Utah to Costa Rica Road Trip

We stopped at the Department of Migration on the way out of Tegucigalpa, so that we could get entry visas stamped on the kids passports, so that they could give us exit stamps at the border.

We arrived at the border in about 2-3 hours, it was deja-vu, as we had been here before! We even had the same guys looking to help us for a "propina." They gave us a little bit of trouble crossing over, just because they could, and had to check with their boss to see if our visas were legit. Once that fact was established, we were on our way. The only problem was that we didn't have enough cash to pay the exit and entrance (to Nicaragua) fees, and the nearest ATM was in Choluteca, an hour away! So what did we do? We sold my Ipod Shuffle for $40 to one of the money changers that Greg had been chatting with. Improvising is what it's all about!

Then the real adventure began! As soon as we crossed into Nicaragua, I wouldn't even say that we were on a road anymore. It was more like a bunch of holes in the ground with a little bit of asphalt here and there. These were seriously the worst roads I have ever seen in my entire life! It would have been a better road if it had been just dirt.

Right away we got stopped by the police, they wanted to check our papers, and it took them awhile, who knows why.

(A little interpolation- the whole trip, Mexico to Nicaragua border where we got "caught", we were only pulled over a two or three of times, and they only asked to see our vehicle paperwork and Greg's passport. As soon as we left Tegucigalpa with passports in hand, we were pulled over left and right and every time they wanted to see everyone's passports. Coincidence?)

Finally we were on our (very slow) way again. It was like being on a driving course, swerving through cones, except that they were potholes. At (great) length, the roads improved as we neared major cities. But then the police increased. We were pulled over again, by a woman officer. When he rolled down his window, Greg made a joke about being pulled over because he was white. Well, she did not like that at all!! She was mad now, and was going to make him pay!

She indited him right on the spot for not wearing a seatbelt and for not having a license plate on the (front of) the car. He needed to pay his ticket right then or they would take his driver's license.

Greg explained that we didn't have any money (which was true, we just spent the last of our cash on gas and food, and our card had a freeze on it-fraud protection), and he would have to go to court tomorrow or the next day and pay it. Well, she would be kind enough to remove the seatbelt infraction and reduce the fine if he would pay it right now to her. :) Greg told her in all earnestness that we didn't have anything. Now she didn't know what to do, but they (now she had a partner) weren't going to let us go without something. So finally Greg told him he would give them our sandwiches that we just bought (we already ate our fill), they agreed, and let us go.

We arrived in Managua, the city's capital, after dark, and found a reasonable hotel. The kids swam, then we went to bed.

The next morning I realized that Managua stunk, literally. At least the part we stayed in, and we were surrounded by strip clubs- great. We just wanted to get to Costa Rica as fast as we could. As we were heading out of town, we got pulled over by a police officer (surprise!) He wanted to ticket us because we stopped in the middle of the road (to ask for directions) and so we needed to pay a fine. Again we told him that we had nothing (our card had miraculously worked for the hotel). He wasn't too happy about that and started to get upset. He had Greg's (international) drivers license, and said if Greg didn't pay then we was going to keep it. "Go ahead," Greg told him (he could still use his U.S. DL to drive). "I'll have to go to court to pay the fine."

"You can't leave here, you can't drive without your license." was the officer's reply.

"Well I'm not staying here and I don't have any money to pay the fine. I'll pay it at court later."

"They'll through you in prison, you can't leave without paying!" He was really mad now.

While we tried to think of something we could give him, all of a sudden he just got so frustrated with us he just waved us on. You didn't have to tell us twice, we were gone!

As we neared the border of Costa Rica, the roads got really bad again. We finally arrived, and after waiting at the border (at least that's what the kids, Kevin and I did while Greg handled paperwork), we finally crossed over into Costa Rica! Only to wait on that side forever while we filled out all their paperwork. (It's quite a process.)

It was finally finished, we drove away, and "Oh What a Feeling!" We made it! We were finally here! Costa Rica Baby! As we drove along the (very nice) road and looked at the beautiful scenery (yes, it was more beautiful than Nicaragua), I thought to myself, this is fantastic! We actually did it. We had a thought, an idea, a dream, and we have made it come true. We did it! We actually moved to Costa Rica, and DROVE all the way there. Now who do you know who has done that (besides us) and with four kids nonetheless! We did it, and that's what life is all about! Making your dreams come true.

We have a quote on our vision board (really just a wall with pictures taped on it of things we want to accomplish) by T.S. Lawrence that says,

"All men dream, but not equally. Those men who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the morning to find it was but vanity, but those men who dream by day-- these are dangerous men, for they dream with open eyes to make their dreams come true."

We are definitely day dreamers, we dream with eyes wide open.

Pura Vida!

After a leisurely continental breakfast at the Hotel Casa Real, some trading on the stock market and a little swimming, we set out for the Nicaraguan border. We enjoyed the usual sights of livestock, horse and ox drawn carriages and beautiful country. When we arrived in the border town we were accosted by the usual group of border crossing friends, those who want to help you through the crossing for a propina (tip). We were experienced now, so this time we weren’t frightened and knew more of what we were doing.

We parked at the government building, and Greg went inside to pay. Then he came back out and we were ready to go, until a man came over to Kevin’s window and asked him to roll it down. He looked inside at all of us, then went over to talk to Greg. He wanted to see all of our documents for all the kids- uh oh. (Remember, according to the Mexican consulate, all we needed to cross the border was birth certificates for the kids, and when we did cross, all they cared about was the two older kid—the younger ones were of no concern to them at all. Entering Guatemala and Honduras they didn’t ask for anything at all.) So Greg took all the birth certificates that we had (we still didn’t have Kimball’s) and went inside.

Well they didn’t even look at the birth certificates, as soon as they saw we didn’t have passports for the children, chaos ensued. “How did you get into Honduras without passports? You’re illegal immigrants!” and on and on, drama, drama. They just didn’t know what to do with us.

They had no phone at their office, so Greg rode into Nicaragua with one of the officials to talk to their “boss.” Well to make a long story short, basically all that happened all day long, after five hours of sitting in the car waiting for Greg, being hounded by cute little street urchins begging for food and money, and fun bathroom experiences with small children and third world toilets that you have to pay for that don’t come with toilet paper, all that was accomplished was more government inefficiency, U.S., Honduran and Nicaraguan. The US Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua was going to try and get us special permission to come to Managua so that we could work with them to get the kids passports, but the consulor decided he would rather take a long lunch.

We finally just told the guys at the border—We can’t sit here all night, we have to go get some food and a place to stay. Give us our driving permission slip back so we can go back into Honduras. With some persuasion they gave it back to us, but they tried to get us to pay again, and then we drove back to the Hotel Casa Real in Choluteca.