Granda

We arrived in Granda, a very colonial style town, full of culture and good food! We spent our days walking through the streets and watching the people in the square go about their daily business. We bought some DVD's from a man in the park for buck fifty and they actually played! The rest of our time was spent hanging out in our hostel with fellow travelers and of course watching tons of Futbol.

Futbol

Last Saturday Kim and I were invited to watch my team play. ( For those of you who didn't know I have been practicing with a Professional second division team every week) We arrived in Cartagena at 4pm to have a bite to eat and then catch the team bus at 5pm. After two wonderful plates of shrimp and rice, I noticed this large bus across the square and figured that it was probably our bus. Noticing the time I jumped up and ran across the square to investigate, while Kim boxed up the remaining food and payed the bill. I literally jumped on the bus while it was taking off and in my best effort told the bus driver we had to pick up my girlfriend... After several hand gestures and Por Favors he understood and we stopped and picked kim up. It was so interesting to see a huge, grayline like, bus carrying 20 or so players all seated, while all the friends, parents, girlfriends, and kids stood up or squeezed into the remaining seats. We arrived to Nicoya, our destination, in about an hour and were greeted with many cheers and boos from fans. We got off the bus and were escorted into my first Costa Rican soccer stadium, not much in American standard but very very real. There were grandstands on both sides, and 20 feet behind each sideline was a large fence with barbwire, meant to deter against crazed fans. While kim sat virtually alone in the stands, I was invited into the locker room for the pregame talk, which I understood a total of 3 words, but was exciting none the less. As the players listened I looked around and was filled with a sense of nastalcha, remembering all the prep talks in college and highschool and the excitement of playing in a big game. The coach finished up his talk and I took the que from the injured players that it was now time to leave. I found Kim on the top row at mid-field, perfect seats! As we waited and watched the teams warm up I was amazed how many fans were flocking to the stands, by gametime there was about 300 fans, and in all close to 500 fans... It was very fun to be a part of. During halftime, we joined the masses and walked outside to sadium to the little bar and the meat stand outside. We enjoyed two shishkabob like meats on a stick for $1 each, and just watched and listened to all people chatting away. I was taken back and surprised when I was stopped by two men that looked familiar, and they asked me if I played with Cartagena, and said I was a very strong player. We watched the rest of the game and sat with the rest of the family and friends from Cartagena, and watched our team score two spectacular goals. We won 3-2, remaining in second place in the playoffs. We boarded the bus after the coach, and the two goal scorers were interviewed by the news. On the way home we stopped at someone's house, and we were treated like royalty. They brought out chairs for everyone, and they fed at least 40 people, with a delicious plate of Paella. We finally returned to Cartagena around 11pm... and then had to find transportation back to Flamingo. Since only one player on the team had a car, and they were carrying 6 people we were forced to walk to the 2 or 3 bars in town and plead with someone to drive us 45 min. home to Flamingo. Finally, we found someone nice enough, and after almost an hour of silence we got home at 12:30. It was one of our most memorable days in Costa Rica.

Bus Stop in Rivas

After a evening in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, of drinking massive amounts of Flor de Cana (best and cheapest rum in the world) and playing darts at Dave's Wave, Dustin and I crashed at a local hotel. I woke up early for a morning walk on the beach, while Dustin slept off the half liter of rum, and then we hitched a ride to Rivas. Rivas is a town to simply pass through or catch the bus, but we thought the town was an amazing display of life in Nicaragua!
The streets were full of old school buses, horse and buggies and bicycle taxis. All the women and children were selling vibrant desserts and fresh tacos served in banana leaves.

Bienvenidos de Nicaragua

HOLA
There's this silly little rule about visas in Costa Rica and ours is up, meaning we've been in CR for three months and now its time for us to take a trip for 72 hours until we can enter again for another 3 months! SO Dustin and I are visiting Nicaragua for a few days and have found an amazing hostel, The Brearded Monkey! We'll send more details laster!