Nicaragua

We arrived at the border crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua around 10 in the morning, a little later than I would have liked. Nicaragua is the most notoriously difficult of any of the border crossings we’ll do, and we were both a bit apprehensive. In the end, it really wasn’t that bad, though it did take nearly 3 hours.

First, we had to leave Honduras. We were asked a few questions about where we’d been and what we’d done by the police, before standing in line for a while with Dominic and Pia to get stamped out. Fortunately they realized we were all traveling together, so we all didn’t have to answer the 5 minutes worth of questions that Pia did, as she went first. After getting stamped out, Dominic and I went and got copies of our newly stamped-out passports for the Aduana. We gave the Aduana office copies of our registration, title, insurance, passport, and driver’s license, and then filled out a paper form. In typical Central American bureaucracy, one of the line items on the form was asking “how many pieces of luggage are you traveling with?” We both just wrote “everything in the car” in Spanish, and no one batted an eye at that, also in typical Central American fashion. We’ve encountered this over and over again: they don’t care what the answer is, they just care that you’ve put something in the empty space on the form.

Now that we’d canceled our TIPs, it was time to head over to the Nicaraguan side. We’d heard tons of horror stories: confiscated drones and walky-talkies, attempted bribes for small infractions, 8-hour crossing times, confiscated kitchen knives, having everything in the vehicle that isn’t nailed down pulled out for additional inspection, you name it. Fortunately, it all went very smoothly. Everything was under the same roof, an interesting round building in the center of the road. After some questions such as “where will you be staying”, “what attractions will you visit”, “do you have more than $10,000 in USD”, we had our passports stamped in.

Now came the hard part: the vehicles and our stuff. Nicaragua is absolutely neurotic about making sure no drones, walky-talkies, or night vision anything gets into the country. It is a socialist dictatorship, and it seems that they are just terrified of anyone in Nicaragua being able to see something they shouldn’t. This was why we’d shipped our drones across to Costa Rica- the fine for trying to get one through is reportedly $500 USD, but it also seems to be the start of a few bribery attempts. I was also a bit nervous about my camera and our binoculars. They are supposed to be legal, but I’d heard of people getting hassled about them. Similarly, I don’t think our handheld Garmin GPS is legal, despite every single smartphone in the country having similar capabilities. I just held the GPS in my pocket for the whole border crossing.

We first had our vehicles inspected to make sure the VIN matched our documents, and then they had a cursory glance inside. We’d hoped to avoid it, but we were then sent through the “scanner”- a massive x-ray machine that scans your entire vehicle. The Aduana then took a printout of the scans back to our vehicles and looked at any interesting spots. I was quite curious about how detailed the scan was- could they actually see something as small as a drone? In my opinion, it’s highly unlikely. The scan was really not very detailed, and they only seemed to be interested in our fold-down tailgate table. They opened up each of our cabinets and had a glance inside, and also took lots of pictures, but seemed to be doing it more to “check a box” than to actually look for contraband. We fortunately didn’t have to take anything out of the cabinets! We’d heard of others having to take literally everything out of their vehicles, and then send all those items individually through a smaller x-ray scanner.

Between all these different steps and waiting in line for each one, it took us nearly 3 hours between exiting Honduras and entering Nicaragua. None of it was hard, difficult, or scary, it just took a while. Everyone was super friendly. We were quite glad we’d shipped the drones- almost every agent asked us if we had one, and dropped the subject immediately when we showed them our shipping receipt.

Right after we’d completed the final step and were headed out the door, who did we meet coming into the building but David and Regula- the Swiss cyclists we’d met on the La Paz-Mazatlan ferry in Mexico! They’d cycled all the way through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and we must have passed them that very morning when they’d stopped off the road to make breakfast. We spent some time catching up with them, telling each other stories of our adventures. It was such a crazy coincidence to run into them – I hope we see them again further down!

Finally across the border, we drove for about 20 minutes down the highway, and then another 10 minutes off the highway to a dry riverbed which promised a good camping spot. We found an excellent spot and settled in for the night. We’d thought we wouldn’t see anyone, but quite a few vehicles passed through on the small dirt road. We were very close to Somoto Canyon, a popular tourist destination, and I think most of the traffic was related to that. Everyone was very friendly, and one man rode up on a dirt bike with his two small daughters to offer us a guided tour of the canyon. If we hadn’t planned to only spend two nights in Nicaragua we probably would have taken him up on it.

We had a great evening with Dominic and Pia and got to know each other a little better- despite spending several hours with them at the mechanic’s shop in El Salvador, and then another hour at the DHL office in Honduras, we really hadn’t gotten to talk to them much. I’m surprised they stayed up with us as late as they did- they’d woken up that morning in El Salvador, crossed into Honduras, met with us at Choluteca, then crossed into Nicaragua, all in a day.

We parted ways the next morning- they were headed to Leon to see an old Spanish cathedral, and we were mostly intent on getting across the country and into Costa Rica. It was a very long drive day for us- Nicaragua has recently implemented a nationwide speed limit of 50km/hr, or 30mph. They are apparently quite strict about it, and we passed through probably 10 or 15 radar checks that day. We did stop for lunch in Granada, a historical Spanish colonial town that was founded 502 years ago in 1524, only 30 years after Colombus discovered the New World! It reminded us a lot of San Cristobal or Antigua, but it was extremely hot and humid.

Our lunch was delicious, some quesadillas that were very similar to the legendary quesadillas we’d had in Oaxaca. We also inadvertently ordered the national drink of Nicaragua, Pinolillo- made of ground toasted corn, cocoa, water, and sugar. I had no idea what it was and ordered it anyways, not realizing that it is such a national symbol that Nicaraguans often call themselves “Pinoleros”. Many political speeches in Nicaragua include the phrase “I’m a pure Pinolero, Nicaraguan by the grace of God.” It was delicious, even with the odd texture, like thinned-out cornmeal.

We kept driving on, at a painfully slow 30mph, on a highway that could easily support a 55mph speed limit. It was a bit crazy to drive across an entire country at no more than 30mph. I’m not sure why the new speed limit was implemented, but it was so difficult to not go over! We finally made it around the south side of Lake Nicaragua to a campsite on a small beach. We’d tossed around the idea of taking a ferry out to the volcanic island in the middle of the lake, but decided against it- it sounded like a bit of a hassle, and it would mean that we’d have to spend another night in Nicaragua. We were really excited to get on to Costa Rica, and we needed to be in Panama City by March 13^th. Despite giving us plenty of time to explore the rest of Central America, our ship date has forced us to be a bit more selective about where we go.

We had an extremely windy night on the lake, hearing waves crash into the shore all night long. I don’t think either of us slept super well- it was our windiest night of the trip, other than our second night on Pacaya in Guatemala. We woke the next morning, made breakfast, and headed for the border, only about 20 minutes away. We were again a bit apprehensive- exiting Nicaragua can sometimes be more difficult than entering. The border facilities were very nice and new, and we had an easy time of it. We stood in line for a while behind a large busload of people that had arrived just before us, before getting our passports stamped out. We then filled out a piece of paper for the vehicle, and took this to the Aduana, who did an extremely cursory inspection of the jeep. This was the part that could have been difficult- it sounds like they often send you through the scanner again! We thankfully weren’t, but Dominic and Pia were when they crossed a day after us. The Aduana officer stamped the piece of paper, and we took this back inside, stood in line for a while longer, and then had our TIP canceled.

We’d only spent 2 nights in Nicaragua, for several reasons. #1, I’d rather not spend time in a socialist dictatorship any longer than I have to. We had absolutely no trouble at all, but the Nicaraguan government isn’t very friendly with the U.S., and Americans have had trouble there before. Secondly, Nicaragua really didn’t have a lot of the things that we like to see. It is mostly flat farmland, with a few volcanoes dotting the landscape here and there. Other than the few volcanoes, there really aren’t any mountains or wild areas, at least nothing that we can’t see elsewhere in Central America. Finally, as I said before, our ship date is starting to weigh more heavily on us. As of the day we left Nicaragua, we only had 16 days until we had to be in Panama City!