Nicas, Ticas and Ticos

Greeting from the beach. For those of you with Day 9 in the when will Eric get a sunburn pool, congratulations. With the sun directly overhead, it becomes more important to remember sunblock for the shoulders.

But such is the price to pay at the beach. We are in the town, and I use the word loosely, of Playa Samara on the Nicoya Peninsula, about 100 meters from a beach. We are also few miles down the road from Puerto/Playa Carrillo, which is just gorgeous and had fewer than 10 people spread out over a couple miles when I got there this morning. Perfect day for being at the beach, though quite hot and muggy the moment you leave it.

But I should back up a bit. Since I last wrote, all of about 24 hours ago, I have had four days worth of fun. For those of you good at math, yes, I got a bit behind and am now catching up. After leaving Volcan Arenal, we traveled Northwest up to the edge of Costa Rica, preparing to go to Nicaragua, and stopped in a cute little colonial village called La Cruz about 20km from the border. For those of you who have been to Panaji (Goa), India, you have a good feel for La Cruz. The "major" highway went from perfect to very rugged for about a 30km stretch, which seems to be the pattern here.

For those of you not familiar with the relationship with the relationship between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, things aren't particularly cordial, so the border is actually quite an effort. After getting off the bus at Peñas Blancas (the border), you have to fill out a customs form to leave Costa Rica. You then walk about a kilometer with no signs or anything to direct you to the Nicaraguan customs, where you fill out the exact same form again and wait in line to enter, pay $7 for your visa and go in. Going back you do the reverse, paying only $2 to leave Nicaragua.

At any given time, as it turns out, about 10 percent of the people in Costa Rica are illegal Nicaraguan immigrants, and the Ticas (Costa Ricans) are not pleased about it. The Nicos find better paying work across the border. It seems very similar to US/Mexico relations.

Nicaragua, from the short time spent in Rivas, is wonderful. Rivas is a very lively and bustling little town. The downtown market was packed on a Monday morning, with lots of horses, motorcycle zipping around and people selling just about everything. The country is noticeably poorer than Costa Rica. Streets are not as well cared for and there are more people trying more aggressively to get you to buy stuff, though no more so than typical in Mexico.



Of greatest interest to me, however, was the quite impressive little minor league baseball stadium. Frente Sur Rivas is a team in the Campeonato Nacional de Beisbol Superior, which as best I can understand is the Triple-A of Nicaraguan baseball. Judging by the ages of the players, mostly born in the mid or early 1980s, these are not pro prospects, but the stadium is quite nice. I've included a picture here. The grass is well cared for in most places and the stands look quite new, putting it on par with many professional stadiums in the U.S., though not major league caliber.

Yesterday began the beach portion of the trip. We headed over to the Nicoya Peninsula (the one on the Northwest corner) and found the driving very easy and better signed than other places. I'd been expecting a long bumpy section by the end getting to the beach, but everything was paved.

Well, finally caught up. It's nice to have wifi in the room, though we leave for Montezuma tomorrow, so who knows. Air conditioning is the greater priority.