That was one very long boat trip. I boarded the passenger/cargo ship in Granada to begin what was billed as a 14 hour cruise to the other end of Lago de Nicaragua and the town of San Carlos.

About 18 hours later, early this morning, we arrived. The story involves huge piles of green bananas, fears of sinking and a crazed woman pressing her huge chest and belly into my back. Then there's the neurotic Americans in whose break down-prone van I hitched a ride and their extremely detailed description of the inner workings of the carburetor.

"I was sure we were going under."
The boat was about the size of a rich person's yacht. But instead of a family and deck hands, this one was loaded with at least 150 people and enough cargo to sink us twice. I don't know much about boats, but it seemed to be riding very low in the water. When the winds whipped up and started jolting us into the air and plopping us down hard onto the water, I was sure we were going under. Since there obviously were not enough lifeboats, my plan was to swim as quickly as possible away from the boat then return to look for something to float with. My thinking was that the panicked people would pull me under in the initial seconds. I would wait out the panic safely away and return when it was over. Having had a bus catch on fire, I really do think about what I'm gonna do if things go horribly wrong.

But we didn't sink... not even with the huge woman who'd half-molested me in the ticket line. There was plenty of room for the line... an entire parking lot. But she was right behind me and insisted on pressing hard up against my back and leaning on my backpack which was on the ground next to me. She also mouth-breathed loudly on my back.

After a couple of hours of intermittent sleep we arrived in San Carlos in the early daylight hours. I went straight to another boat that takes you down the river and into Costa Rica. Also on board were two American guys who were down planning some kind of business venture and home building or something. They offered me a ride so San Jose in their van. The only problem was that after lunch the van wouldn't start. One went off like three times to buy parts to fix the battery while the other offered intricately detailed explanations of the problem. At one point he was making a large hourglass shape gesture with his hands and describing the inner workings of the carburetor, which apparently is shaped like such a structure.

Costa Rica is amazing. Crossing the border one could immediately see that this country is very different from anywhere I've been yet. There are no huge piles of garbage. There are far, far fewer dirty shacks lining the roads. It seems to even smell better. Consequently there are far more tourists here than I've seen anywhere since Cancun. I need to keep moving toward South America, so I'll stay a few days and maybe hit a beach town on the way south to Panama and my flight to Ecuador.