Esteli to Alajuela

Well, we are in La Familia B&B in Alajuela. A bit over 9 hours ago we were in Estelí. Here are the things that might matter to someone else.

First, early Sunday morning seems to be a good time to travel. Few cars and few trucks. Oh, and few police.

Speaking of few police, if you have a vehicle, you need to find the one cop on duty twice. Once to sign the slip that says he say the DGI guy sign the I saw your car slip and then inside again for him to sign the other car documents. Apparently it is a good idea to bring him something. I am thinking a bag of rosquillas could have saved us 15 minutes.

I didn't get my Visa de Salida ahead of time. When I got to the border I handed the guy my US passport, Nicaraguan cedula and the little piece of paper you always have to fill out. He looked, stamped and handed it all back. No fees, no questions. Strange.

If you are driving and are a Gringo but Nicaraguan resident, you may have a problem. After you do all the car paperwork on the CR site you have to go to this building nearer the border where the guy types in all the info that you already wrote down for the "inspector". Well, they have new software. A CA-4 resident that has a non-CA-4 passport didn't seem to be an option. 30 minutes later, he faked it.

Speaking of "inspectors", the Nicaragua guy who didn't go near the car asked if we had anything to sell. We said no. Done. On the CR side the guy who usually asks you to at least point out where the car is but seldom looks in didn't even ask. Sunday AM does seem like a good time.

There was only one "check your papers again" stop in Costa Rica. The cop was BSing with someone in a car when I pulled up. I waited 10 seconds and another cop across the road whistled and motioned for us to go around.