We arrived at the boat a day later than we had hoped. The bus situation was complicated and we were stuck with a ticket we had bought from the Costa Rican border since they don't allow tourists to enter without proof of sometype of ticket to exit the country. So then we had this ticket for a bus that went from San Jose, Costa Rica to Managua, Nicaragua even though there were other companies that would have had rides all the way to Chinandega for example. Also. We didn't know for certain what day we would be leaving the country. Luckily they ended up selling us an open ticket.
To make matters worse, the day before we were leaving Costa Rica and tried to arrange the ride back we had trouble reaching and communicating with the company by phone. Of course, what a surprise! We thought it would be better to then try and get someone on the phone who spoke more spanish. The receptionist at our little hotel was more than willing to do the job and so we tried again. He asks on the phone if he reached the Tica bus office at Liberia (which was the stop that we were going to get on) and explains that he's calling on behalf of us and we're at Playas del Coco so we won't be able to come to the office personally. A couple seconds go by and he hangs up the phone. He shruggs his shoulders and looks puzzled. We try calling again but there is no answer. After finding the number for the San Jose office we finally got someone to agree and help us via email. It turns out however that the email address he gave us was wrong. Late in the afternoon we finally gave up trying and tried to enjoy our last evening with Matt and Sara.
The next day we reached the Liberia office around 9.30 after riding a cab and then a bus for several hours in the morning to get there from Playas del Coco. When we got there the guy in charge was annoyed that we hadn't followed the rules and booked the trip a day early. After telling our story the man was not apologetic at all but instead volunteered us some information from the day before. As we had thought we had had the right number all along the day before but when the receptionist had called and inquired about it this guy at the office had been frustrated because he didn't go right to the point of the phonecall. He kept in his words asking why the receptionist had called never telling our receptionist though that he had reached the right number. And then had hung up the phone and didn't bother answering anymore. So THAT was why we couldn't get our tickets in time?! It took all my effort to try and not tell him how displeased I was with their non-excistent service. How can any company hire a guy to handle ticketing who has no patience? And why would he tell us his story anyway? Not like it was funny. Now we were stuck with the late afternoon bus (too late to get our info for the morning bus), which meant that we would have to spend the night in Managua and I had to wait one more day to see the dogs. The end of the world right? :) I suppose this is only what you should expect when traveling. Nothing works like clockwork. When we're sailing this seems somehow more natural but that particular day I was not excited to sit for 6-7 hours waiting for the later bus, pay one more night at a hotel in Managua and still be several hours from the dogs.
Vanilla waiting for her dear ones! Or just watching the birds?
The next morning I was extremely excited, I knew there would be nothing that would keep me from seeing the pups even if I had to walk the whole way. Luckily I didn't have to go that extreme :) We took a local bus to Chinandega and arrived there a couple hours later, had time to do some grocery shopping and were sitting in a cab to Puesta del Sol before 11 am in the morning. We hurried to the boat and were surprised how quiet it was. The door was unlocked and soon enough I spotted a black and white head! Vanilla! She saw us and hurried our whining excitedly! Or maybe that was me? Not sure but I sure was happy to see her. Then it hit me. Where was Gin? She was not on the boat. We walked to the harbor masters office to look for Dorian. He greeted us happily and told us that Ana had taken Gin to the vet because of a bloody running nose. I couln't believe it. Dorian explained that it most likely wasn't anything serious, that Gin was her happy self and that the vet had just given her some vitamins and an injection against parasites. In the back of my mind I was more worried though, I knew it most likely wasn't parasites considering the amount of preventatives I'm currently using (heartworm preventative that includes roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm, tick and flee preventative you put on the neck as well as separate pill-form flee preventative) and the lack of vitamins sounds as far fetched. They have shiny coats and eat a very carefully planned diet of either home cooked meals or organic dog dry food. The only things I could think about was that she had some allergies maybe or had got something irritating into her nose from the beach.
When Gin came home a little later and was her happy joyful self and didn't have a bloody nose anymore I was relieved. Hopefully it was nothing serious. I was happy that Ana had taken her to the vet though. She really had tried to take care of them as well as she could and I was grateful about that. I would definitely leave my dogs with her again if I ever needed to. Right now I'm hoping that I wont have to leave them for a while though. I'm ready to be the full time dog servant that I am. In general I was just so happy to be home. Yep. Puesta del Sol with our boat tied up felt like home. I wish we could stay here.
