I never used to purchase travel insurance. It was “too expensive”, “I never get sick”, “I am going on that trip, nothing can or will stop me”. We all have our own excuses. I began purchasing travel insurance about 2 years ago, when I started as an independent travel agent after reading more about coverages and so forth. Now I don’t have to worry about what happens if I need to cancel a trip that has non-refundable elements, like air fare, tours, prepaid hotels, etc., or if something happens while on a trip.

While I have never yet needed to cancel a trip or any portion of it, the value of having travel insurance paid off while my wife and I were in Costa Rica in April. She contracted some sort of gastrointestinal virus a few days into the trip and by the third day spent more time in the bathroom than by the pool. Her condition rapidly deteriorated on day four and we went to the local clinic in La Fortuna, Costa Rica to seek medical attention. After a three hour IV drip injection and some medicine, she spent the remainder of the day in bed. We had to cancel two prepaid local excursions and pay for the clinic and medications, which totaled almost $300, with our credit card.  U.S. medical insurance and Medicare typically do not cover you in foreign countries and you are responsible for paying the bills while at the hospital or before getting treated, in most cases. When we got home we filed a claim and had no problem collecting the money for our expenses from our insurance carrier (Allianz).  While most trips go off without a hitch, I think having travel insurance, especially when traveling outside the U.S.,  is the right choice.

On you next trip, whether you book your trip with me or not, contact me to purchase travel insurance. Bill Moniz.

Why would anyone want to go to Nicarauga and El Salvador? For me the short answer is because I have never been there. Primarily known for their communist controlled governments and poverty, these two countries offer some great beaches, volcanoes, friendly people and less costly travel than other countries in Central America.  While you need to be prepared for abject poverty, crime in the major cities, slow travel conditions on the roadways, such as horse and donkey drawn carts on the highways, and dirt roads off the main highways, I found these two countries to be very interesting and enjoyable.

I spent a total of 5 days in Nicaragua to get a feel for the country. Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, is a short 1 1/2 hours flight from San Jose, Costa Rica. I used Nature Air, a Costa Rican airline, and the cost was $146 one way. Managua is not a city you want to stay in or visit, even the local tour operators don’t like to stay too long at some of the tourist  sites in the city. From what I saw driving in from the airport, I was glad I chose to only spend the night there, at the “best” hotel in the city, the Real Intercontinental Metrocenter. It was a very  nice hotel, and I suppose for Managua, with all its recent past problems with wars and earthquakes it probably was the best.

The next morning I took a previously arranged $35 taxi ride to Granada, a picturesque town on Lake Nicaragua, about 90 minutes south of Managua. The drive was uneventful and the main highway was actually in better condition than any road I was on in Costa Rica. I stayed two nights at the Casa San Francisco Hotel, a charming 9 room hotel just a few blocks from the main streets and plaza of the town. As previously mentioned, April is the end of the dry season and it was very hot and humid during my stay. The town was pretty much deserted around 2 PM as people tried to find shelter from the heat. Granada was the former capital of Nicaragua three or four hundred years ago and has kept its colonial atmosphere, with many of the building still made of adobe and having tile roofs. Many American and Canadians have retired there.  The town sits at the base of two volcanoes, so guided tours will take you to the hiking trails to the top. One of the highlights is to take the night walk through the lava caves, but due to recent earthquakes in Nicaragua just before and during my stay, they were closed. Therefore, my only volcano tour was to Mombacho, an hour outside Granada and 1400 meters (4200 feet) high. Not the most spectacular volcano I am sure, but it did afford beautiful views of Granada and Lake Nicaragua.  There are boat tours on the Lake to the “Isletas” (islands) and also kayaking through the islands to Monkey Island, so called because some scientists places a couple of species on the island to be able to study their behavior. Apparently all did not go as planned and the project was abandoned, with all but one of one of the species still alive and the other species seeming to be holding on. No one is allowed on the island.

My next stop was San Juan Del Sur, on the southern Pacific coast about 25 miles from the Costa Rican border. It was an easy 2 hour bus ride ($15) and the main part of the town is situated on a very nice bay that is also a cruise ship stopover. With many fishing boats in the harbor, people surfing, playing volleyball or just sitting on the sand, it was a very peaceful and relaxed place to end my tour of Nicaragua. I stayed at the La Posada Azul, a very comfortable small boutique hotel right around the corner from the beach and the restaurants lining the beach. With the weather still hot and humid, the hotel pool was a very nice place to relax at night with a cold beer. A two hour car ride back to Managua on day 5 got me to the airport in time for my flight to El Salvador.

The flight to El Salvador took about 1 1/2 hours and the airport is about one hour taxi ride to the capital, San Salvador. I stayed three nights at the Sheraton Presidente, a very nice hotel with a large pool in the safe part of the city (Zona Rosa). With only two days to see what I could, I hired Marcos Guirola to guide me around the area. He is very knowledgeable of the area and took me to his father’s country club on Lake Ilopango, located in the  caldera of an extinct volcano, for kayaking on the lake and lunch. A very beautiful place, however the weather was not accommodating, with fog/low clouds covering the mountains. The remainder of the day was planned to go to one of the volcanoes overlooking San Salvador, however with the low cloud cover there was no point in driving up to see more clouds and most likely rain. I settled for an afternoon at the pool, which in itself is not so bad. The next day the weather was not much better and though there were plenty of sites to see or visit, I chose to stay at the hotel and relax.  The following morning was the flight home, so in reality my El Salvador trip was somewhat of a bust from a site seeing standpoint. However, I did meet some nice people, enjoyed the food, and pretty much figure El Salvador is similar to Nicaragua in landscape, climate and people.

If you are interested traveling to either of these two countries I can help you plan your trip. Give me a call or email me at bill@billmoniztravel.com.

In April my wife and I spent eight days on our first visit to Costa Rica. April is a transitory month in Central America: the end of the dry season and start of the rainy season, so you can get lots of sun or lots of cloudy days with sporadic rain. We had some sunny days, some cloudy overcast days and some localized downpours. The locals informed me that it really gets wet in May and continues through October, although certain parts of the country are typically dry even in the wet season.  Our trip started in San Jose, where we stayed at the Costa Rica Marriott for the first night, before setting off on our first adventure: river rafting on the Picuare River, followed by two nights at the Tortuguero Lodge in the Tortuguero National Park (one of the last remaining large areas of tropical rainforest in Central America) located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.  The rafting was pretty good, not many class III and no class IV rapids, as advertized, but it was the end of the dry season. The Tortuguero Lodge is accessible only by plane (40 minutes from San Jose) or by motor boat, 1 1/2 hours from some point down river. A very nice lodge with very good food, a nice pool and a mini- jungle walk in the back of it where birds, frogs and butterflies abound. Highly recommend it if your budget allows.

On day 4 we flew back to San Jose and rented a car. I would not recommend renting a car in Costa Rica – the main road through San Jose is the Pan American Highway, but it is very congested and typically only two lanes. I was warned about the bad roads, traffic and general difficulty of driving in Costa Rica, but I have a somewhat adventuresome spirit that was sorely tested by this place.  Additionally, if you don’t have liability insurance from your credit card, the cost of renting can be very high (GPS is a must).  We were to drive  to La Fortuna, all of 100 or so miles north west of San Jose.  What should have been a 2 hour trip turned into 3 1/2, what with curvy mountain roads, slow moving traffic (including horse and donkey carts), villages where speed bumps slowed us to 25 kph (about 15 MPH), police stopping cars randomly, one lane bridges that alternated between yielding or not, and some down right crazy drivers cutting corners, driving in the wrong lane, you name it.

La Fortuna is the gateway to Arenal National Park and its volcano. The area is known for it’s hot springs, hiking, river rafting, ATVing and many other outdoor adventure activities. With so many things to do in the area you definitely need more than a two nights stay, which is what we did. We stayed at the Volcano Lodge and Resort, which had several hot pools as well as swimming pools. Not a bad place for the money. Besides my wife getting sick during our stay and one day of heavy rain,  the one day of good weather did allow me to visit the Hanging Bridges and see the volcano without clouds.

On Day 6 our next destination was Dominical, a couple of hundred miles south of La Fortuna on the west coast (Pacific Ocean), where we stayed two nights at the Waterfall Villas (Cascadas Farallas). This was another trying drive, with what was supposed to be a 5+ hour drive turning into 7, due in part to the Easter holidays, but also to the terrible road conditions – the new superhighway from San Jose to Manual Antonio National Park thru Jaco and Quipos was nicely paved but the two lanes on each side had a nasty habit of ending as you approached a hill, with no passing lanes – creating lots of opportunities for the locals to show their skills at darting in and out of traffic and causing near fatal accidents. Apparently Costa Rican authorities don’t believe in building bridges with two lanes on both sides of the bridge as every one becomes one lane in each direction.

The Waterfall Villas web site shows beautiful flowing waterfalls running though the property where you can sun bath on the rocks. Because of the dry season the waterfalls were rather small. The villas are best for honeymooners, yoga enthusiasts and vegans, none of which we are. Dominical’s beaches are good for surfing and beach activities.  We had a good time on the beaches and the local food was very good.

On day 7 we left for San Jose and our final hotel, the Doubletree Inn. As we had such a tough drive going through Jaco and Quipos from San Jose, we decided to go over the mountains and up the Pan American Highway, via San Isidro. Another mistake. This road was winding, narrow, packed with slow moving cars and trucks, but only took around 3 hours to go 90 miles. On day 8 my wife needed to return home to resume work on Monday, so she departed at 6AM and I headed north to Nicaragua for another 8 days of travel.

So all in all, I accomplished what I set out to do: drive around Costa Rica, see the Caribbean, volcanos/mountains and Pacific coast. Should we return to Costa Rica we will not drive, we will fly to our destinations and probably stay two weeks to really relax and see the sights.

If you are interested traveling to Costa Rica I can help you plan your trip. Give me a call or email me at bill@billmoniztravel.com.