gringos

I know that the flow of this may not make any sense, but I'm going to do my best to blog more often now that I'm in a faster internet zone, Nicaragua. I'm in San Juan del Sur today. It's a strange little beach town which seems to be a gringo party spot.
I am here on a mission, not really by choice. A friend of mine from Santa Catalina, Panama is driving back up to his home town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was nice enough to put my massage table, tent, and sleeping bag in the back of his truck and drop them off here, as it's not too far off the Pan-American Highway.
I have been playing in Bocas del Toro with my dear friend, Janey, who came down to visit me from Boulder, CO on her vacation. I am so blessed with good friends! She and I had 9 days of fun and travel in which I didn't need any of that stuff cause she sported the hotel rooms all the way across Panama and Costa Rica.
I did the boarder crossing from CR to Nica today at Penas Blancas. Some of you may recall the first time I crossed this border last Feb. I wrote a mass email about it because I found myself wandering in and out of the Costa Rican border station asking "Excuse me, where is Nicaragua?" until some kind soul finally informed me that I had to walk about 1/4 mile down the road in order to get to the entrance of Nicaragua.
Today, I am proud to announce that I do learn from experience! This and the fact that I am much more facil with the spanish language than I was a year ago. So, I was able to not only find my way through to Nicaragua without problem. I was also able to fend off the 10 or so Nica taxi drivers who kept telling me there was no bus to where I was going while I asked a WOMAN where I could catch a bus. She told me and she was right. These MEN, I swear! They are scammers. Not all of them, but they give the ones that aren't a bad name.
I also have to state, for the record, that Nicaragua has no signage on how to enter their country at this border. None. Nunca. It's a series of buildings spread out across a rather wide area with lots of fences, police, and random scammers running around and nothing posted about where one should proceed. They expect you to know. And if you have to ask someone, you will have to pay them for a correct answer.
Now, I don't want to make Nicaragua out to be like this. This is just the border crossing. The rest of the country is awesome and friendly. I was able to catch a bus (technically, they are right, you need to catch 2 buses to get to San Juan del Sur) and will head up to Inanitah tomorrow after a little night on the town here.