An interesting trip to Nicaragua

Green parrots are plentiful in both Nicaragua and Costa Rica. A flock of about 50 comes here early almost every morning.

They're loud, and they all want to talk at the same time. This goes on for about an hour, and then off they go. They must be talking in Spanish because I can't understand anything they're saying.

A border run

I did what's called a border run to Nicaragua last Sunday. If you're not a resident, you're only allowed to stay in Costa Rica for 90 days, and then you have to leave the country. Most people here who are not residents do a border run to either Panama or Nicaragua.

You walk across the border, get your passport stamped showing that you've been out of the country, and then you walk back about 100 yards across a field to Costa Rica, and they will stamp your passport. Then you're legal to stay in Costa Rica for another 90 days.

The whole process should take about three minutes, but nobody gets in a hurry in Central America, so it took almost three hours. There is a lot of bureaucracy, and you have to jump through a bunch of hoops, but if you're patient, you will finally get your passport stamped.

One of the things you have to do is to show that you have a ticket to leave Costa Rica within 90 days. Since I'm staying here for five months, I bought a one-way, fully refundable ticket to Houston, showing that I would be leaving in about two months.

After I got into the country back in February, I canceled that ticket, and I still had my return ticket to leave in July.

I went with a group of seven people. We went in two cars. (There were nine of us all together--seven people going across the border and two drivers.)

I'm glad I wasn't driving. It took a little over three hours to get there. We made a turn onto a different road about every 30 minutes, and there were no signs or highway numbers at any of the intersections. The roads were paved most of the way, but there were three roads that were not paved.

Bottom line:It was a long day, and whether you consider it to be a frustrating day or an interesting day all depends on your attitude. I enjoyed the day. I've been on the trip several times.