Nicaragua....

So we made it into Nicaragua after worrying for ages about their silly import rule. You see they have a Law that says you cannot import a RHD car. This applies to all imports even temporary ones. LEY 453 Article 112. You can Google and find the PDF of the law if you like.

We arrived at the Costa Rica border with things piled on the dash hiding the steering wheel. Exit went smoothly but look a long time.

Get a few Nicaraguan Cordobas at the Costa Rica Immigration fence. They change anything (mostly). Aduanas is in the truck loading area you see on the way down the road on the way in to the border. Its about 300meters back from immigration. Look for all the lorries parked up in a LOADING area. The Aduanas export for the car took ages, the little office is at the far end of the lorry building respective to the immigration building. Once that's all done you can proceed to Nicaragua. IF you are worried about the RHD thing tell the Aduanas you are returning to Costa Rica and get a stamped up copy of the TIP you have just exited with. You MUST have one if you return !!! Its worth it although you may need a copy for them to use. The guy did the photocopy for me although normally they send you to the copy hut just outside. A tip is to take a helper with you to dash off to do copies but if one of you is watching the car this is a problem. You can park out side Aduanas if you move the car. Immegration is first, Aduanas second. NO CHARGES ON EXIT.

On the way into Nicaragua stop at the table on the right. Give him passports and get a form to complete. Complete the form for later. Then drive forwards to the fumigation area. Hop out and pay 74 Cordoba for a car. Car is sprayed. This is where changing the money in Costa Rica comes in handy. You only need a hundred or so as all the other stuff is in dollars. Get a pile of $1usd bills.

Once you get to the main building a helper will jump on you. We used one called Charlie. He was good and we paid him $10usd.

1. Go to Immigration pay $12usd for each passport stamp.
2. Pay $1usd each to the guy behind you when you are queuing at immigration for a something else.
3. The go to Aduanas / Insurance Office and pay $12usd Insurance, $5usd for a vehicle entry permit. They will point you between the various desks and back and forth to the Police desk to get things stamped. Its Air-Con heaven in here.....Stay a while.
   
4. Go outside smiling and get Aduanas guy to check the car. He scribbles over your paperwork and you should be told to go. If he's feeling nasty you get stopped for RHD.....he'd didn't seem bothered.
   
5. Final gate has a check where you hand one of the pieces of paper over.

Drive to Rivas and don't stay there. Go to San Jorge and either stay at Hotel Dalinky  ($35usd) or there's an "RV park" half way down the road to San Jorge which we didn't check out but maybe they let you camp in the carpark. It indicates they will. Dalinky Hotel has safe parking.  Taxi to town is $1. Town hotels have no parking we could find. One does but its $72.

The Island is 420cor for the car, 82cor tax, 70cor each for ticket. Its OK for a couple of nights (same prices to return although they was another 50cor tax paid at that end for some local government thing). We camped in the car park at the Hostel Central in the town where the boat docks. STAY CLEAR OF THE MONKEYS !!!!! It was $3.5usd each person and we were told we could use the Hammocks and one night even the dorm if we wanted to. We used there as a base. The lake is very warm and shallow. YOU NEED TO BOOK THE BOAT THE DAY BEFORE TO ENSURE A PLACE. Although you can drive up if they have room.