This weekend was another three day weekend because of the Costa Rican Mother's Day. I decided to return to Nicaragua again and visit a beach there. I arrived at the Costa Rican side of the border just in time to stand in a long line. Then it was a 1km walk across the border where the line was far shorter. It was a short bus ride to the nearby city of Rivas, which had lots of old colonial buildings. Then it was a taxi ride to town of San Juan del Sur which is a town right on the beach.

The town is in a harbor which has historical significance. Before the Panama Canal was built, the easiest way to cross Central America was to travel down the San Juan River, cross Lake Nicaragua and move your stuff 20 km overland on a tram to San Juan del Sur. Now the town is a tourist town and has a lot of really nice restaurants and places to stay. My hotel was very clean and pretty and only cost 10 dollars. There was a really good pizzeria and a laid back cafe that served an excellent cinnamon french toast. The beach itself was somewhat crowded but had good waves that were fun to play in. I was initially confused because I assumed the time would be the same as Costa Rica because that's how it was the last time I was there. But apparently they have Daylight Saving Time from April to September in Nicaragua for some reason. Considering the sun rises at close to 6 am and sets at close to 6 pm all year round, I don't really get why they use it, but they must have some good reason. Another problem I had was my camera. Unfortunately none of the buttons work any more, and my camera was full and I was unable to delete anymore, so I was only able to take a few pictures in Nicaragua. Next time I have to remember to delete the pictures before I go.

An interesting event in Nicaragua is that the presidential elections are coming up in November. Politics are a big deal there and the newspapers were full of news about the election. The Sandanista party, which is hated by the States because of its Communist origins, is the front runner as of now. The party and the leader, Daniel Ortega, were in power for about 5 or 6 years during the 80's after they overthrew the former dictator, fought against the Contras, and instituted a democracy. Then they lost the subsequent elections. There were a lot of red and black Sandanista flags flying and a bunch of impromptu parades popped up when I was there. A lesser known presidential candidate for a different party actually made a personal appearance in one of the parades. It would be interesting to come back when the election is closer.

On Sunday evening I decided to take a tour to see the turtles. From July to November it is egg-laying season for the turtles and there is a beach about 10 km from San Juan Del Sur where they sometimes gather in the thousands to lay eggs. The group of about 10 of us took an extremely bumpy ride on an open back truck to the beach. We passed through one large Sandanista political rally and a large number of fireflies before arriving at the beach. It's impossible to predict when the thousands of turtles will come and when I went there were only a few turtles but it was still an interesting experience. The turtles are pretty clumsy on land so they need a flat beach with soft diggable sand. They used their flippers to dig the hole, lay 50 or more eggs, then clumsily cover the eggs back up. They didn't seem to mind the people too much, but you had to be very careful with lights or the turtles might get confused and head off to the jungle.

Coming back to Costa Rica on Monday involved a collective taxi to Rivas, a collective taxi to the border, zero waiting time at the Nicaraguan side, two hours of waiting at the Costa Rican side, a bus to Liberia and then finally a bus back to Bagaces. It's probably only about a three hour drive, but with all the waiting at the border and changing of buses it took 6 or 7 hours to get back.

The last two weeks I spent mostly in Bagaces. The last couple of Fridays some of the people in the company here have organized soccer games against various other teams in Bagaces. Apparently Bagaces has about 30 teams that play soccer regularly. We played in a full-sized field in town with 11 players on each team and we even had a referee giving out red and yellow cards. We had about 5 or 6 other players who don't work here but played for us anyway. Our team won the first game, but lost the next two. I was surprised that we even competed because we never practiced together and one of the other teams even had a real coach. It is a lot of fun even if it is too hot, and it brought back memories of playing soccer on the big field when I was a kid.

In work we are ready to ship the first new machines with the software next week. The software is still partially under development but it is functioning well and some of the customers are ready for the new machines. Also, Mark, the guy from the States, returned after a couple of months traveling through the States and Europe and is happy to be back working here.

For the last two weeks Liberia has held a big exposition celebrating the joining of the Guanacaste province to the rest of Costa Rica. July 25 was the actual day of the joining and is celebrated as a national holiday throughout Costa Rica. The Liberia fair went from July 21 to July 31.

On the first Saturday, me and Sarah, the new girl from the States, went to check out the fair. The first weekend was slower and they were still setting up some of the tents, but there were still a lot of people there. Many of the tents were temporary restaurants, some were selling different Guanacaste cowboy stuff and there was also, strangely, a large number of car and other machinery dealerships set up. I guess some people need something to drive home after the fair. The biggest buildings by far were the three or four temporary bars set up in one corner of the fair. The bars were two and three stories high, and in the night they were crammed with people and extremely loud. We watched a bunch of horse competitions because Sarah was involved in similiar competitions in the States. The horses here are smaller and the riding style is different but it was still entertaining.

In the evening we bought tickets for the rodeo. They brought in two truckloads of bulls and each one had a rider who would try to stay on as long as possible. There were a couple of bullfighters with red capes in the ring who would distract the bull when it knocked the rider off. Also, any spectator could jump in the ring at any time for a thrill. They had two ambulances waiting outside the ring with a special door to shove injured people through. One guy got his foot caught in a rope and he was shoved through to the ambulance. After the bull calmed down, two men on horseback came out with lassoes and roped the bull. It was very entertaining, but I didn't try my luck outsmarting the bull in the ring.

The next weekend was a three day weekend because of the Guanacaste day holiday. On Saturday we returned to Liberia because they had a big concert. Unfortunately it was raining very hard and we got soaked and muddy. The concert was still packed and the entire fairground was full of people despite the weather. It was a Spanish reggae band which is extremely popular in Costa Rica, especially with the kids in my family. The band was very popular and people looked like they were having a good time despite the rain and the mud.

The rest of the weekend we spent at Playa de Coco, a nearby beach. It had a lots of good restaurants and tours for snorkelling and scuba diving and other things. The beach was nice, but rather small and crowded.