, they were overpriced. The rooms were cinder block unprinted rooms similar in size and shape to prison cells. There was no running water. You had to dump water into the toilet so it would flush( each room had a large barrel of water). The tv was about 9 inches and was in black and white. There was no internet or wifi in the entire town. Thankfully, there was a.c. For the dogs. We ate dinner at the only restaurant in town where your meal choices were meat, chicken or beans and rice. There was no menu. We ate outside under a tent like structure. I ordered a rum and coke and got an entire bottle of run with my coke. Sweet! Barney and Dean stayed and drank for hours with the owner of the restaurant. I was whipped and went to bed.
Day 10
I was awoken by doors slamming and people talking loudly outside my room at 5 am. It did not stop. By 7am people were revving their motorcycle engines outside our rooms. The dogs barked nonstop. Dean came to my room at 7am and said "Kurt, let's get the fuck out of here." I agreed and we were off. None of us got to take showers because there wasn't any running water. We all only got a few hours sleep but wanted to get out of this hell hole. We were now in Nicaragua which is considered the safest country in Central America. We planned to cross it and stay in San Juan Del Sur near the Costa Rica border and cross into Costa Rica first thing the next day. Nicaragua is stuck in the 1800s. There were more horse drawn carts than cars in the north part of the country. Farm animals were frequently in the road including herds of cows and full grown pigs running in the middle of the road. We saw people standing on the side of the road selling both live iguanas and live armadillos for food. We made good time through Nicaragua as traffic was sparse until we got near Managua. Just north of Managua we were pulled over by the cops. They said I had illegally passed a car. I didn't know that one single solid line in a road meant no passing. Whatever, give me a ticket. The cop gave me a $20 ticket and we waited on the roadside for my license back. He didn't give it back for 30 minutes. Barney then asked him what was up and he said we had to go to Managua and pay the ticket first at the national bank. Then we could return and get my license. However, this was Saturday and the bank was closed until Monday morning. We waited on the roadside for an hour. We knew we would be approached and asked for a bribe. After an hour of waiting the two cops left. We were shocked. No bribe was requested. As we had only 1 day left until the pet import papers expired, we decided that Barney would drive the rest of the way and that I would just get a new license in Costa Rica. We switched seats and Barney drove. Two miles down the road we were pulled over again by different cops to "check our car import papers." Amazingly, as we were at this stop, the two cops from the first stop appeared. The first thing they asked the new cops was " who was driving?" They were visibly upset when they were told that I was not driving. The plot became all too clear now. The cops wanted me to drive without a license so they could threaten jail and ask for a much larger bribe. Barney and Dean then joked with the cops for several minutes. Dean even showed the cops his video camera and told them he was a porn producer from Hollywood. He showed them naked pictures of a girl on his camera and told the cops they probably had bigs dicks good enough for porn. The cops were laughing and gave me my license back for the $20 ticket fee. We were back on the road for 5 miles.....again, we were stopped by the cops in Managua. A cop told me I had crossed over the center line even though there were no lines in the road. Barney got pissed at the cop. The cop could sense that we had already gotten the run around and were pissed. After 5 minutes, he let us go. We made it to the Costa Rica border by 4:00 pm and decided to keep going. We again got a helper and this time it was smooth saying. For the first time, 3 of our bags were searched at the border. Every other border, only a quick look at the SUV and pets, if that was done. Here, only 3 out of our 10 bags were searched. However, there was a problem. The bank to pay the pet import fee was closed until Monday. Our helper suggested we hide the pets through final border inspection. We did and nobody requested a receipt for the pet fee. We then drove the final 3 1/2 hours to Jaco beach. As my house had a renter until the next day, I got a room in town that took pets. Barney and Dean got a pool side room at the Cocal Hotel. They didn't know that about 100 prostitutes partied at the Cocal pool bar every Saturday night! Pura Vida!
I was awoken by doors slamming and people talking loudly outside my room at 5 am. It did not stop. By 7am people were revving their motorcycle engines outside our rooms. The dogs barked nonstop. Dean came to my room at 7am and said "Kurt, let's get the fuck out of here." I agreed and we were off. None of us got to take showers because there wasn't any running water. We all only got a few hours sleep but wanted to get out of this hell hole. We were now in Nicaragua which is considered the safest country in Central America. We planned to cross it and stay in San Juan Del Sur near the Costa Rica border and cross into Costa Rica first thing the next day. Nicaragua is stuck in the 1800s. There were more horse drawn carts than cars in the north part of the country. Farm animals were frequently in the road including herds of cows and full grown pigs running in the middle of the road. We saw people standing on the side of the road selling both live iguanas and live armadillos for food. We made good time through Nicaragua as traffic was sparse until we got near Managua. Just north of Managua we were pulled over by the cops. They said I had illegally passed a car. I didn't know that one single solid line in a road meant no passing. Whatever, give me a ticket. The cop gave me a $20 ticket and we waited on the roadside for my license back. He didn't give it back for 30 minutes. Barney then asked him what was up and he said we had to go to Managua and pay the ticket first at the national bank. Then we could return and get my license. However, this was Saturday and the bank was closed until Monday morning. We waited on the roadside for an hour. We knew we would be approached and asked for a bribe. After an hour of waiting the two cops left. We were shocked. No bribe was requested. As we had only 1 day left until the pet import papers expired, we decided that Barney would drive the rest of the way and that I would just get a new license in Costa Rica. We switched seats and Barney drove. Two miles down the road we were pulled over again by different cops to "check our car import papers." Amazingly, as we were at this stop, the two cops from the first stop appeared. The first thing they asked the new cops was " who was driving?" They were visibly upset when they were told that I was not driving. The plot became all too clear now. The cops wanted me to drive without a license so they could threaten jail and ask for a much larger bribe. Barney and Dean then joked with the cops for several minutes. Dean even showed the cops his video camera and told them he was a porn producer from Hollywood. He showed them naked pictures of a girl on his camera and told the cops they probably had bigs dicks good enough for porn. The cops were laughing and gave me my license back for the $20 ticket fee. We were back on the road for 5 miles.....again, we were stopped by the cops in Managua. A cop told me I had crossed over the center line even though there were no lines in the road. Barney got pissed at the cop. The cop could sense that we had already gotten the run around and were pissed. After 5 minutes, he let us go. We made it to the Costa Rica border by 4:00 pm and decided to keep going. We again got a helper and this time it was smooth saying. For the first time, 3 of our bags were searched at the border. Every other border, only a quick look at the SUV and pets, if that was done. Here, only 3 out of our 10 bags were searched. However, there was a problem. The bank to pay the pet import fee was closed until Monday. Our helper suggested we hide the pets through final border inspection. We did and nobody requested a receipt for the pet fee. We then drove the final 3 1/2 hours to Jaco beach. As my house had a renter until the next day, I got a room in town that took pets. Barney and Dean got a pool side room at the Cocal Hotel. They didn't know that about 100 prostitutes partied at the Cocal pool bar every Saturday night! Pura Vida!
