A street in the colonial town of Granada.

Ahhh Granada. If you are planning to visit Central America for its stunning architecture – think again. The sad true is that most of the architecture here is rather forgettable, not to say outright ugly. But there are exceptions. Granada, on the shores of lake Nicaragua is one of them. Built in 1524 by the evil Spanish conquistadores (just kidding José) it is reportedly the first European city in mainland America. The colonial style of the buildings has been well preserved throughout the city.
We spent only one night here, so I’ll just leave you with the Wikipedia article on Granada and some photos.

Erno & Gabo

Living in Costa Rica on a tourist visa means having to leave the country every 90 days. This time, I chose to spend a week in Nicaragua. And I wasn’t going by myself. Two Tico friends from San José had never been to Nicaragua, so we did this trip together.

The Ticabus from San José ($38) was leaving at 3 am in the morning, so I didn’t get to sleep much. We were traveling ejecutivo (first class) which included breakfast. Or should I say ‘breakfast’? It turned out to be an apple pie from Burger King.

Morning mist in Guanecaste

As the sun came up, the bus drove through Guanecaste, a part in North West Costa Rica that I hadn’t visited so far. For the first time I saw some wind mills in Central America. Funny, because I strongly associate those with Germany as you see those in many places there. Crossing the border to Nicaragua was hassle-free. They simply collected the passports of all bus passengers and stamped them collectively. Yeah, no annoying questions about proof of onward travel (I didn’t have a return ticket).

A few hours later we arrived in Managua. Once more, I realized what a strange place this is. For various reasons, it doesn’t feel like a capital at all. We arrived at the bus station and checked in at a nearby hostel (‘San Felipe’) which was the nicest place for that price I have seen in Nicaragua, despite the fact that their WiFi ended about one meter before my bed. Well, this is the age of technology, even for travelers, and so our first trip into the city was to a mall to get a nicaragüense SIM card for our cell phones.

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“You really must like the united States” said the immigration officer as he stared at his computer screen to review my data. I said ‘yes’, smiled and tried to look relaxed. And it’s true, for the past few years the United States are country I visited most frequently. I was on my way to San Francisco, which is the third time within a year that I am coming here. I’m not a particularly anxious person, but those US immigration officers always make me nervous. It’s because I had to go through additional questioning at immigration already twice in the past. And those interviews make you feel like an illegal immigrant trying to sneak across the border. My frequent visits and complex itineraries seem to raise suspicion. So, when this officer took what felt five minutes to review my data on his computer, I was nervous and concerned that I’ll get the special treatment for a third time. But eventually he let me go and I was relieved.
A few hours later, I arrived in San Francisco where I had a busy week ahead of me, visiting friends and hanging out in cafés all day. I love spending extended periods of time in a café with my laptop. It’s one of the things that I miss the most in Costa Rica. There doesn’t seem to be much in of a coffee-culture there, which is surprising considering that Costa Rica is one of the main producers of coffee beans. There is not even Starbucks (although they seem to have every single other US fast food chain).

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My journey turns out to be a lot less linear than the straight line on the map may suggest. There is a lot of back and forth but that’s not a bad thing. By the time of writing I made it down to Colombia where my trip came to a stop as ran out of money.

San Francisco Skyline

I decided to fly back to Costa Rica and spend a few months there to focus on work and make some money (I’ll explain this in more detail in another post). My Costa Rican roommate works for an airline and when he said he’d go to San Francisco I got jealous and begged him to get me one of those cheap tickets, so I could come as well. The rest is history; I am back in San Francisco for a few weeks. The swift change of environment makes me realize all the things I missed in Latin America – and those I didn’t. This must be my fifth visit here and I’m always happy to be back. As one of my friends said ‘Welcome back home.” The Bay area is certainly one of my favorite places in the United States.

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“Oh wie schön ist Panama” is a popular German children’s book about little bear and little tiger who live in a house by the river. One day, a wonderful-smelling crate floats past them, with the word PANAMA written on it. Little bear and little tiger decide that Panama must be the land of their dreams, and set off on a quest to find it…  A touching story about learning to appreciate what you have.

While bear and tiger never actually make it to Panama, this is already my third visit here, though a short one – just two days. From San José in Costa Rica I took the Ticabus to Panama. It was supposed to take 15 hours, which is quite comfortable when you travel first class. No comparison to the Greyhound buses in the United States. The border crossing, however, took over three hours because nobody seemed to feel responsible to stamp our passports or check our luggage. They could put up a sign saying “We are sorry, you can leave the country only during our opening hours.” After 16.5 hours the bus eventually arrived in Panama City. The climate here is quite hot in comparison to San José. I was proud to make my way to the hostel with public transportation, which is amazingly cheap. I had a window seat in the bus; the traffic can be crazy and when a taxi got so close that I thought it would hit the bus, I got scared and winced – much to the amusement of the Panamanian girl sitting next to me…

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