The gay owners of Joluva Hotel in Granada Nicaragua were found guilty of sex related crimes and sentenced to 5 years in a Nicaraguan prison. They're appealing.
Yup, unfortunately our friends, Jan and Francis, who entered the court case cautiously optimistic knowing they did nothing wrong, totally underestimated the corruption that IS Nicaragua. If you want to know the full story and why they are innocent, go to my post; My Friends in Granada Nicaragua Sexually Exploiting Boys?
Anyway, I decided to make this video for the sole purpose of getting their story out. This past September, getting the story out helped in the release of an American,Jason Puracal, who spent 2 years in a Nicaraguan jail, after being falsely accused of drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime activity.
After a two-year legal nightmare that landed 35-year-old Jason Puracal, a U.S. citizen, in a Nicaraguan prison on what he says were baseless charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, a Nicaraguan appellate court found procedural flaws in a criminal trial that could have landed him in prison for 22 years, and ordered his release. - Tico Times.
If you want to help, please post this video everywhere you can, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc. And if you'd like to DONATE to the cause, visit Friends of Joluva. I'd appreciate it and I know Jan & Francis would.
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
The owners of Joluva Guesthouse in Granada Nicaragua were found GUILTY on all charges.
It's TRUE. Our friends, Jan (standing) and Francis (sitting), the owners of Joluva Guesthouse will find out how long they have to sit in a Nicaraguan jail cell eating rotten rice, next Wednesday. Minimum 2 years, maximum 12 years. Are you f***ing kidding me?
Don't know what I'm talking about... the FULL, TRUE story is HERE. Don't feel like reading, basically, my friends were accused of 'sexual exploitation of minors', 'promoting sexual tourism', 'pornography' etc... but take my word, the entire thing was about being successful, gay, foreign business owners in Nicaragua. How dare they promote gay in Nicaragua...and be successful.
I'm going to hold my 'pen' for the time being and not write anything until AFTER Wednesday... but after that, it's GAME ON. I may not be the Huffington Post but I'll attempt to use 'whatever' means to get their story out. Although Jan and Francis are my friends and I would help them regardless, this SO could have been me and D'Angelo and a LOT of other folks I know.. and I just can't leave them hanging. In the meantime, I have some ideas of my own but if anyone else has some ideas as to what we can do, please email me- travelcostaricanow@gmail.com
I'm heartsick, this is SOOooooooooooo sad...... and if you knew them and the TRUTH, you'd know why......... a 3rd World jail cell............. have you seen those movies?
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
My friends, Jan and Francis, who own Joluva Guesthouse in Granada Nicaragua need your HELP.
I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten in these past months all pretty much asking the same question, "What happened to Joluva and Jan and Francis?"
Although you should check it out, if you're not in the mood just imagine your WORST nightmare. You and your wife move to a foreign country, start a small B&B and get falsely accused of basically running a brothel. It's 100% FALSE but the authorities throw you in jail, SEIZE EVERYTHING- property, bank and credit cards, passports and leave it to you to prove your innocence. Remember, foreigners in a foreign country- trust me, it's scarey shit. Well, that's basically what happened to Jan and Francis.
For the record, Jan and Francis are out on bail awaiting trail but they need HELP to survive day to day and to fight this thing.
I think my internet friend, Colin, who happens to own a very popular hotel in Puerto Viejo, Banana Azul, pretty much sums it up in his comment to my Joluva blog post the other day:
Thanks guys for posting this article. I actually never had the pleasure of meeting these guys or staying at their place. I had always intended to, but running a hotel, keeps one very busy.
Being in the same business they are in Costa Rica and also am involved in exposing myself as a gay man (foreigner) that caters to other gays and lesbians (not exclusively), I find this all very distressing and sad.
I really feel for these guys. They need our help. We have sent a donation and I am going to use this summary and email all my gay friends in an effort to try and elicit some more support.
Not only do I feel for Jan & Francis, I really feel this is a serious gay rights issue that affects the rights and freedoms of GLBT community in Nicaragua and Central America for that matter.
I hope others will consider doing the same. Here is a link to their current website that has a link for donations (Credit Cards or PayPal accepted): Friends of Joluva.
I really hope they beat this!!! Cheers, Colin.
Hotel Banana Azul, Costa Rica.
Thanx Colin, I know Jan & Francis will appreciate your kind words and donation. BTW- not only can you donate but they also keep folks updated as to what's happening with their situation.
Jan and Francis are good people and I fully support them 100%, I hope you will too by showing a little money LOVE. thanx
I don't want to take away from the task at hand, I just want to show Colin some love for his comments and putting his money where his mouth is by showing you his place, Banana Azul, in Puerto Viejo. He probably wouldn't approve of me doing this but oh well, plus we love Banana Azul and if he doesn't like it... too bad...hehe
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
'Joluva Hotel in Granada where underage Nicaraguan boys are enslaved waiting to be sodomized by pedophiles from around the WORLD.
Sorry, but you got the wrong hotel.
Granada Nicaragua's, Hotel Joluva, a gay, straight-friendly guesthouse, has been shut down after police arrested the owners and investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and pornography.
"All five men are being held under preventive prison sentences while they await trial on charges of promoting tourism for the purpose of sexual exploitation, pornography and sexual abuse, according to Granada Police Chief Horacio Sobalvarro."
I call total BULLSHIT.
First off, the owners of Joluva Hotel, Jan and Francis, who are from Belgium, are our friends and although it's true you never REALLY know someone 100%, we know and have experienced Joluva enough to know these allegations are BULLSHIT. And since they're getting a bum rap here on the internet, I feel inclined to respond. Especially after this Nicaragua website uses our Joluva video and mentions our names in attempt to kinda, sorta prove something salacious was going on at Joluva Hotel. *I'll try to refrain from blasting this particular article even though they could have easily contacted us if they REALLY wanted insight and info on Joluva, versus making assumptions, inferences and spreading innuendo. Totally NOT cool when people's lives are at stake. But anyway, fuck them. I'll get back to them later.
Here's our VIDEO on Joluva that supposedly offers proof that illegal activity was taking place. We totally apologize for this video because truth is, it is NOT a good video. At the time, we were still learning about editing. Joluva deserves a better video which we would be happy to do in the future.
BE WARNED- this video contains a butt crack and some guys in their underwear.
Joluva is a gay hotel which obviously caters to the gay traveler BUT it is also straight friendly, which is telling. I'll explain shortly. They're all over the internet, Trip Advisor... and for good reason, they're a legitimate gay destination, not some 'no-name, secret room down the alley with little boys for sale' kinda place. If they were exploiting boys or promoting underage sex etc, it would have been quickly known and shut down years ago. You think they would let 'straight people' in Joluva if they were doing illegal 'gay' activity, I think not. Promoting gay sex? Where are the fliers? Is there a price list? The straight world uses Tits and Ass to promote everything from cars to pencils, so please, a hot guy in his underwear just isn't enough. And a note to Jan & Francis, if you're going to exploit young men, you should do it by the hour, it's much more lucrative than actually having folks book a few nights. Joluva is NOT a bordello, just so we're crystal CLEAR.
The 'boringness' of this pic is pretty much the point.
You can't even ENTER Joluva without a key or someone letting you in so people just don't come and go. Jan and Francis were well aware who entered their hotel and since there's only 4 rooms, it's not as if it isn't manageable. They also have cameras, not sure why they would have cameras installed if their was so much illegal activity going on. But Jan and Francis weren't stupid, they knew they would have clientele from time to time who WERE of the 'sketchy' type, which is precisely the reason they had cameras installed and furthermore, wouldn't let any Nicaraguan 'boy' in Joluva who couldn't prove they were of legal age. I witnessed this a few times and it also happened to me and D'Angelo when we befriended a guy in Granada and invited him to our room for pizza. At the time, Jan knew us very well, but the guy still had to produce his 'drivers license' in order to come in. But I imagine your first thought would be we invited the guy in for 'other' reasons... because you know us gay guys, sex, sex, sex... but then again, like your first assumptions of Joluva, you'd be wrong.
Assume what you want, this guy was in our video and at the time of shooting was 24 years old. He's a dentist now.
The other problem having a gay hotel in a 3rd world country is the fact, boys, and I mean boys in every since of the word, WILL engage in gay for pay, if given the opportunity. The 'whys' and moral obligations of a society will not be discussed in this post but it is a fact- many Nicaraguan boys would like nothing better than to connect with a foreigner in order to receive money, gifts, attention, school tuition etc...but I digress. Again, this is the reason for the locked entrance, cameras, night security and proof of age requirement. These measures are standard in most legitimate hotels in Granada as well as in Costa Rica. *Some will make you pay an additional charge if you have a guest in your room.
Can a consenting adult in almost ANYTOWN or CITY around the world make a connection with another consenting adult, in let's say, the bar at the Airport Holiday Inn and return to first consenting adult's room? What is the responsibility of the Holiday Inn? Jan and Francis do everything in their power to ensure it's a consenting adult entering 'that' room. Probably a lot more than the Holiday Inn does.
Cute guys give legitimate massages at the Joluva. And? So? If you like a steroided, German lady with big hands giving you a massage, that's your prerogative... I'll take the cute guy. What you do or don't do with BIG hands, German lady is none of my concern... are we adults or are we not?
Joluva also has a private pool on another property they own. Every Wednesday and Sunday they take whoever wants to go, along with a bunch of Nicaraguan guys (all of legal age), to the pool and have a party.
Nothing like a gay KISS to throw gay in the face of the straight world.
I've been numerous times. It's fun. I've swam naked there before and have seen the 'private parts' and asses of a couple of the Nicaraguan guys there as well. I won't apologize as I have no guilt or shame about who I am. Think what you want. I've been to the pool at Joluva numerous times, I've never seen sex in or around the pool. But like I said, seen plenty of frolicking, horseplay and nude swimming- SCANDALOUS. That said, I'm not sure if sex in a pool with consenting adults is illegal or not in Nicaragua,but personally, I'm not opposed to the idea.
They're attempting to portray Jan and Francis as 'Chester the Molester' types and it's not difficult to do when you use words like, 'child sex, exploitation of minors, moral values, child abuse, pedophilia, manipulation, pornography etc.' It's not hard to make assumptions and draw misguided conclusions when you don't personally know the people involved.
Here's the BIG evidence one site reports they have on Jan and Francis:
Police, however, say they have witness testimony from five Nicaraguan boys, ages 14-17, who claim they were exploited. No one is claiming rape, but the alleged victims are claiming they were tricked, sexually exploited and had their “moral integrity affected,” the police chief said.
Total BULLSHIT..not to say, WAY general- WTF is 'moral integrity affected'? Probably some kids who wanted to sell themselves for easy money and Jan and Francis told them to get lost. And please, if they're sexually exploiting children, they're sexually exploiting children...shouldn't be hard to find plenty of these supposed, 'sexually exploited and abused' kids. Five boys, seriously?
This my friends has almost everything to do with GAY and 2 Belgium guys doing well in Nicaragua. Nicaragua does NOT like gay and you need to know that and these accusations are shaky at best. Unfortunately, Nicaragua will probably NOT play by the rules and that scares me for my friends. The media coverage is already against them.
The sad and a little ironic part of this story is how much Jan and Francis give back to the community of Granada: Shoes, school supplies, dental work, clothes, money, food, employment, the list is long and I've witnessed their good works on many of occasions. EVERYDAY, a steady stream of folks come to the gate of Joluva asking for 'something'. I've often told Jan I think he gets taken advantage of, he just smiles,,, then hands the girl a few bucks so she can buy a little food. But you don't want to hear about that do you?
Like I said, you never know someone 100%...but I've seen and experienced enough to make an educated judgment, and I'm here to say, underage ANYTHING does NOT happen at Joluva... but if there's proof of it...I'll cut their balls off myself.
PS. I'm not through with you 'Nicaragua Dispatch'. Your story SUCKED so I'll be answering to your bullshit soon and if you EVER want to debate this issue in an open forum, by all means, BRING IT.
PSS. If you've never been to Nicaragua,,you might be better off if you leave your comments to yourself.
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Crossing the border from Los Chiles Costa Rica to San Carlos Nicaragua.
NOT to be confused with the more popular and EXTREMELY busy border crossing between the 2 countries at Penas Blancas, although we do have video of that border crossing as well. *BOTH Border Crossing videos are posted BELOW.
The majority of people who use the Los Chiles Costa Rica to San Carlos Nicaragua border crossing are usually folks who are affectionately or infamously, depending on your view, called 'perpetual tourists'. Briefly, 'perpetual tourists' are people who live in Costa Rica but do NOT have residency, so they have to leave EVERY 90 days (like a tourist would) to get their passport (visa) stamped in order to remain legal. It may not be the BEST way to live in Costa Rica but it is legal. And NO, you don't have to remain out of the country for 72 hours as evidenced by this video.
D'Angelo and I chillen' in Los Chiles Costa Rica waiting for the boat to leave.
Normally, we travel by bus since riding the buses in Costa Rica are a cheap and usually efficient form of transportation. We paid $4.00/pp from Muelle, which is about 25 minutes from our hometown, La Fortuna. Most buses to Los Chiles depart from Ciudad Quesada aka San Carlos. Often we rent a 'private' van if we have quite a few people who need to go (get their passport stamped). It's cost effective if you have enough people going.
The problem with this particular border crossing (at least with perpetual tourist types) at this particular time, is the boat only leaves TWICE a day, once at 12:30 and the other at 3:30 and the only return boat to Costa RIca is at 4:00. This gives you NO time in San Carlos to shop or even have a beer, let alone lunch, unless of course you want to stay a night or two in San Carlos. It used to leave earlier but what it really comes down to is 'supply and demand'... the more people crossing and the more times they will cross. Usually the folks working on the Nicaraguan side don't hassle you about 'coming and going' quickly,,but they could, which is ALWAYS the problem with these crossings...9 times out of 10, it's all good but get the wrong guy and they can give you shit, pretty much forcing you to at least stay 1 night, although this has NEVER happened to us. THIS IS WHY YOU ALWAYS TREAT THE FOLKS AT THE BORDER WITH EXTREME COURTESY... and personally, I would give them a little something/something in the form of a 'present' or hell, bake some cookies..whatever, but if you live in Costa Rica and you ARE a perpetual tourist,,you don't need the problems, so do what you gotta do.
A couple years back, the boat left earlier and you could spend more time in San Carlos, which was a good thing, there's CHEAP shopping there, so technically, San Carlos shoots itself in the foot by letting you do a quick 'turn and burn' as we call it, but then of course, it could be Costa Rica fuckin with them since that's where the boat leaves from originally..... who knows.
San Carlos Nicaragua offers some good bargains.
Another option is to procur a 'private' boat in Los Chiles. A few years ago it was relatively cheap, NOW they gringo price you BIG time and a boat can cost you $200. or more if you don't know what you're doing. It's only cost effective to do this if you have a LARGE group.
No matter who you are, perpetual tourist or NOT, if you do happen to return to Costa Rica, you need to KNOW and REMEMBER one thing that is extremely important. When you return to Costa Rica to get stamped in, you probably and most likely, especially now, be asked to PROVE your leaving Costa Rica within 90 days... you either need to show a airline ticket or bus ticket with the appropriate dates proving that fact....if you can't, they won't stamp you back into Costa Rica, or they won't until you can produce said document,,which is a pain in the ass to do.. doable, but a pain in the ass. It also forces you to spend the night in Los Chiles because it's not possible to do it over the internet fast enough before IMMIGRATION closes for the night. This border crossing is not 24/7.
You may not get this if you can't prove your leaving Costa Rica within 90 days.
This VIDEO will give you a good idea on what to expect when crossing the border between Los Chiles Costa Rica and San Carlos Nicaragua. Below it, is the border crossing between Costa Rica and Nicaragua at Penas Blancas a much BUSIER border crossing to say the least.
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Jennifer Lopez who works part-time at Central Line Bus Co. based in San Jose, sold us bus tickets in Nicaragua knowing full well the bus didn't go anywhere near to our destination.
Well, I haven't heard from the folks at Central Line. I thought for sure they would get in touch, defending their fucked-up position.
Don't know what I'm talking about (or the Jennifer Lopez connection)? The FULL story is here: 'This BUS Co. Tries to Pull a FAST One' Bottom line- We were crossing the border at Penas Blancas (Nicragua and Costa Rica border crossing) and this Jennifer Lopez lookalike just told us shit we wanted to hear knowing full well it wasn't true... all for $28.
Anyway, Central Line, I forgot to give you our email address so we could chat about an apology and FULL refund. Contact us here: TravelCostaRicaNOW@gmail.com Look forward to hearing from you. And if and when you make good, I will post it. Pura Vida!
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Central Line is a bus company based in San Jose, Costa Rica that totally fucked us over when we were crossing the border from Penas Blancas, Nicaragua into Costa Rica.
Central Line offers International daily buses from/to(Managua, Granada) Nicaragua to San Jose Costa Rica.
We think Central Line should educate their employees a little, okay, a LOT, better on where their buses actually GO.
This post is a HEADS UP for anyone traveling from the Penas Blancas border crossing to the La Fortuna area. If this just helps 1 person, I'll be happy. Here's what happened. If you're not familiar with the border crossing you can view the video below and maybe get a sense of it all. *And for the record, understanding or speaking Spanish was not part of the problem, so it wasn't a 'communication' thing.
We had just arrived from Granada, Nicaragua to the Penas Blancas border crossing and as were were starting the process we were met by an attractive, well dressed woman, wearing a crispy, clean uniform, complete with identification badge and I should mention, her make-up was Jennifer Lopez perfect. She asked us if we needed a bus. Now, I've crossed this border about 29,000 times, so I was pretty sure she couldn't help us since there's only 1 bus that goes even close to La Fortuna (El Tanque to be exact, which is only about 5 minutes away from La Fortuna).
But, when we mentioned La Fortuna, she said yes, "Central Line goes right past there." I was skeptical. We asked again, this time she confirmed it with another attractive woman who also appeared to work for Central Line. The tickets were about $14. each. As she explained this was a direct shot, so NO stops and the best part, for me anyway, the bus had a restroom. Not only were we going to save a couple hours but also not get all anxious about when the next pee stop would be (I know a few of you out there can relate to that). As we were paying for the tickets, we asked again to make doubly sure.Jennifer even told us how long it would take and she was right, 3 1/2 hours. I was satisfied. I just thought, 'finally, a bus line realizes La Fortuna should have it's own STOP.'
Central Line charged me $14.00 for this piece of paper so I decided to keep it.
Obviously, you know where this is going. In the end J-lo ended up being full of shit. Miss Lopez telling me the bus stopped close to La Fortuna would be like an airline telling you the flight can get you to Maine from Florida,,, but then conveniently forgetting to mention you would have to get a connection in California because that is where the plane is actually going. WHOOPS! Needless to say, we almost missed our 'regular' bus and believe me, you don't want to be stuck overnight at the border. Think we got our money back? Nope (and we tried). Didn't have time to argue, we had to complete our crossing and if it's busy, it can take awhile, so no REAL time to argue or at least punch these ladies in the throat and run.
Moral of the story. Ask the driver before boarding where in the hell the bus is going, which is exactly how we found out Jennifer Lopez was talking shit.
Dear Central Line, you need to make this RIGHT and if and when you do, I'll post it. Unfortunately, I can't help but doubt you will since this isn't the United States, here it seems the customer is rarely right. Sorry, just going from my experience... but I would LOVE for you to prove me wrong. pura vida.
This video about crossing the border at Penas Blancas was done quite awhile ago but it still accurate. Check it out.
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
I posted this video about 'Corruption and Bribing a Police Officer' in Costa Rica a few weeks ago. If you haven't seen it, it may be worth a look, but in it I mention that I've NEVER in my 5 years of living in Costa Rica been asked by a man in uniform to pay a bribe nor have they ever tried to extort money from me. Well, I can't say that anymore.
We were returning from our trip to Nicaragua and was crossing back over into Costa Rica at the Penas Blancas border crossing. After stamping out of Nicaragua, D'Angelo and our friends decided to hit up the duty free shops and I decided to take the 10 minute walk over to check out how long the line was to get stamped back into Costa Rica. Between the 2 points they have a couple passport checkpoints.
Costa Rica border crossing guard asked to see my passport, nothing out of the ordinary, so I obliged. Then he asked me if I had $5.00. WTF? Before I tell you how I responded and what happened I'd like to add my 2 cents.
"Although I understand the mentality of wanting to travel alone, I highly discourage it and really, it borders on stupidity. Like many things bad, this border crossing guard probably wouldn't have asked if I was with other people... but I digress."
So, he asked me for $5.00 and I responded in true expat spanglish, "What the fuck for, dude............ para que? I know, I know, I have a way with words. Anyway, he said it was for 'admission', and I said, "pa....leeez... que mierda!" it was then he realized I wasn't just any gringo traveler and pretty much dropped it, handed me my passport and I was on my way.
I know I'll take grief for this, but it really doesn't bother me, he tried... and it didn't work. Honestly, didn't even cross my mind to 'report him' or whatever... just not my style. So, that's my encounter with 'corruption' in Costa Rica.
Oh, just in case you're not familiar with the Penas Blancas border crossing, we made this video awhile back on how to do it:
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Doin' Costa Rica DOES San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
San Juan del Sur is located approximately a 45 minute taxi ride from the Penas Blancas Border Crossing with Costa Rica. *We paid $20. at the border for a taxi. NOT $20/person, $20- TOTAL, just so you know.
Hey EVERYONE! As you may or many not know, D'Angelo and myself venture into Nicaragua quite frequently but usually we go to our favorite city in Nicaragua- Granada. We haven't been back to San Juan del Sur for about 4 years, so we thought we go back and check it out and of course, do a video. (Scroll down for the video).
Like Costa Rica, Nicaragua is also a friendly country.
San Juan del Sur is a beach/surf town and one of the top 3 travel destinations in Nicaragua. Actually, the beach at San Juan del Sur is NOT all that and definitely of know relevance to serious surfers but most people seem to use San Juan as a sort of 'base camp', since the better surfing and more beautiful beaches are located to the north and south of San Juan del Sur.
I suppose if you're a BEGINNER, San Juan del Sur just might work.
Their are TONS of hostels, hotels, B&B's etc etc in San Juan del Sur and since the town is small, you can easily walk around and find something in your price range and do a little comparison shopping. *TIP- Check out the room and make sure everything works before putting your money down.
I love, Love, LOVE to read, and believe me, it can often be difficult to find decent books when traveling around, so running across the 'El Gato Negro' was a serious SCORE for me. We show the inside of 'El Gato Negro' in our video.
I knew I loved 'El Gato Negro' when I found the book THERE that started it all for me way back when, 'The Fountainhead'.
Beaches worth CHECKING OUT to the North & South of San Juan del Sur:
To the SOUTH of San Juan del Sur: Playa El Coco- a really nice beach, great for swimmng and fishing. La Flor- One of the two Pacific turtle nesting beaches in Nicaragua. Ostional- Picturesque fishing town.
To the NORTH of San Juan del Sur: Playa Marsella- Good beach for snorkeling. Playa Madera- One of the most consistent and easy-to-access surf breaks. Bahia Majagual- A seriously BEAUTIFUL beach.
San Juan del Sur may not be the BEST beach, but they do have beautiful sunsets.
Just an FYI: I've gotten sick in San Juan del Sur the BOTH times I've been there. Read that as, diarrhea/vomiting ALL night, kinda sick. I've been in Costa Rica almost 5 years and NEVER... I'm not saying that everyone gets sick who visits San Juan del Sur, I'm just sayin.
Here's our VIDEO of San Juan del Sur Nicaragua:
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Crossing the border at Los Chiles Costa Rica into San Carlos Nicaragua is a BREEZE.
Granted, crossing the border at Los Chiles isn't the most popular travel route between Costa Rica and Nicaragua- Penas Blancas holds that distinction- at Los Chiles it's mostly backpackers who want to venture off the beaten path, 'perpetual tourist' types looking for an easy passport stamp and renewal of their VISA's and Nica's looking for work or visiting families, who mostly utilize this border crossing. The reason it's less traveled is simple- there's just not many 'convenient' Nicaraguan travel options once you're made it to San Carlos, although there's a couple boats that go to Granada as well as an airstrip with flights to Managua. So Penas Blancas is far away the border crossing of choice being it's an easily accessible GATEWAY to many points of interest in Nicaragua- San Juan del Sur, Rivas, Granada, Managua, Ometepe etc. But no matter, since we've received numerous e-mails asking for a 'video' process of the crossing, we thought we'd oblige.
So, D'Angelo, myself and 5 of our friends decided to make a day of it. We rented a driver/van for $80. and left at 8:00am from La Fortuna. Stopped at Muelle (about 35 minutes from La Fortuna) and checked out the iguanas and then headed up to Los Chiles, Costa Rica, another hour away from Muelle.
Los Chiles is a border town located on the banks of the Rio Frio, which in turn is the river 'border' between Costa Rica and Nicaragua that you must navigate by boat in order to reach San Carlos. The tiny town of San Carlos is located on banks of Lake Nicaragua just opposite from where the Rio Frio empties into the lake.
Our boat arriving into San Carlos Nicaragua.
This border crossing at Los Chiles is about a thousand times less stressful than Penas Blancas for obvious reasons, and so you can compare the two, I posted both border crossings BELOW.
Once you're gotten your passport stamp at Immigration, located a block from where you get the boat, you'll have to make a decision as to whether to take the 'public' boat to San Carlos or negotiate a price for your own boat. Obviously, if you're traveling by yourself, negotiating for a boat probably wouldn't be the most cost effective option. We made the mistake of negotiating price per person as opposed to haggling over the price of renting the boat itself. I think we paid $50. too much doing it this way. The public boat is about $20. per person TOTAL (there and back). We paid $25. per person to have our own boat, go much faster and we could leave San Carlos whenever we wanted as opposed to the public boat that left San Carlos at 5:30 regardless. All in all, not a bad price, just think we could have done a little better.
Here's the VIDEO crossing the border from Los Chiles Costa Rica to San Carlos Nicaragua:
Crossing the BORDER at Penas Blancas:
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!
Many people that visit Costa Rica, also have plans to see other Latin American countries as well. We highly recommend visiting Nicaragua in particular- it's a favorite of ours. Anyways, we decided to video tape the border crossing from Costa Rica into Nicaragua via Penas Blancas. This can be somewhat confusing and daunting if you've never done it before, so we have video taped the process, hoping it will give you some idea as to what to expect. There are some things you should definitely know before crossing the border into Nicaragua.
So, check this video out if you ever think you may be doing this in your travels in and around the Costa Rica and Nicaragua area. And as always- Hope it Helps.
Want to see hundreds of videos about ANYTHING Costa Rica? Go to the Costa Rica Travel Channel and for tons of information about traveling to Costa Rica, check out Travel Costa Rica Now
I’m not sure how many times we’ve made the trek to the Nicaraguan border to do the whole ‘passport stamp’ thing, but what is certain, we’ve been there enough to know better. I’ll get to what we know better in a minute.
Currently we are not Costa Rican residents, but hope to be soon. We’re what they refer to as ‘Perpetual Tourists-’ gringos, living in Costa Rica that have to leave the country every 3 months in order to keep their visa current and legal. Just for the record- I do not recommend this. If you’re thinking about staying in Costa Rica for the long term, then I’d say start the residency process NOW. However, I do know a lot of gringos and ex pats that do this trek to Nicaragua, and most hate it. Can you imagine, taking time from your busy Costa Rican schedule to travel through a beautiful country to another beautiful country- the horror! I actually enjoy it, a mini vacation, and actually, I’m rather fond of Nicaragua.
So, on this particular trip our best friend Mendee came along, because she’s a perpetual tourist also (we like to stick together). We’ve decided to do some filming for our website, the Costa Rica Travel Channel, so we have our cameras and video equipment in tow. We want to film the actual ‘steps’ of crossing the border at Penas Blancas in order to show others the process while hopefully alleviating some of the anxiety. Crossing the border can be somewhat daunting if you’ve never done it before.
Reaching the border is like a homecoming party. As soon as the bus pulls up, it gets swarmed by well-wishers, greeters if you will- just happy to see a new group of gringos they can hopefully rip-off. These guys are the money changers. They wave wads of money in your face asking if you’d like to exchange your colones or dollars for córdobas, or vice versa. I don’t mind these guys, hell, I actually do exchange with them. I find this convenient. There’s still another bus to catch to Rivas or Granada and once I get where I’m going I don’t want to worry about exchanging money.
We have the cameras out and we’re filming. These guys don’t care; they enjoy mugging for the camera (pun intended). Mendee wants to exchange money, and so do I. But I give her my money since I’m trying to film, as is D’Angelo. Mendee’s great. We love her, but she’s more of a follower in these types of situations and would rather have someone else deal with this sort of thing- ‘thing’ being math. But we’re busy. In all actuality, exchanging for cordobas is quite easy. It’s about 20 cordobas to the dollar- 100 cordobas, five bucks- pretty simple math. These guys thrive on chaos and confusion, remember, we’re crossing the border, we have lines to get in. People are gathering up backpacks and luggage from the bus, scurrying off to get in line, chatting, asking questions, making new traveling friends etc. some would call this a ‘madhouse’. In the middle of the fray are the money changers with their calculators that don’t work, still waving the wads of money in peoples’ faces. By the way, these guys love to work in groups of 2-3, which can be somewhat intimidating to the novice border crosser.
We have our guy- thin, young, bad case of acne, long hair, but an inviting smile. He seems SO nice. We’re filming, Mendee’s exchanging, but talking to me all the while, “Is this right mike, I gave him $200.00 and he’s giving me 600 cordobas?” I’m half listening. These guys pull out their calculators and begin to punch numbers- if a calculator was a typewriter, these guys could do like 1500 words a minute. The number they’re looking for magically appears on the calculator- 600. ‘Acne boy’ and his 2 friends quickly nod in ‘bobblehead’ agreement. (check above pic for one of the original bobbleheads) Mendee checks the calculator, and she too suddenly transforms into a ‘bobblehead.’ Later, she admitted to having no clue, but thought being a ‘bobblehead’ would cause the least embarrassment. I’m still filming when ‘acne boy’ flashes the money in front of the camera, Vegas style, as if showing off a royal flush that WE had just won- and here I am laughing and filming as if we had. He seems so nice.
Exactly 45 seconds later I knew we had been ripped off. Seriously, 45 seconds. A quick look around- these guys were GONE. We spent 30 minutes looking for them; they were gone, probably working on their second Imperial as we were crossing over into Nicaragua. Fuck!
Total border-crossing buzz kill. Mendee’s beating herself up for getting scammed and I’m thinking, we film ‘travel tips,’ we’re the experts, we’ve done this a thousand times, we inform others the best way to safely travel around Costa Rica- this is NOT going to look good on a resume. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty dumb, but in my view, we got cheated fair and square. I let my guard down, and they took advantage. Just another lesson learned. It could have been worse. What a stupid phrase, of course it could always be worse.
We had a hard time letting this go, well Mendee did. I was sort of laughing about it, you know, the irony and all. It came up more than a few times in our three days in Granada, with always the same conclusion- we thought we had a good chance of running into ‘acne boy’ and the ‘bobbleheads’ on our way back.
We had 3 hours to wait at the border before our bus would take us back to La Fortuna. We didn’t see ‘acne boy,’ well not at first anyway. As luck would have it, he miraculously appeared not 15 ft. from where we were eating in the snack bar. He didn’t see us and I was on him pretty quick, BUT he did remember us.
We got our money back….with interest if you know what I mean. In the end, ‘acne boy’ WAS nice and we learned a valuable lesson- being a ‘bobblehead’ is contagious.
.jpg)
.jpg)
