Man oh man. Have not stopped. Spent my first flight from Seattle (on 3 hours of sleep) sitting next to a 19-year-old mother and her 1 and 2 year olds. We chatted, babysat, good times actually. 5-hour layover in Atlanta, rested a bit but didn't sleep really. Pff who needs sleep? Second flight. Got into San Jose 9:45. Went through immigrations, really friendly and fast, and waited in baggage claim for an hour for Steve. Turned out his flight was late, I was SO worried he'd left already! But as it turns out he's totally amazing. We get along super-awesomely (he even called me a dirty hippie this morning, just like Anjulie does!), he's really funny and easy to talk to.
So we caught a cab to Heredia, a town like Burnaby in that it's part of San Jose, only not. Whatever. A friend of his friend lives here, a really cool Costa Rican fluent in English but teaching me some CR slang and stuff. Found out the friend of a friend has another American staying here too, Matt. We all hit it off brilliantly. Talked about politics and government until 3:30am. Juan Carlos (host) and Steve slept upstairs, I found out that Matt has a hammock set up out on the little porch, so I set up mine beside him. We talked for another hour before we fell asleep.
Woke up, chilly, at 6 or 7 to the sounds of the city. Got up to get my eye mask to block out the sunlight, laid back down. 10 seconds later my hammock completely let out and shocked the crap out of me. I opened my eyes to find myself flat on back on the hard concrete. Ouch. Slept in the living room after that.
Woke up at 9 and spent the next 9 hours wandering the city with the guys. Gallo pinto for breakfast. LOVE IT. Pinto beans, rice, spice of some sort, sour cream, mmmm. CR food! Bought a Costa Rican sno cone (way nicer than the ones we have! it' s like...layer of crushed ice, syrup, powdered milk, another layer of crushed ice, more syrup, and a topping of some sort of sweet icing/milk. Mmmmmm. Ate it in the park. Took BILLIONS of photos. Sweated- it's hot here! Saw the grafitti art of the city, explored everywhere until 6pm. Had a beer. Went to a film festival from 8-9 when we got bored, then to the bar. Found a really rad group- American guy biking from Alaska to Chile, a Peruvian girl, German girl, Dutch guy, and French guy. Hung out forever, everyone had at least 1 conversation with each other person. Shots and politics, adventure talk and plans. Saw some sexy tranny hookers on the way home, only we thought they were girls. Nice legs.
Matt's coming to Bocas del Toro, Panama with us tomorrow! We're gonna party it up and snorkle and everything we can possibly do! Love these guys to death. Juan Carlos shows us markets, gives us food, guides us around town, and is such a sweetheart. Very smart, girlfriend is the same but quieter.
So this morning is the first chance I got on a computer, there are like no long-distance phones here like there were all over South America! So different, but similar at the same time.
Anywho, love to everyone! Off to Bocas tomorrow!
