Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala

Costa Rica

We stopped in the port town of Punta Arenas in Costa Rica, and it’s not exactly known as a tourist destination. Most places you’d want to visit are a few hours drive from Punta Arenas. We didn’t have quite enough time to go into Monteverde Cloud Forest, Arenal Volcano, or Tamarindo on our own, so we decided to go with MSC to a botanical garden with a hike to the tallest waterfall in the country. 

As we were pulling up to the botanical garden our guide said, “We are almost to your next destiny.” I’ve been waiting my whole life for my destiny! I never imagined I’d find it on a bus ride into the jungle. We walked through the botanical garden while our guide pointed out some specific plant and bird species. We saw about six wild red macaws fly overhead, which was pretty exciting. After about 15 minutes we came to the end of the paved path that led us through the garden. We stood on an overlook and he pointed out a waterfall very far away. This was our “walk to the tallest waterfall in Costa Rica.” The waterfall was about a mile away. We decided along with the rest of our group that this was not a “walk to a waterfall.” Our group headed back to the front of the garden for a fruit snack, and I stayed behind to play with my drone. I flew it over the waterfall briefly, but didn’t want to send it too far away and not have enough battery to bring it back. I had it going about 25mph and it took a few minutes to get to the waterfall. The whole garden experience lasted about an hour, and we had driven and hour to get there. We were a bit annoyed at the short duration we got to spend there and the fact that we did not walk to a waterfall.

Our next destiny was a bridge where we could observe crocodiles who hung out in the river. Our bus drove us down closer to the river to see the crocs, but the problem was he got us too low to see much of anything because trees obscured the view. Everyone was standing around muttering, “Do you see any crocs? I don’t see anything.” There were a lot of people up on top of the bridge looking down at the crocs, which is where I figured they’d take us in the first place. I started walking up to the bridge to get a better view, and the bus driver leaned out the window to tell me in Spanish not to go up there. I turned to him and explained in Spanish that I see a lot of people up there and that I was going up there. I think I surprised him when I spoke Spanish, but it did not soften him up. He told me I was going to cause an accident on the road if I go up there. I told him that I would stay on the sidewalk and that I’m not any more likely to cause an accident than the other fifty people on the bridge. If you know me, or you’re just getting to know me through these blogs, you’ll know that I don’t like being told what to do. Ashley doesn’t always appreciate this disobedient streak, but I still maintain that it affords me experiences that other people don’t get because they follow all the rules. I can respect rules when I agree that they exist for a good reason. In this case, I wasn’t in the mood to obey a grumpy bus driver on a power trip. We paid to see a waterfall and crocodiles and so far we were 0 for 2 in my opinion so I was going up there no matter what that bus driver said. Furthermore, I had seen pictures of this place on TripAdvisor, and all the photos were from the top of the bridge, so I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. Sure enough you could see all the crocodiles from on top of the bridge. I snapped a couple photos, I turned around, looked both ways, crossed the 2 lane street, and I did not cause any accidents. I headed back to the bus, and the driver was already speeding back up the road to pick me up, and Ashley explained to me that the driver quickly sped off before she had a chance to sit down in her seat knocking her and a few others abruptly into their seats. This driver wasn’t out to make friends.

It turned out he was in a rush to get us to a souvenir shop, our last destiny of the day. We are not big fans of massive souvenir shops with droves of tourists. We like to buy local hand made things, but we don’t think 45 minutes of a 4 hour tour should be spent in a souvenir shop.They ended up dropping us off back at the port with about 4 hours to spare before we had to be back on the ship. Punta Arenas did not have a lot going on, but we did find a spot to have a couple cold Imperials and some spicy shrimp. On the menu there were two different items: one was “arroz con camarones” the other was “camarones con arroz” hmmm which to pick, rice with shrimp? Or shrimp with rice? Either way, they brought us shrimp and rice, and it was tasty. 

This particular tour began to sour MSC excursions for us. We did see some cool plants in the botanical garden and we did end up seeing the crocs, but it wasn’t our most enjoyable day off the ship. We would soon be examining which other tours we had scheduled with MSC and re-think some of them. MSC doesn’t operate the tours, but they do customize them with tour operators. They very much cater to an older crowd who isn’t apt to walk long distances or do anything adventurous. Even their so called “active” tours don’t allow for much action. But we’ve spoken to a lot of people in their fifties and sixties who expect more out of the tours, so we’re not the only ones who think they are missing the mark with the excursions. The MSC excursion desk had to field a lot of complaints that evening.

Nicaragua

The next day we arrived in Corinto, Nicaragua which also is a quiet port town not known for tourism. There are a number of volcanoes nearby that you can hike on or around, but I could not find a tour company that would pick us up in Corinto because most tours are based out of Managua. We had already scheduled an MSC excursion that would take us to the old colonial town of León. Ashley had some safety concerns throughout Central America so she preferred to do MSC tours, which if not the most adventurous, were at least reliable enough to get us back to the ship. 

We had a very knowledgable and entertaining guide in Nicaragua. As we were driving out of town he said, “To the left is the most peaceful neighborhood in Corinto,” as we drove past the cemetery. Nicaragua means Land of Lakes and Volcanoes, and there are still 27 active volcanoes. San Cristobal, the tallest volcano had activity last month. Our guide told us, “It was the biggest erection - I mean eruption! - eruption in the last century.” He spoke pretty good English so we were wondering if that was an intentional joke to see if people were paying attention or a Freudian slip.

We drove about 90 minutes to León, and he taught us a lot about the politics of the country and the history about how it came to be that way. Here’s your abridged history lesson for the day:

The Somoza family was in control of Nicaragua for most of the 20th century. In the 1930s the U.S. had a hand in bringing the first Somoza into power when they directed Nicaragua to create one National Guard rather than having multiple armies from different towns throughout the country. Most of them agreed except for the army led by a guy named Sandinista. He agreed to stop fighting in exchange for land, but there was still increasing tension. Somoza invited Sandinista to the capital to “chat” and assassinated him instead. He then killed hundreds of men, women, and children from Sandinista’s region to squash the idea that anyone else could be in power except him. About 20 years later Somoza was assassinated by a poet of all people, and his son took over the militaristic reign. In the 1960s a student started the  Sandinista National Liberation front to remember Sandanista and the principles he stood for. It started as an underground organization for fear of persecution for belonging to it. In the 80s when the Somoza regime dictated that all boys starting at age 12 had to join the army they lost some followers. People began migrating out of Nicaragua to save their children from being drafted into the army, and the Sandinista National Liberation Front began began to grow since it was the opposing party to the Somoza Dictatorship.

In the 1990s the country had their first break from the sixty year Somoza regime when they elected their first female president. However, she didn’t last long and the next president was from the Sandinista organization. At first it was very promising for the people of Nicaragua because healthcare and education became much more accessible. But the Sandinistas let their greed for power shine through when they decided to abolish term limits and pass laws that allow them to pick their own vice presidents. About a decade ago they changed the retirement age from 62 to 75, and retirees would only collect 50% of their very last paycheck. They were also denied their social security type income. Retirees started protesting this, and college students joined in. There was a large protest on a college campus and the police used TNT against the protesters which killed a lot of people and further divided the people and the government. Sandinistas have been in power since 2006 and it doesn’t look promising to get them out at the moment. End history lesson.

Today the average monthly salary for a Nicaraguan is $130 US dollars. Congress makes about $3,000 US dollars per month. There is quite a bit of civil unrest towards the government, and violence is generally directed toward the state, not at tourists. We ultimately felt safe there, and the people were happy to have visitors. It is clear that there are daily struggles for Nicaraguans caused by their own government. It’s sad to see people who are so proud of their country and also feel like they are forced to flee.

We got to tour the old cathedral in León, a UNESCO site, and it is a beautiful white building in the middle of the old town. The inside is painted white and has all the fixings of a church: stations of the cross, pews, crucifix, alter, sculptures and paintings of saints, but it is rather plain. It is the roof that makes this church unique and beautiful in my opinion. We were able to walk up on the roof to get a great view of the town and the surrounding volcanoes. It is covered in white domes and spires that stand out starkly against the bright blue sky. Walking through the maze of domes felt like we were strolling through the clouds. 

There were a lot of people who had set up shops to sell their wares and we really liked some clay bowls and handmade hammocks. We wanted to find an ATM to get some cash to buy some local goods. We asked around for a cash machine and were directed to one in the grocery store. There were two machines, and I tried the one that didn’t have a line but it rejected my card. So I let someone else go in front of me to see if it was the machine or my card that was the problem. The machine gave her money with no problem. The other machine had a long line so we went in search of a bank that might have different ATMs. After walking for about 20 minutes around town asking people where to find ATMs, we found 3 of them and not one of them would give us cash. Each one happened to be the same brand/bank. It was starting to look like there would be no bowls or hammocks in our future. This was also day 5 of attempting get local money out of ATMs and coming up short, and you could say my patience for it had vanished. I went on a spirit walk around the block to stomp and huff, and I decided to go back to the original grocery store to try the other machine because I remembered it was a different brand. It worked just fine, and we got enough cash to buy our clay bowls and colorful hammock. That was enough to turn our frowns up side down.  

Guatemala

We were expecting Antigua to be similar to León since they’re both colonial towns in neighboring countries, but we just fell in love with Antigua. The town of Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it’s a charming little town that makes you feel like you stepped back in time.

We went with MSC on an organized tour into Antigua, and we had an excellent guide who was sweet and funny. As we lost sight of the port and began to climb in elevation we noticed that the volcano we were driving towards was spewing out ash hundreds of meters in the air. Deliah, our guide told us, “How nice, the volcano is welcoming you to Guatemala!” We thought it was pretty cool but also realized it was a very real threat as we drove through a stretch of road that was still being re-constructed from the last volcano that erupted in 2017. It is referred to as The Land of Volcanoes because it’s home to 37 of them. Deliah told us she feels tremors usually once a week nearing a 4 on the Richter scale! Sounds like it’s time to move to me. But picking up and moving is not a luxury afforded by most locals. The average take home pay of a Guatemalan worker is around $300 US per month.

The town of Antigua is perched on a volcano, and it has been there since the 1500s. Spanish baroque buildings line the cobble stone streets, and there are some colonial churches sprinkled in. We wandered around Antigua for a few hours with Deliah, and she tried to wrangle our MSC group of 36. She referred to Ashley and I as The Chiquitas all day. She took us to one of her friends’ stores who had beautiful handmade textiles, and we got some handwoven placemats and bracelets. 

She showed us a fantastic place to have lunch, and we sat down with some friends from the ship to enjoy some delicious food. We had been craving latin food since the ship doesn’t serve any type of it. We ordered tamales, guacamole, queso with chorizo, black beans with fresh corn tortillas. We watched them make the corn tortillas by hand and slide them into a basket while they were still hot. The food came with the best trio of salsas we’ve ever had. Maybe we were just starved for salsa, but this was about as authentic as it gets. We topped our tasty lunch off with some mojitos, and we could have sat there all afternoon enjoying a few more. The day always ends too soon, and it was time again to head back to the ship. However, we were able to talk Deliah into letting us vote if we wanted to stay longer. It was unanimous that everyone wanted to spend more time in Antigua. We were granted another hour to wander around and enjoy the town. When we asked where there was a post office to mail some post cards Deliah told us with a serious face, “they will arrive two years from now. Don’t mail anything here.” 

We also got to go to the Jade Maya Museum which had some beautiful jade pieces. We learned that Mary Lou Ridinger, a female archaeologist, and her husband discovered that there was jade in Guatemala in 1974 but no one believed her. She kept excavating and finding Olmec artifacts that had jade inlays. Her theory was that the jade originated in Guatemala and she was eventually able to prove that the source of the jade artifacts was from Guatemala. She ended up on the cover of National Geographic for this discovery. She was there in person at the museum to give us a short tour and show us different types of natural and polished jade. There are many other colors of jade than just green. It comes in various shades of purple, black, white, and of course green. They had a lovely little jewelry store where they served us Guatemalan coffee while we picked out some jade earrings.

We drove back down out of the mountains towards the coast and Deliah wrapped up our tour by saying, “It’s been a privilege to show you all my hometown today. I know I am going to Heaven, hopefully I will see you all there. If you get there before me, save me a space.” She gave us some great tips about where else to visit in Guatemala and told us she’d be our personal guide if we come back, and we can’t wait to make that happen!