made it to nicaragua

from the top: a view from the bus riding through costa rica, at the nicaraguan border, my spanish class and a cheap shot of the beach in san juan del sur

made it! the border crossing was confusing as hell, thankfully met some nice kids from LA who helped me navigate the border (exit stamp in one unlabled line, then walk 10 minutes to enter nicaragua -- one person working at each station). the LA group rented a car and gave me a ride to san juan del sur. it´s pretty awesome here. i checked into the spanish school and was promptly hooked up with a host family. they are these two older folks with some grandchildren and children intermittenly around. the mother is a sweetheart and the father bears close resemblance to james earl jones. it´s awesome. not sure how much longer i can subsist on gallo pinto (rice and beans), but i´m doing my best. for lunch today she mixed in some deep fried shrimp that i was pretty psyched about.

the bus ride from jimenez to san jose, costa rica was much easier than i expected. the little girl in front of me kept peering around and staring at me for five minute sets, so i eventually gave her the earphones of my ipod. david bowie happened to be playing and she smiled at me the whole three minutes. after the song was over i thought i´d give her something a little more palatable perhaps and selected an abba song, but the smile faded and she gave the headphones back. priceless.

san jose was also better than i expected. made it into town around five and the art museum was still open so i had some time to check it out. hostel was a complete dump so i took myself out to a nice dinner and soon discovered i was on the lonely planet trail -- about half the people there were by themselves with their fat central-america-on-a-shoestrings.

class was great today and i have a significant amount of homework for tomorrow. went surfing with one of the spanish instructors and another student at this gorgeous beach about 20 minutes outside of town. the waves were small at first then eventually a big set came and i totally ate it. putting the surfing thing on hold for awhile..

this is a great little town - touristy, but mostly with nicaraugans. i´ll be here until friday and then heading to isla ometepe, the island in the middle of lake nicaragua for the weekend, and then on to granada to another spanish school.