Mama said there would be days like this

21 October 21, 2010
The exit from Granada and the ride to Penas Blanca on the Nicaragua / Costa Rica border went fine.
The border crossing procedures were nothing short of controlled robbery. As at most of border crossings you are swarmed by money changers and tramidores. The tramidores want you to hire them to help you through the convoluted procedures. I will not go through all the procedures required to transition these borders, but it is nothing short of painful. We are convinced that it is intentionally designed this way so that the gringos have to hire the tramidors. Bribes are involved to avoid the long lines and the tramidors are constantly lying to you on what the actual transition costs are and pocketing the difference. Sum total it took us two and one half hours to cross the border and cost us about $60.00 each to exit Nicaragua and enter Costa Rica.
While we were waiting in line to process into Costa Rica, an American ex-patriot told us that everything in Costa Rica was very expensive.
We started our ride with a quick lunch of smoked pork chops and headed towards Puerto Arenas where we intended to spend the night. About thirty miles before our destination we ran into a traffic jam because of an accident. The traffic jam occurred simultaneously with a thunder storm. We sat in this rainy traffic jam for about an hour and then followed slow traffic into Puerto Arenas. It was after sunset when we arrived at the first hotel we could find. The cost of the hotel was $86.00 per night – about twice the average price we have been paying.
Maybe tomorrow will better and we hope to get to Panama.