Granada, Nicaragua

Well, I finally made it to Nicaragua. I was very impressed with the town. And most importantly I didn't have any border problems and I'm now completely legit in Costa Rica for another 90 days.

The downside was that my wallet was lost or stolen during the trip. It was a downer, but it's the first real difficulty I've had in all my time away.

The pic of the week is the beautiful cathedral in Granada, which typifies the colonial architecture of the town.

The trip
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This trip was long overdue. I was delighted on returning in July to discover that Irish people now got an automatic 90 day visa for Costa Rica. However, between one thing and another, I never did my visa run in October. I tried to do it at Christmas, but the buses were booked out and I couldn't get a ticket. So I was six-months over. I had rehearsed all my excuses, and faked a very real looking plane e-ticket in case I was challenged. But none were needed, and the border crossings were very simple.

The journey is nine hours from San José, but two hours of this is taken with the lengthy bureaucratic process at the border.

Granada
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Granada is on the shores of the huge Lake Nicaragua. It's about 2 hours over the border. I really didn't expect it to be such a beautiful place. It's an old Spanish colonial town, and I was amazed at how beautiful it is. Very different to anything I've seen in Costa Rica. There were beautiful colonial buildings and wide tree-lined streets. The tiled roofs looked beautiful after the corrugated iron which is everywhere in Costa Rica. And it was quite a bit cheaper than Costa Rica too.

The Wallet!
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On my first day there, Friday, I went for a walk down to the lake, and wandered into the Centro Turistico, a tourism 'complex' just out of the town by the lake. Despite the name, it was actually deserted. There were lots of bars and shops, but only one of them was open. It was like a seaside town in the off-season which had seen better days. Even though this should be high-season.

I had a beer with ice (a very tico trait I have become accustomed to), and sat reading my book at a table on a raised platform overlooking the Lake Nicaragua. It was hot, but there was a lovely breeze off the lake, and I remember thinking that I don't really need much more in life. I was completely content with my beer, my book and a day off.

I paid for the beer, and that's the last time I saw my wallet.

I sat on a bench down at the lake shore for another couple of hours, finishing my book, and then wandered back into the town as the sun was setting. I stopped for another beer (it sounds like a lot of beer, but this was only number 2!) at a bar with an outside table where I could watch the sun setting over the cathedral. When I went to pay, I realised that my wallet was gone. The bill was C$20 (20 Córdobas, about 80c), but I had C$30 separately in my pocket, and so could pay it.

I retraced my route, to the bar where I'd been so content, the bench and all the paths in between. Nothing.

It could have been stolen from my pocket, but in all honesty I think I may have put it into a shallow pocket instead of the usual zipped one where my passport remained untouched. It probably just slipped out.

The aftermath
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I lost about $35 in US dollars, and about the same in Córdoba. I would have been completely stranded had I not taken out my Costa Rican colones out of my wallet earlier and stuffed them into a book in the hotel. I don't know why I did this. I've never done it before. But I said, there's no point lugging around three currencies. When I got back to the hotel and counted it was around €70. It was enough to pay for the hotel (I had to downgrade my room!) and get me back home.

The hotel called the police, so I was taken to the station. A very dreary place, but decorated in the Dublin colours, which made me feel at home. The officer took my statement on an old typewriter with carbon paper. There wasn't one PC in the station.

If I ever write a book it will include a scene in a Nicaraguan police station.

Emergency fund
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I reported my card stolen (I thought it sounded better than lost), and it hadn't been used. They then offered to transfer me Emergency Fund money, which I was able to collect at my local supermarket here in Heredia on Tuesday. The minimum amount they would transfer was €850, far in excess of what I would need to tide me over. When I went to collect it it was such a huge amount of money that the guy had to collect it by going around to 4 separate cashiers.
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Well, that's it for last week. Sorry about the delay, but it was pretty hectic after I got back. I'm looking forward to St. Patrick's day tomorrow, so going to have an early night now in preparation.

So until next week,

Chao,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nacion: Colombian convicted for selling ecstasy in clubs