Los Chiles to San Carlos via el Río Frío

Lake Nicaragua from San Carlos, Nicaragua

Time has passed quickly.  We are nearing the end of our planned two years in this beautiful country and have continued to enjoy its riches.  Recently we made our last border run, this time to a new location for our family.  It is required by Costa Rican law that foreigners leave the country every 90 days to obtain a new tourist visa, assuming they do not have permanent residency status.  For this reason, we made a day trip to Nicaragua via a boat adventure on the Río Frío. Though some tourist outfits arrange this trip for a price, we decided to make a go of it on our own.  We had heard that this was a beautiful ride and it surely managed to live up to its reputation.

We left home around 7 AM, and after stopping to pick up a friend who also needed to renew her visa, we drove about 2 1/2 hours on beautiful paved roads to the quiet northern port town of Los Chiles, Costa Rica.

Los Chiles

The folks selling the boat tickets were set up just across the street from the modest immigration building. We purchased tickets for about $12 each, one way.  After a quick passport stamp, we passed our time in a pleasant restaurant with a late breakfast and some cool drinks. We meandered down towards the boat docks and paid a $1 exit fee per person, collected in effort to help support the town itself. We then began the warm and humid wait for the boat itself, which was scheduled to leave at 1.  Our fellow passengers seemed to be equally melted by the heat of the day.

Leaving Los Chiles

The boat operators asked who would be returning the same day so that we can be placed near the front of the boat.  We were appreciative of this opportunity to be near the front of the line at immigration in San Carlos.  We were even more thankful for the fact that the boat actually began moving to cool us all down.  The views did not disappoint either, although we were not lucky enough to see a mother jaguar swimming with her cubs as had been recently seen in the river.

Front row view

Hi-tech pilot's helm

About halfway into the 1 hour and 15 minute trip downstream to San Carlos, we came upon a Nicaraguan army checkpoint that we had heard about.  There were two very serious looking soldiers in full fatigues and with machine guns over their backs.  The situation was made even more bizarre knowing that Costa Rica has no army whatsoever.  They carefully inspected the passenger list and sternly looked over we occupants.  One of them then gave our boat operator some money, the purpose of which was unclear at this point, at least to me.  We would have expected a bribe to go in the opposite direction.  But, checkpoint passed, we moved on.

Stealthy shot of army checkpoint

Unfortunately (though not surprisingly), the reality of the degree of Nicaragua's poverty announced itself as we passed several houses along the water.  To us it seemed like stepping into the pages of National Geographic.

Nica riverfront home

The waterfowl we encountered was as striking as the remainder of the scenery, with herons, osprey, egrets, oropendolas, cormorants as well as plenty of other birds we couldn't identify.  No snakes or big cats ventured out, but token squirrel and howler monkeys made their presence known.

Cormorant

The remainder of the trip to San Carlos was only briefly interrupted by rain and soon after entering the very large Lake Nicaragua we approached the immigration building, which provided the most interesting view of the day for me.

Colorful welcome:  "Nicaragua, the joy of living in Christian peace, Socialism, Solidarity"

We successfully and rather quickly navigated the forms and payments of immigration, in large part made more efficient by our boat operator who wanted to make sure that we got into and back out of immigration in time.  It costs $12 to enter and $2 to leave Nicaragua, at least in San Carlos on this particular day.  The kids were most impressed by a woman who actually typed with an old typewriter on one set of our forms.  She was fast and we were too seduced by her skills to think to take a photo.

San Carlos in some ways resembles New Orleans, we thought

In our 45 minutes in San Carlos, we managed to wander for a few minutes before settling down for a drink near the boat terminal.  Erica and I enjoyed one of our favorite local beers, Toña.  The facilities were spartan and included a plastic tub you could use to fill with water from a barrel in order to flush the toilet.  Or not.

Toña it is.

The combination of cheap prices, ever present poverty and somewhat generally dispirited morale amongst the Nicas has always made extremely generous tipping seem like the right thing.  The women at the restaurant also came to Erica with a jar of cream in a blue tub and asked her to interpret the label to find out its intended use.  Turns out generic Noxzema facial cream can travel a long way.

View from San Carlos

After settling up, we returned into the immigration building, filled out another round of forms and waited to get back through the process to our boat.  We chatted up one of the young officials who turns out to be a big baseball fan.  Despite his enthusiasm, I still couldn't get him to smile.  In my experience, there sometimes is a seriousness in the national psyche of the Nicaraguans not seen as frequently in their neighbors to the south.

El regalo de Dios

Ready for more adventure

The return trip upriver was longer, though not any less pleasant.  There was at least one other couple on the boat (likely from Nicaragua) who had also made a border run for the day to renew their visas and to allow them to work in Costa Rica, which is viewed as a land of opportunity.  After giving a tip to our boat operators/guides for all of their help, he told me that with the tip he could now buy her a ring.  We said that we'd check in on them the next time we come through.

Our happy boat operator couple

Another brief stop at the army checkpoint revealed the reason for the money handover we'd seen earlier.  In San Carlos, our boat guides had bought some bottled water for the soldiers.  A pragmatic but not terribly exciting explanation.

More jungle foliage

Just before dark we revisited the immigration office in Los Chiles and completed the day's task, receiving another round of tourist visas for 90 days.  We reminisced about the day's adventure over tasty dinner and loud, drunken Spanish karaoke before hitting the road towards home, once again.