After we made arrangements yesterday for Humberto to pick us up at noon, I then realized that, unlike all our other hotels on this trip, checkout time at this crappy place is 11:00. I asked the hotel guys if we could stay an extra hour and got an extremely adamant no. I kind of felt like they owed us an extra hour after the dirty sheets, but whatever. We're happy to leave.
We had a nice breakfast at the trendy Art Warehouse Cafe. It was expensive for Nicaragua, but excellent, especially the coffee. Everything is more expensive in San Juan del Sur than in the rest of Nicaragua.
Art sale on the sidewalk
Evicted from the hotel promptly at 11:00, we walked the two short blocks to the beach with all our belongings. Tom had waded into the Pacific surf yesterday, and today was my turn to touch the water. We got to our taxi meeting point a little early at 11:40, but Humberto was already waiting, and we were on our way.
Playa San Juan del Sur
Peaceful Pacific
It was a 45-minute drive to Peñas Blancas and then an hour to go through the process of exiting Nicaragua and re-entering Costa Rica. Once the border hullabaloo was behind us, we then waited 40 minutes for the public bus to Liberia, and after a two-hour ride and a four-block walk, we arrived at our final hotel around 4:00.
Lodging: Hotel El Bramadero in Liberia, Costa Rica, the same place we stayed two weeks ago.
We'd missed lunch, so went for an early dinner at Restaurante Jauja, specializing in Italian fare. The food was exceptional, and the outdoor space was lovely. The waitress introduced us to a new beer, Pilsen 6.0 Doble Malta, a malty pilsner that was surprisingly tasty.
Guanacaste tree
Nice malty beverage
After dinner, we walked to Parque Mario Cañas Ruis, at the edge of which sits the gorgeous Iglesia Inmaculada Concepcion de Maria. This church has a very different appearance than other Catholic churches of Central America. There was a service ongoing, but we peered in from the doorway.
Liberia, Costa Rica
Iglesia Inmaculada Concepcion de Maria
Interesting interior
Later, we sat by the pool and enjoyed some more Pilsen we'd picked up on our way back to the hotel. The moon was full or nearly so. A nice final evening. Tomorrow we fly home...
Final night by the pool...
Goodbye, volcanoes!