On our way to Costa Rica, we stopped in Atlanta on December 28th, and spent the night in a hostel. A fellow there named Sam regaled us with stories based on his political humour, and he kept us up (in stitches) all night. We had 3 hours sleep before heading off to catch our next plane. Thanks to the lovely Constance whom we met on the Marta, we were able to find our way to the plane!
When we arrived in Costa Rica, we hooked up with a pre-arranged ride with Mario, a friend of Greg Barrett's who took us to San Pedro. There, we landed up staying with neighbours of Greg's for two nights, the 29th and 30th. We stayed with a lovely family, including a mother, father, two sons and also, the mother's mother. This was the house in which the mother had grown up! Everyone in the family was extremely nice. We enjoyed an outing with the grandma to the local store, and although she spoke no English, we enjoyed having her show us around. We also met Joel from Nicaragua who was managing the local internet cafe.
We made arrangements to go to Cascade Verde near Uvita, but had to travel to San Isidro first. There we stayed at Hotel Chirripo. It was New Year's Eve and the whole town came out to the town square for a party. We were impressed with the mild mannered aspect of the people. The next day was New year's Day and we would not be able to take a bus to Uvita that day as there would be no buses. Instead, we met up with Charley, a local lottery ticket seller who liked a chance to practice his English, and he showed us around throughout the town. January 1st was the one day in the year when San Isidro looked abandoned. Charley explained to us that the town was normally teeming with people and activity. Later on, when we lived at Finca AMRTA, and frequented San Isidro as our local town, we were to experience what Charley was trying to describe for us firsthand.
