After the cloud forrests of Costa Rica, we finished our Transatlantic and Central America trip by Nicaragua. Nicaragua really was the highlight of the trip to me. Maybe because finally we could have big long sunny days and not the rainy or cloudy weather we have had in Costa Rica or Panama most of the time.

After crossing the Costa Rica / Nicaragua border walking, we jumped into an old american  school bus that headed to the North. After some talks with the driver, he understood that we wanted to go to San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific front and he let us hop off at the right crossing so that we could wait for another bus to pick us up while this one continued to Rivas and Granada.

At the crossing, some taxi drivers tried to convince us that there was no more buses to San Juan for some inexplicable reason and that we had no choice but use a taxi. After some time in central am, you know these tricks and we patiently declined their offers waiting  for the bus. After 30 minutes, the bus came and we paid a 10th of what we would have paid for a taxi.

We didn’t have any booking in San Juan but after visiting several hostels, we settled down at the Hostel Esperanza. You could recognise the hostel was great as it had a cat. Cats usually only settle in quiet, comfy and nice places so spotting a cat in a hostel is usually a good indication that the place rocks.

We had planned to spend 2 days in San Juan. We stayed 4 !

One thing to do if you ever go backpacking to San Juan del Sur, it is to stay at a hostel but go during the day to the Pelican Eyes. This 4* resort at the top of the hill overlooking the city is a little piece of heaven with its many pools and chill out bars. You can get there even if you don’t have an accommodation just by paying access to the pools ($3 or $4 if I recalled). And that includes a drink ! Totally worth it. We stayed there a whole day, watching the sunset on the Pacific from the pools.

And celebrating it by jumping indeed !