Around The World In 80 Waves

It is a really windy day on my way from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. This is all well and good for the wind turbines lining the shores of Lagos Nicaragua as I drive towards the border, but once past the lake it is resulting in never ending dust blasting through my open windows from the open plains.

At the border I drive past the usual line of trucks to the front of the queue. I’m not sure why this is acceptable but apparently it is so I go with it. As usual I am set upon by hawkers offering to exchange my cash or help me through the border process as soon as my car slows down. My polite ‘no thanks I’m good’ is rarely enough at the first time of asking, and I have to brush them off as usual, generally by breaking into a quick walk towards one of the official buildings, where sooner or later I figure it out.

It is the same painful process as usual, queues, paperwork, paying municipal tolls, thinking you have it all done only to get turned back right at the end on some grail quest for a certain stamp or piece of paper. The thermometer in the car is registering above 45C for the whole process and I am glad to be heading into Costa Rica after the two hours suffering in the heat at the border.

Almost immediately there is a police checkpoint, but they are very polite and only want to ensure that everything is in order. The car gets searched, but there isn’t anything to find and I am sent on my way without issue and arrive in Tamarindo about an hour or so before it gets dark giving me plenty of time to find a place to stay.

I get a cabana with a kitchen 20 seconds from the beach but turn down the first one I am offered because some ants seem to be using it for a party and there was a parade going on across the pillow I was supposed to be sleeping on. The ants are each twice the size of anything I have ever seen in the UK so unsurprisingly I don’t fancy sharing my bed with them.

I go out for a few drinks and to check out the town.