A quick summary of our Nicaraguan destinations included:
We crossed the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border around 1 or 2 o'clock. It took us about an hour, and definitely wasn't an easy adventure. We then grabbed a taxi from Penas Blancas (the border crossing) to San Juan Del Sur.
In San Juan, we rented a Land Cruiser that we nicknamed "El Beastio". We trip to go on a day trip to Masaya and Granada....but El Beastio is definitely not a highway vehicle. Instead we turned around and ventured to the beach....Playa Maderas and Majagual. We went on a ocean road adventure. First we had no clue where we were going, second we missed the turn-off to the beach. Yes we got "misplaced" a couple times, but it was fun.
The following day we rented "Gringo", a little sedan that we could do some road tripping with. We took "Gringo" and hit the open road. Like the day before, we missed our turn-off and ventured too far. We turned around and took "Gringo" to Masaya, Volcano Masaya, and Granada , then back to San Juan. We had a road map in Costa Rica. All we had in Nicaragua was my map in the Lonely Planet book. Lol...it wasn't the perfect map....obviously.
When we left San Juan, we took a taxi back to the border crossing.
Here is the route we followed:
Detail map:
