Our rental house north of San Juan del Sur (in southern Nicaragua) was exactly what we were looking for.  In fact, we loved it so much we decided that we wanted it for the month of December as well!  There was a lot of drama and incorrect information given to us while we were waiting for the go ahead on the rental agreement.  At one point we were told we couldn’t rent the house at all.  There were too many people involved (owner in Canada, her friend representing her in Nicaragua, the real estate agents and us) and we were given some conflicting information, as people weren’t really sure if the house was capable of legally being rented at the time.  We really wanted the house so we continued to press for the correct information and were finally able to come to an agreement with everyone involved.  (Read on …)

The night before crossing the border from El Salvador into Honduras we stayed at a gas station about 45 minutes away from the border. We got up early and were at the El Amatillo border crossing at 8:15 a.m. It was a good thing too, since it was the worst border crossing we had experienced so far; we didn’t leave until 1:30 p.m.! The border “helpers” were the most persistent they have ever been hanging on the RV and Aaron was eventually forced to yell at the top of his lungs several times to convince them we did not need their assistance. They are men with ID tags hanging around their necks “confirming” they are legit and trying to sell their services at the border to help people get through. We speak Spanish and have never used one until we crossed into El Salvador, and even then it was proven that we shouldn’t have. (Read on …)