June 15, 2018 – June 16, 2018
A Colombian we had met earlier in the trip had recommended that we try to go to San Jose de Guaviare, on the llanos (plains) south and east of the capital city of Bogota. He said that there was a lot of wildlife and that it was a beautiful and little visited place set between the mountains and the amazon jungle in Colombia. We did a bit of research and decided that it sounded very interesting and we were very excited.
April 16 – April 19, 2018
The crossing into Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan side was chaotic to say the least. We had no idea where we were supposed to park, which building we needed to head to first and we were immediately approached by “helpers”, people who hang out at the border, walk you from one building to another and tell you what you need to do next, all for a propina (tip). We had not used one since we had accidentally used one when crossing into Belize (we thought he worked for the border agency and didn’t realize we needed to tip him until the process was almost complete).
We knew that Semana Santa (week long Easter celebration) in Latin America would be a crazy, crowded week, full of parties late into the evening, closed businesses and intense traffic, some of it impaired by too many Easter cervezas. Everyone we consulted advised that we would be smart to find somewhere quiet to hang out for the week and to stay off of the roads. But we thought the week began on Good Friday. We found out at the last hostel that the week actually begins the weekend prior to Good Friday, leaving us only one week to make plans as to where to stay before Semana Santa celebrations started.