Renting a Car and Exploring in Nicaragua

We decided to rent a car for a week. We have been able to walk to shops and restaurants and before COVID-19 we took shuttles and taxis when we wanted to explore so we didn’t need one. We also rented the car because our visa is about to expire and the immigration office is in the next town over.

We decided to rent a car from a private owner. People do it here all the time. We were able to rent the car for a week for $160. We rented a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. We had to find an automatic because Michael has not yet learned to drive a stick shift and Judy does not want to drive all the time. We looked at renting from a car rental company. The cost right now is about $60/day. It is possible to find $30/day deals sometimes.

The car was delivered to us on Tuesday. We have been to Rivas to see about our visa extension and we have been exploring beaches. The beaches here are beautiful and empty.

Playa Maderas and Playa Marsella are just to the north of San Juan Del Sur. They have small restaurants and a few houses around the area, but for the most part they are undeveloped and pristine.

We went back to Ramanso beach. This is where Lucas and Henry took surf lessons. The beach used to be all sand. Since we have been away for a month it now is covered in rocks. This beach has great body-surfing waves.

While in Rivas we went to La Colonia. A larger grocery store. The store requires masks to be work and took everyone’s temperature and gave us hand sanitizer before we could enter. There was a woman cleaning carts before they were handed out.

We scored some great finds at this store. Lucas and Henry found Eggo Waffles. Michael found turkey lunch meat. Judy found Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  They had strawberries, but unfortunately they didn’t look good. They also had mushrooms, but it was about $8 for 4 small white mushrooms. We decided to wait on getting our mushroom fix.

We have heard that some other grocery stores are only letting one person per car into the store. People here are wearing masks, for the most part. Most stores are offering hand sanitizer when you enter and exit.

We bought a second set of masks. It makes it easier two have two sets if we head out twice in one day.

It feels good to get out of the house and take car rides. It is easy to go out here and keep our distance from others.  Renting a car was a good idea and we will probably do it again a few times before we leave.