15/09/2019 to 16/09/2019 - Liberia/Costa Rica → Ometepe/Nicaragua

After spending a total of over 18 hours at the airport and on the plane from Hawaii via Los Angeles to Costa Rica, we were glad to have landed in Liberia at around 8pm. We stayed for one night in a family home that is over 120 years old right in the city. We slept very well, strengthened ourselves with the typical breakfast “Gallo Pinto” and walked to the bus station fully packed on foot. We drove 1.5 hours to the town of Peñas Blancas. We were at the border and now left Costa Rica again. We paid an exit tax, received a stamp in our passport and continued on foot. Luckily, only 200 meters, then we paid an entry tax, received another stamp and were in Nicaragua. Here we took a taxi to San Jorge to the ferry terminal. We just missed a ferry by 5 minutes and had to wait for one hour. We spent it having lunch and enjoyed the view of bathers, buyers and sellers on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Then we boarded the crowded ferry and sailed to the island of Ometepe at what felt like 2 knots. We had booked accommodation near Altagracia here for 2 nights. Our landlord picked us up from the ferry terminal and took us to our accommodation with a view of the Concepción and Maderas volcanoes in a half-hour car ride. We ended the day on the terrace in rocking chairs.