The charter airline we travelled on stopped at Managua, Nicaragua before continuing on to Liberia, Costa Rica. Our plan was to go to Nicaragua - air only. But for whatever reason there were no air only seats available to Managua. There were seats for Liberia, but not Managua. The answer to the previous question would be too crazy to even try and explain. 

Anyway, in 2001 the world of airline travel had not yet gone crazy. So, Elenka and I bought return tickets to Liberia, took carry-on only and simply got off the plane when it stopped in Managua, paid the tourist card fee and went out and hailed a cab. We went to the top of Masaya Volcano - by cab - where the fumes were so bad we could only stay for a minute - a couple of weeks later, Masaya erupted and fired large boulders hundreds of metres down the mountain. One car was damaged, if I recall. The driver then took us to the Masaya street market and then on to Granada where we stayed at a wonderful old place called Posada Don Alfredo. Our room was huge, with a very high ceiling. 

When it was time to go home, the craziness arose once again. Because we had purchased return tickets to Costa Rica, we had to make our way to Costa Rica in order to return home. It was Semana Santa and we had to wait at the border for hours in order to go onward. But, the trip was fortuitous. It was where I decided to become a hammock importer which began a couple of years later. And we wound up staying our only night in Costa Rica - before the flight home - at Marc's Place at Playa Hermosa. At place we would return to often.