Jennie’s Nicaraguan Adventure Part 2

It was hot and muggy when we arrived in Liberia. The airport is very modern. It took a while for the three of us to get our bags and get together. Our driver was Johnny, who I remembered from my last trip. He stopped at a local fruit stand and picked up some mamones, which are a Costa Rican lychee. Delicious! At the border he dropped us off and we walked over to the Nicaraguan side. Casidhe kindly helped me carry my big bag. Getting through immigration there took a very long time. There were little receipts to stamp, and our passports, then scanning the passports, then entering all kinds of data into his computer, then more stamps. It seemed like it took at least half an hour! From there our next driver Michael had been waiting for us for two hours! He took us to see the beach on Lake Cocibolca and have a clear view of the active volcano of Concepción on the island of Ometepe, a second volcano called Maderas and the wind turbines that are producing electricity for San Juan del Sur. Con...

The day we arrived at Costadulce we had a huge thunderstorm with thunder and lightning. I managed to get a swim in the ocean before dinner but got completely drenched going to dinner, which was the usual incredibly delicious farm-to-table meal with fresh fish and delicious salads. Dessert was a frozen banana covered in chocolate. View from the dining room Sea Turtle Nursery

On Thursday, I planned on going to visit the casita that I wish to buy. I had requested a driver, and was delighted to discover Irma was waiting for me. She was my driver on my last trip, and was very adept at sweeping me through immigration on the Nicaraguan side despite there being massive lineup that I would have been standing in for hours if not for her. The day before I emailed the sellers to ask if I could visit the property, but they didn't respond. Undaunted, we headed off to Playa Marsella, confident that we could find the casita. While I didn't have the address, I had pictures, and knew it was located 5 minutes from the beach. We drove around and around but could not find it. We stopped at the beach, where I took this picture. It is a beautiful beach and a good swimming beach. We also ended up at the next beach, Playa Maderas, which is a better surfing beach.

We tried asking someone if they knew of the property we were looking for, I looked it up on Google Earth again but couldn't find it, I texted Ken but he didn't respond, and I tried calling my lawyer but got her voicemail which was full and wouldn't allow me to leave a message. Then finally Pepijn responded on WhatsApp, but asked me to come at 2 p.m. So Irma and I headed off to San Juan del Sur, where we had a nice lunch looking out over the bay and all of the fishing boats. Then since we thought we might get lost again and/or Pepijn might vanish, we headed off early to find the casita.  

View of the driveway leading to main house and casita One of the many papaya trees It has been hard for me to imagine what 500 square metres looks like, so it was great to walk on the property and see where the stakes marked the boundaries. Pepijn and Usha have started the process of separating the casita from their property, but I am concerned that the paperwork will not be completed in time for the October 30th closing date. As they had already indicated, the property has many fruit trees on it. On my portion there are a number of papayas, bananas, plátanos, and pineapple, as well as a number of ornamental bushes that I was not familiar with. View to the back with all the fruit trees The main property is large - over 3 acres, and fenced. This picture shows some of the beautiful big trees on it. The soil is very rich, apparently you can just drop seeds on the ground and things start growing. While the main property is fenced, there isn't a fence around the casita. I think I would ...

  Not a soul in sight...