Getting around on the Emerald Coast

Now that we have been in Tola a few weeks we are learning some things that one has to be here to know about. One of the things we learned has to do with getting around. Because the beaches of Tola are a popular tourist destination, and also being close to San Juan del Sur, there are quite a few options for transportation. Of course having your own vehicle makes things easier and this is what many here have, but if you don't have a car or you are just here for a short visit you still have a lot of options.

Sadly, many tourists get stuck with an opportunistic taxi driver that charges them astronomical prices, essentially a penalty for their ignorance. Taking the bus is very easy just like anywhere in Nicaragua. From Rivas which is the main city in the department, there are buses directly to Tola, Playa gigante, popoyo, San Juan del Sur, and many other locations. most of these cost less than a dollar, including the one to San Juan Del Sur. These buses run every day, so be careful not to be fooled by a sly taxi driver. Many times we have been approached by one and told "there are no more buses today, you will have to wait until tomorrow... but I can take you" Or something along those lines. They have no shame in lying about the bus schedules and the prices.

SJDS

Now if you have some bags and you're not comfortable riding the chicken bus you can take a taxi. But be careful of any taxi drivers that approach YOU. It is better if YOU are the one to select the taxi. The car doesn't have to be pretty, but in Nicaragua the law is that all taxis have a special liscence plate, this means they are a legitimate registered taxi. It is white with black letters/numbers and TWO RED BARS. One at the top, and one at the bottom. If there are no red bars, it is not a taxi. Anyone can buy the yellow taxi sign, it has to have the red bars on the licence plate. Another tip is if they tell you the price in dollars, just walk away. Also avoid people that speak English. They learn English in order to take advantage of white tourists. Its helpful to look online, some expats in San Juan del Sur have a facebook page that includes average prices for taxis to common locations.

Colletivo terminal in Rivas

The other option with taxis, and this is personally one of my favorite, is to take what is called a "collectivo" or "collective taxi". These are licensed taxis that are contracted to run one particular route. They sit in the market right next to the bus terminal, and wait until they have enough passengers going to a specific place to fill the car, and then they leave. A collectivo to San Juan del Sur from Rivas costs 50 cordobas. That is less than two dollars. To Tola from rivas is 25 cords, just less than one dollar. You may have to wait 5-10 minutes but you will get there twice as fast as the bus. A private taxi will rightfully charge more than this, but if someone comes up to you asking $20, just walk away, don't bother negotiating the price with them because you already know they are a thief.

Riding in the Collectivo

Blue dot is the location of the collectivo
taxis for both SJDS and Tola

I'm not against paying more money for a service that may be better, and its totally fair that some people don't want the hassle of finding the Collectivo, or asking prices in Spanish. But the real danger is that if someone is opportunistic and dishonest enough to target a foreigner to try and take advantage of his ignorance, what else is he capable of doing? I heard one story here in Nicaragua where a wealthy individual offered a taxi driver $150 to drive them around all day. That was a generous offer as they probably would have normally made $10-$20 in the whole day. Was the driver grateful? No... upon learning that her fare had that kind of money she decided to meet with some friends and rob the person of everything else they had, which was a few thousand dollars in cash. The driver was arrested of course and got away with nothing, but it just shows the danger of flashing large amounts of cash around.

Tola

On may first we successfully made the move to Tola. It was a great help that my Brother in law was able to come with his truck and we could pile everything in there so as not to move all our belongings using the chicken bus, which would have been challenging to say the least.

Our apartment in Jinotepe was fully furnished, so one adjustment has been moving into an empty house. We had to get chairs, various appliances, and somehow find a place to store our clothes and other things. We still have our metal grid that snaps together that we got as a wedding gift, so that worked for the clothes. Right now we're working on getting some concrete blocks and planks to make other furniture such as a counter top and a bench/couch. I may post pictures later on, depending how good (or bad) it looks when I'm done. We may also try with palates, although apparently in Nicaragua used palates are not cheap since they are so sought after that no one gives them away for free.

So far we are enjoying our new town. We are close to the street so we have some traffic noise at busy hours but otherwise its a very quiet town. Going in service is amazing, as we have mostly rural territory, and since we are a now in a Spanish congregation we don't need to do search work. This means long walks through the jungle going to farms and plantations, and also witnessing to staff members at beach side restaurants.

Getting internet here was not too difficult either. We tried with CooTel first, which is a new company in Nicaragua. They offered a wireless router with speeds up to 1.5 mbps upload and download unlimited for $20 a month. This is pretty great, since upload is the one that really matters for teaching online. We had a $50 per month deal with Claro in Jinotepe which gave us 3 mbps download, but only 0.3 to 0.5 upload (we were paying for 1 mbs upload which is the fastest they offer). Unfortunately the signal did not reach our house and we had to take it back. I asked very clearly several times and made them confirm that if it didn't work I would get my money back. Imagine my surprise when we took it back and they said they would not offer a refund. So now I am the proud owner of a useless orange box with an antenna on it.

Reluctantly, we went to the Claro office to see about getting a contract for internet, having in mind all the horrible customer service experiences from the past, and the constant, sometimes month long service outages of the Atlantic coast. Happily though, they surprised me this time. Apparently the company is under different management in each department, and the Rivas department of Claro runs a very different kind of business. We filled out the papers in Jean's name (I could have done it in my name, but they wanted a larger deposit for a foreigner than for a local). On the way home we stopped for Ice cream, and then continued walking. We were passed by a small white van with a ladder on top and we started joking that it was Claro on the way to our house to set up the internet. When does a cable company ever come the same day, right?

Well the van pulled over next to our house and then Jean's phone rang. Guess who?

Within about an hour we were set up with the fastest Internet I have ever had in Nicaragua. We are paying for 4 mbs down and 1.5 mbs up, we get about 5 and 3 mbs, regardless of the time of day. Along with that package we get cable TV... if only we had a TV. So next to our router there is a lovely coil of black cable waiting for a TV to appear so it can fulfill its life purpose.