Say Goodbye to Granada (Nicaragua)

The original plan was to leave last Friday or Saturday, from Managua to Bocas del Toro, Panama. But we decided to stay in Nicaragua for a couple reasons.

The first reason, and really the overriding one, was that, despite having originally requested permission to fly into and land in Panama on Wednesday, I did not hear anything for two days.

On Friday, the day after our arrival into Managua, I spent 3 hours on the bus/in the cab to return to the airport from Managua, to check out my radios on the plane. They worked satisfactorily. Likely it was the excessive rain and humidity in La Ceiba for 24 hours that affected adversely the relay connected to the transmit buttons on the yokes. Not sure I mentioned this but during the flight from La Ceiba to Managua, water was dripping on my legs. My legs are normally situated well beneath the controls/avionics panel during flight. The red sled ain't watertight. Nicaragua, however, has been warm and dry. So by Friday 10AM, the red sled was airworthy.

By friday I had also found Granada to be a worthy place to hang out at for a while. We met a couple of very entertaining folks, Heidi and Kate, and after the evening of giving away soccer balls to the kids (Heidi and Kate joined us), we decided to hang out with them. On Saturday, they had planned to go to a local crater lake for the weekend, and so we placed our Panama plans on hold. This was the only thing we could have done, since, by Friday AM, I had not hear back from the Panama Civil Aviation Authority. I then emailed them again at 1PM Friday, once I got back to Granada from the airport, and at 3pm, 30 minutes before their office closed, they emailed me back saying they needed a copy of my medical and insurance. I did not receive that email until about 7PM Friday. I guess I forgot to send these. I sent them right away but realized that the office would likely be closed for the weekend.

PILOTS: Panama is the only country that did not get back to me after I sent in a request. When I queried them, they then said I needed to provide them with more documents. Panama was the most unresponsive CAA I have dealt with so far, but some of it was also my fault. I would say if you don’t hear back from them within 24 hours, you should query them.

However I am not sorry I did not query them on Thursday, for if I had, we might have left Friday, and missed meeting our new friends in Granada. We went to Lago Poya Saturday morning, which is 20 minutes from Granada by shuttle, and stayed at El Hostal Paradiso, which truly is paradise. It is run by a very nice couple from France and getting off the shuttle in front of the hostal, I felt like I was on Fantasy Island, when one of the hosts came out to greet us with, “Welcome to El Hostal Paradiso.” Situated right on the lake, with a full bar, kitchen, dorm room and private rooms, cabanas, etc., it was simply perfectly laid out. And all for $10 per bed per nite. But what made it special was the group of travelers we were fortunate enough to encounter. The weekend was basically one laid back lounge party on a beautiful lake whose water temperature was about 85 degrees with an air temp of about 90, with an onshore breeze. Paradiso.

However all good things come to an end. Heidi flies out today, Ben and Chelsea leave for Roatan(!), Marike stays here with Kate. 

Chelsea, me, Kate, Heidi, Ben, Collin, Marike

For us, the new plan is to go directly to Costa Rica today. This in spite of my having received Panama clearance at 945AM this morning. We will head to Managua in an hour or so, once Collin feels better (he’s been battling a stomach bug for about 4 days now), and from there fly to Liberia (MRLB), clear customs, and then proceed to a small airport on the tip of La Peninsula Nacoya (not on our charts but I think it is there; like La Isla de la Muerta, it can only be found by those who know it is there). Surf and sand, here we come!!