[Above: These Brahmans are actually a lot less threatening than Costa Rica's Number One road hazard: potholes.]

Journal By Nancy Olson

Today we woke up before the sun. In a few hours, we’d be crossing into the light.

My watch alarm beeped me out of my sleep at 0530. Our damp little cave of a room was just big enough to fit three twin beds and two bikes, carefully Tetris’d behind the door, but there was no space for our luggage. There were no windows, no A/C, and no escape for the foul odor produced by the mildew growing out of the walls, floor, and mattresses. The room stank when we checked in, and it stank when we checked out. Our static little environment had achieved equilibrium.

I rose before my roommates, Rolf and Todd, because I needed extra time to carefully place our two Santa Cruz mountain bikes onto our Bauer vehicle racks, and I wanted to have dibs on the shower. Today would be a border-crossing day, so our protocol called for a 6:00 a.m. departure.

We were all loaded and ready to go on time, and we got to do a little filming as we left the street our hotel was on. We waved goodbye to the friendly people and the beautiful city of Granada, Nicaragua, as we drove out of town past the bustling market, the festive town square, and block after block of incredible old Spanish architecture. We’d had a fantastic few days there, but we were heading for Costa Rica and her pristine beaches!

It was a short drive to the border, but the crossing took several hours. Leaving Nicaragua was a breeze, but entering Costa Rica was pretty painful. The lines were enormous. I couldn’t believe how many people were there waiting to enter Costa Rica—and half of them were Europeans or Americans.

With a little “creativity”, we were able to speed things up just a bit, and we got all four Land Rover Discoverys and all nine team members stamped and cleared in about five hours. And we were off!

Costa Rica is indescribable to those who have never seen it, so I won’t labor too long in an attempt to explain a few of its details.

I was immediately struck by the contrast of affluence between Costa Rica and the rest of Central America. The dogs were fatter and healthier, the roads were wider, and the people seemed somehow different. It wasn’t better, it was just different. For whatever reason, there were fewer roadside food stalls, fewer people walking along the main road, and fewer roadside neighborhoods.

With fewer living obstacles and road hazards to navigate, I could feel myself becoming more calm, but we couldn’t really relax our driving at all for fear of the amazing Costa Rican potholes. They come out of nowhere, and they are everywhere. They are often wider than our wheelbase, and they can be deeper than the radius of our tires. It’s a good thing we’re riding on strong-walled BFGoodrich tires and steel ProComp rims. We haven’t had any problems at all with blowouts or punctures (knock on wood).

Neil from our film crew lived in Costa Rica for four years from 1996-2000, so he was in the lead vehicle. We were heading to one of his old surfing haunts to camp on the beach. The drive was bumpy, twisty, and beautiful. As a Texan, I felt soothed by some of the wide-open cattle fields and the big white Brahma bulls with their long, lop ears. Where there wasn’t a green cow pasture, there was rainforest.

We arrived at our destination shortly after nightfall, and we made a pit stop in town to eat at a restaurant across the street from Coconut Harry’s Surf Shop in Playas de Nosara, Costa Rica. Harry, like so many other Americans, decided to leave the states for the tropical paradise and “pura vida”, or “pure life”, of Costa Rica to open up businesses. You can see Harry’s at www.coconutharrys.com. In his display case is a photo of a home with a car in its driveway. Blanketing each is about four inches of snow. A hand-written caption reads “Why I Live in Costa Rica.”

After dining on a “casado”, which is the typical Costa Rican plate consisting of rice, beans, salad, and grilled fish, steak, or chicken, we headed for the beach. I had chosen the “pescado”, and it may very well be the best fish I have ever had.

We parked our vehicles on the beach looking out to sea. Behind us was the rain forest, filled with tropical birds, lizards, monkeys, and zillions of spiders. (I know about the spiders, because I saw thousands and thousands of little eyes glowing at me out of the dark. They were reflected by the light of my head lamp.)

I slept well in our Hannibal rooftop tent, even though the weather was hot and humid. There was just enough of a breeze to keep me from smoldering. I fell asleep with the knowledge that tomorrow would mean a quick swim or surf in the ocean before the long drive to more surfing in paradise in the city of Manuel Antonio.

Nancy
nancy@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 4th
Start: Granada, Nicaragua
Finish: Playa Nosara, Costa Rica
N: 9* 56.29'
W: 85* 39.993'
Mileage: 229
Notes: Border crossing took 4.75 hours.

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.

[Above: Video producer Adam Burgess shoots footage from the peak of the Mombacho Volcano. Click here for a pop-up photo of the fireworks crowd at the Virgin festival.]

Journal by Todd Borgie

It was another day in Granada -- firecrackers (bombas) popping and a mobile altar blaring (a car with a loud PA system driving up and down the streets, blaring religious messages, or which I couldn’t really understand at the hour) before the sun even came up. I don’t know if this happens every morning, or just around Christmas time.

Signs of Christmas were everywhere, lights, Christmas trees and Christmas carols in Spanish playing from radios. Apparently this city possesses greater admiration for Mother Mary than any other place on Earth, according to the Pope. We will get to this later on in the evening.

Granada is an interesting place. In the town square I saw a plaque stating that this was a sister city to Antigua, which I did not find surprising. The both have a similar feel, although Granada is much more spread out than Antigua. Both possess early Spanish architecture and oddly enough, both are shadowed by volcanoes that have altered the lowland history by flooding and ruining the cities below.

Anyway, we woke up this morning with a mission to ascend to the top of the Mombacho Volcano, which is situated on the outskirts of the town. Around the peak of Mombacho is a cloud forest; this condition is caused by the high elevation, high winds, and the tropical climate. You can hang out in the clouds.

The team was up early eating traditional Nicaraguan breakfasts of eggs, rice and beans. We needed to bring a lot of water, sunscreen and rain gear, because our guides promised us that things would be wet. Because the climb to the top of the volcano is so steep we needed to bring the Land Rovers; other non-four wheel drive vehicles would not be strong enough to make it.

As we headed outside of the city to climb the mountains we saw, horse carts, chickens, and people of all ages, walking to work with their machetes (the most useful tool ever). There were gardens filled with bananas and mango trees and all kinds of vegetables. The houses that surrounded them were simple two room dwellings with corrugated roofs (very loud when it rains).

Since we did not have a very good map to lead us outside of Granada, we had to use our newly named mode “impulse drive”. “Impulse drive” is when you don’t have a map or tools, you just go with what feels right. When you are traveling by “impulse drive” the rest of the team has to understand that we might have to turn around a lot, but most likely we will get to where we are going.

You have to realize that it is difficult to travel with four vehicles. The lead car sets the direction, however, the cars in back sometimes can read the signs better, because they have more time. Also, it is a drag to turn around because the streets are often narrow, and with traffic it takes a lot of time to turn four vehicles around. On top of that when you have been traveling all day and you pull into a city with a lot of traffic, the team is often ready to be done driving, and less patient. Although these are some of the potential problems, we have had a good lead car driven by Rolf and Justin, thus we haven’t had to do much turning around or going in circles.

Anyway, by impulse drive and a little help from the locals (just a side bar here, everyone we have met has been great, and most all the directions we have gotten from locals have steered us in the right direction), we found the Mombacho reserve. After paying the entrance fee we drove the Rovers to the top of this extinct volcano. The road was a steep brick road, but -- using our low-range gears -- the Rovers made without a problem.

For a picture tour of Mombacho reserve, you will have to go the Educational portion of the web site.

The jungle was beautiful and the hiking was tough. Since we were on the side of a volcano, we constantly going up hill or downhill. It was interesting to see how the plants grew. Some might say a plant is a plant, but others of us will differ in opinion. The plants on the upper slopes were much different than the ones found on the lower slopes. The upper slopes did not have as much soil as the lower slopes, therefore, the plants were shorter and more sparse then the more dense lower jungle. Also due to the lack of soil there where a lot of orchids and bromeliads -- these are plants that grow on trees rather than in the soil. These plants anchor themselves upon the trees and feed from themselves from the aerial environment rather than the soil below.

Although we didn’t see much wildlife we learned a lot about the jungle and the problems that currently face it.

Tired and exhausted we returned to the hotel and all decided that we wanted pizza for lunch. Although I really like trying food from wherever I am, sometimes it is just nice to eat food that is familiar to me. Pizza satisfied our appetites and the team separated, but they were excited for the evening’s activities.

There was a nine-day celebration going on in town commemorating the Virgin Mary. As I mentioned earlier even the Pope was proud of Granada for Granada’s profound respect for Mary. The celebration is called “La Purisima” and it starts small and over nine days it becomes larger and larger. This was the seventh day and I was eager to see how big it had gotten.

Tonight was huge! It started with the townspeople following a float with the Virgin Mary on it traveling through the streets. People were smiling and firecrackers were going off everywhere. It sounded a lot like the Fourth of July. They have lots of fireworks, probably because there is not as much fire danger as there is in California of burning the place down. The parade ends at the cathedral in the middle of town. The Virgin is brought into the church, amidst singing and smiles. However the real action is just beginning out doors.

The young men take over lighting fireworks. They hold the skyrockets in their hands and launch them, a couple hundred feet into the air. This is very dangerous. Occasionally the skyrockets go askew and crash into the crowd. When this happens the crowds runs from the lit explosive and hopefully no one gets hurt, (unfortunately later on in the evening a firecracker went off near Colin’s ear now he is having problem with it). Several times during the fireworks show a young man will put on a bull that looks like a modified sawhorse and covered in a tarp and sparklers/firecrackers. When all them are lit, he runs straight into the crowd. Everyone yells and screams and tries to get away. After about a minute the fireworks go out and the crowd then continues to watch the skyrockets. I am not sure what it all meant but it sure was fun.

It was hard to go to sleep after we returned to the hotel. Tomorrow we leave from Costa Rica.

Todd signing off.
todd@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 3rd
Start: Granada, Nicaragua
Finish: Granada, Nicaragua
Mileage: 30
Weather Conditions: Clear and sunny
Breakfast: Rice, beans, and fried eggs
Lunch: Calzone with mushrooms and pepperoni
Dinner: none

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.

[Above: Classic colonial architecture near the central square of Granada, Nicaragua.]

Journal by Adam Burgess

Since we’ve been traveling so fast, I’ve had little time to sit and think about what to write. The car could be good but I usually sit in the front seat with the camera ready to shoot whatever happens, or I am driving and telling Colin to shoot because he is either sleeping, playing DJ, talking incessantly or sleeping. Neil prefers the back and seems to sleep or play himself to sleep with the guitar, snap a few shots out the window and then sleep again.

Our car hasn't taken on as much character as the others. We have a Virgin Mary cardboard air-freshener spinning aimlessly from the rearview mirror. We are hoping that perhaps throngs of shotgun wielding banditos will offer us three more respect should they decide to attack the convoy since we appear to be on the same side as the Virgin Mary. A little carlita is attached to our dashboard. Neil picked it up at a gas station in Vegas, and border kids seem to love it. Its one of those little Chevron cars that has eyes for lights and a mouth for a grill. They cling to the car for hours peering at it through the window and sometimes try to snap it up. They try whining, begging, big eyes, pouts, and some put their head so close to it you'd think they were going to bond molecularly with it.

At the I'm sitting in the lobby/cafe of our motel in Granada, Nicaragua. I woke up this morning to fans whose blades swilled the humid air over four sweaty bodies. No windows in the room, and a single small bulb burned above in the middle of our room.

Overall I've been doing fairly well. Only one bout of traveler’s diarrhea since we left a month ago, and I've been eating at all the street vendors along the way. Cheap but occasionally risky -- it makes for an exciting meal. The meal discussions usually revolve around how intense the consequences will be the following day, and culminate in a philanthropic donation to a local perro with the hopes that he or she will sleep with of a full belly at least once this month. Yesterday I wondered whether the flea-infested gaunt canine could be resuscitated to the point of becoming a confident alpha male in the village. They seem to slide into a state of despair where the lack of food and nutrition deteriorates their coat, fleas infest them and they chew themselves till it bleeds. Flies then move in and infect the sores. Half their energy is then spent fending themselves from flocks of buzzing pests while the other four-leggers have time to beg for food and make puppies. Their confidence and pride is lost in their eyes and despite their appearance, they revert back to the puppy expressions throughout every bite of your meal.

Today will be spent in the ghostlike town of Granada. It seems to sleep during the midday and grow more and more vibrant as the sun goes down. Colonial but decrepit, there's character here. I walked with Colin down to the lake the other day. Its massive -- bigger than Lake Tahoe if you've ever seen that. Hot onshore winds blew across the murky brown water leaving countless whitecaps and wavelets. Immediately it reminded me of the San Francisco Bay if it was located somewhere warm and was never protected by environmental agencies. We brooded down the strip. Empty and quiet other than the odd stray and four boys practicing their kickboxing moves near the weed-covered beach. Bamboo, Cesar’s, and salsa bars all lined the coast empty and in what seemed like a theme of disarray and decadence. You get this a lot in tropical climates. The trees and weeds and plants grow so fast that man seems to struggle keeping it back. It makes me wonder if places like Machu Picchu and other ruins were deserted by man for some mysterious reason or just attacked by such aggressively growing plantlike that it swallowed them whole.

Tonight is the "Procession of the Virgin" here in Granada. It’s an eight-day ceremony where a mini parade flaunts a young girl and a statue of Mary through the center of town. Last night was rather interesting. First the bombas were exploded by professional pyrotechnics called "ninos", as they run ahead of the crowd tossing what look like sticks of dynamite and small mortars into the air. Next came some form of transportation that carries the Virgin. Yesterday a Willy’s Jeep was pulling the young lady who was standing expressionless on a trailer next to a Cardboard castle tower. Behind her was the classic “oom-pah”, Latin 5 piece band with white horns and a slacked style. It all happened so fast, and then the street seemed to clear until soon it was almost empty. It rained hard and then we made our way back home by 10pm.

Adam Burgess
adam@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 2nd
Start: Granada, Nicaragua
Finish: Granada, Nicaragua
Mileage: Rest day

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.

[Above: The roads into Nicaragua from Honduras were rough and dusty. It made for a fun drive!]

Journal by Neil Dana

You gotta watch out for the police in these countries. They are tricky and will try anything to swindle a buck from you. Especially at the borders!!

Today, we all awoke in Choluteca, Honduras in a small hotel. There isn't any hot water here in the showers, and you wouldn't want to use it if there was. It is usually about 90 degrees or so in the day, plus humidity, and stays hot into the night. So a nice cool shower is a blessing.

We got in our Land Rovers and headed out of town. On the way out of town, there was a policeman who waved at us and yelled that we were going the wrong way on a one-way street. He came towards us to pull us over, but we just smiled, waved, and drove on like everything was normal, since we didn't want to risk another bribe situation.

We proceeded to drive through the beautiful Honduran countryside to the border. We really didn't get to stop in Honduras at all, just passed through most of it last night, and headed towards the border early in the morning to get to Nicaragua so we have some time to spend in Granada.

The last two days were my favorite days of course, we surfed in El Salvador and that was amazing! That is someone else's day to write about though.

So we approached the border and the fun began. First off, a cop stops us and ask for our licenses. Well, let's see here. Yesterday, when we gave the cop our licenses, he wouldn't give us our licenses back until we paid him. So this time, I showed him my license in my wallet and he tried to take it, and I said no, and just held it and showed it to him. He persisted and then I told him, "look buddy, the last cop I gave my license to tried to rip us off and I am not playing this game of yours, so look at my license with you eyes because your hands aren't touching it!" He looked at me with a bewildered look, and accepted my proposal. He then asked us if we had a fire extinguisher, trying to play the other angle, but we had a fire extinguisher, and he let us go forward.

So at these borders, since I am pretty fluent in Spanish, I am the official border negotiator, I do all the talking and paperwork and deal with the 3-6 hour process of swindling, mass copy making, and trying not to get ourselves ripped off too bad.

So today at the border crossing into Nicaragua, it actually went really smooth. I picked a guy to help us cross the border and he was honest: brought me to the right doors, expedited the process by eliminating some lines, and we actually paid the official costs (which is imprinted on the receipts) for our vehicles. It was legit and only took three hours. He did try to charge us six dollars for 32 copies though, which was ridiculous, but we talked him down.

At these borders, you really need to see the children. They are spending their entire days begging for money, or trying to clean your shoes for money, or sell you something. They are only little children, and have no education. It is really sad, and makes you realize how fortunate those are who have an education and the opportunity for much more than a life in a border town. One child was just staring at our food while we were eating -- he didn't ask for money, he just wanted food. He was dirty, malnourished, and looked tired, so I gave him the beef off my plate. Poor kid.

So now we pushed on through Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a great country. The roads are half unpaved, and the other half that is paved, is filled with potholes. It reminds me of the outback roads I used to drive when I lived in Costa Rica many years back. Because of the heat and dryness, there is dust flying everywhere. The people who live by the roadside have their houses and all their belongings filled with dust all day and night long.

The landscape is breathtaking, volcanoes almost everywhere you look, fields of sugarcane, rolling hills, rivers, and all kinds of tropical trees and plants. One thing I noticed also was many of the fields are not farmed or used at all, and I assume it is due to the massive hurricane (Hurricane Mitch) that wiped out Nicaragua and Honduras in 1998. I was in Costa Rica at the time and remember seeing the towns completely flooded and destroyed. What a disaster -- and to drive through this country a few years later, it's hard to imagine what it was like during those times.

Well, we pushed on through Managua, the capital, and got a tad bit lost, and then found our way south towards Granada! We arrived in Granada at sunset and it was such a sight. Granada is one of the oldest colonial cities in Latin America, founded in 1524. And unlike Antigua, which was completely devastated by the earthquake in 1773, Granada still has much of its colonial architecture in place.

So we then headed to the local pizza joint and delved into a North American (Italian) delight. Every once in a while, we have to stray away from the local foods and eat something from home, and mmmn, that was good pizza. On the way to the pizza joint, Rolf, wearing an M-80 on his ear, and Collin and Adam with a few in their pockets, started lighting fireworks and throwing them in the streets and having a blast! Kids all over these towns are lighting fireworks nonstop.

It is also the beginning of the holiday season, so there are a lot of festivities going on, for instance, after our pizza last night, we ended up in a bar upstairs overlooking the central streets of Granada, which was filled with Nicaraguans celebrating the "Procession of the Virgin." There were hundreds of people walking in the streets lighting fireworks, walking, talking, yelling, and proceeding down the street. At the tail end of all the people filing down the street, was a float with a young girl, I think Miss Granada, and a band playing the procession music. After they passed, within 10 minutes, that street corner was quiet. This procession goes on for 9 days, so I will let tomorrow's writer fill in on this.

Take care you readers, and know that we are heading to Costa Rica in a few days and once again, we will be surfing!

Neil
neil@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 1st
Start: Choluteca, Honduras
Finish: Granada, Nicaragua
N: 11* 55.802'
W: 85* 57.003'
Mileage: 173
Notes: Team entered Nicaragua. Crossing took 4 hours.

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.