Sorry for the delay folks, getting on to a real computer can be quite a challenge! But let me get you as up to date as I have time for.
Fortunately my first impression was wrong and I met some great people at my hostel the next day. An Aussie couple, Canadian boy, and a German girl doing a placement at our hostel. Had some beers, and good laughs sharing airport stories, and others. This topic came about because the Aussie girl had her passport (and everything else) stolen. Horror story! She was so cool about it, it was unbelievable, I think Aussies have chill down to an art (especially for people who live a Westernized lifestyle!).
So Canadian boy had met some local dudes who were really cool and took us out on the town. Have you ever tried White Russian ice cream? You should go to San Jose just to try it, REALLY! That was at the Irish pub. Yeah, I know who goes to Costa Rica to drink at an Irish pub? So it was slammed anyhow and we went to a 90s rock club, not slammed and I got to chill and dance to all the Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins I could have dreamed of. What a lovely trip back in time.
My next day in San Jose was a total lazy day, I did nothing, except shop. Not a huge fan of shopping but I got me some flip flops, duh, only I would go to a beachy kinda place without flip flops. I also went bakc the bestest jewelry stall ever and spent FOREVER picking out what I wanted. How do you pick your 3 favourite pieces of the best jewelry you´ve ever seen and you love jewelry, HOW?!
So I go back to the hostel to be totally lazy and I get on the computer and Cristiano (my friend from Tour D´Afrique) is like ´hey I hear you´re in San Jose, what areyou doing tonight?´ As if he was here already and I had no idea, so we went out in the evening, and, as usual when him and I go out we act like we won´t chill til really late but then we always end up closing the bar. It´s always good times with Cristiano and good to see him after so long.
Mission the next: pack up a few days worth of stuff (and leave the rest in storage at the hostel. What an awesome service!) and head on a bus to the west coast to see some wildlife reserve critters and to give surfing a go. The bus ride is long but so scenic and I stay awake as long as I can but it´s hot and everyone else is asleep so it´s quiet and eventually some Beatles on my ipod send me to dreamland. When I awake there´s the Pacific and I´m minutes from getting dropped off right in front of my hostel; good thing I was with the program. I bought a bus ticket to go a little further but then saw my hostel, the bus stopped 10m later, and I was like no searching for a cab to backtrack? I´m amazing!
So my hostel isn´t only at a bus stop, even better, it´s on a bank overlooking greenry immediately in front and then mountains and ocean in the background. They´ve also got a pool, hammocks, and an awesome sloth that lives in the tree right in front of the living room/kitchen area.
In the morning I head to the beach with this great Norwegian/Belgian couple I meet who are totally fun and really funny. The guy teaches me about ball tapping and a rusty hook. These are both VERY classy and entertaining moves to pull on your friends... I hesitate to describe them but feel free to ask me personally, lmao. The girl told me about the most disgusting food I could have ever imagined, apparently a very popular late night treat for Norwegians. Just imagine: a bacon wrapped cheese hot dog (sounds pretty goood, but wait!), topped with shrimp salad, relish, fried onions and wrapped in a potato tortilla. Really makes the bile rise up in my throat just thinking about it, so of course I had to share.
Waiting for the bus to the beach we met Syd, he´s a sloth, and I got to touch him cuz he was super slow and there was really nothing he could do about it. He didn´t seem to mind anyhow. He maybe the chillingest dude I´ve ever met.
At the beach we share a boogie board (me and Geergt, one of my Norwegian friends, not with Syd. Even though that would be so cool.) and I learn that my shoulder injury is definitely not going to tolerate the paddling required to surf, in fact my attempts at even paddling on boogie board are kinda pathetic but I keep on anyhow, and after soooo many attempts I finally catch a wave and gett a pretty good ride in. The effort to ride ratio for beginners-- who don´t know the first thing about reading the waves-- is really very low, but hey, it was a great workout! I also learned about why people wear rashguards, it´s to prevent from getting a rash on your tummy. Go figure! And of course, if you know me and sunglasses I can keep a pair of sunnies only if they are $5 or less, so I said goodbye to the beautiful pair of polarized and photo-light-adjusting (there´s a proper word for this I can´t remember) to the Pacific. I thought I was a big responsible girl after getting a cheap pair all the way through Africa, but not so much apparently.
After a long day in the sun we head to the bar and watch the sunset drinking Micheladas. What is that you ask? That my friends, is a great drink, really unique but perfectly refreshing; think of a crisp beer with lime, a dash of chile sauce and a lightly salted rim. Ok, it sounds weird and unappealing but one taste totally made me a convert, something I´m sure wouldn´t happen with that hotdog.
We grab a shower back at the hostel and grab a bus to Quepos for dinner and have this amazing Mexican meal. Unfortunately there wasn´t much of a nightlife or a way to get back to the hostel (unless we wanted to do a 7km night hike through a windy mountain road with speeding busses) from Quepos so we chilled at the hostel at night, but overall we had such a great crew of people there that the evenings still were good times.
Day 2 Quepos was sloth day, as in my last day to be absolutely ¨vacation lazy¨. I hung at the pool, read my book, and argued with the coked out staff at my hostel as to whether I´d paid or not because he told me he had no receipts and was trying to pocket and extra few dollars by getting me to pay again for 2 nights. In the end he forgot that when he tried to pull this scam he´d had to ask his boss about whether he should give me US or CR change for the $50 bill I paid with. That really helped to support my ¨I paid¨ case. So yeah, don´t mess with Little Spoon!
In the evening I went for dinner-- the furthest I ventured from the hostel for the day-- at the sushi place across the street, as it was recommended by some friends as must try. The presentation was lovely and the food amazing. And came with a really cool owner with a nice (but long) story about how a Nicaraguan guy living in Costa Rica comes to be a sushi chef.
Day 3 I hit up Manuel Antonio, the National Park. I saw three animals I don´t even know what they are, and I also saw an agouti. Ok I didn´t know what that was either but I heard a tour guide say it. In taking a picture of a flower I saw something move, I decided to look thinking it was a bug and it was actually the smalleest frog you can imagine. It was smaller than my pinky nail. Stop looking at your pinky, I said mine, and mine is likely smaller than yours. I did all but one trail in the park, as it´s very small. It held such beauty and the density of the forest is unbelievable. The Little beach I found after trekking through the place was almost private and very secluded relative to the others in the park. It made for a great lunch and swim spot, I met a most interesting man from LA there-- really spiritual in a somewhat strange way, but totally positive, so another unique experience with a unique soul.
The night back at the hostel was just another great evening with the same cool crew and off to bed... until 2:00am when I awoke with violent shits and puking my guts out until 5:00am. So this is what food poisoning is like?! And I later find out from a friend that Costa Rica in particular is known for its seafood food poisoning mishaps on the Pacific side, and I decided to have raw fish, too little too late! The bus ride home the following day made me a less than fun travel partner for my Canadian friends (who have soooo many friends in common but we´d never met. Small world!), fortunately they were really cool about it and in fact really helpful (thank you Corissa and Calen!).
Now that´s the solo travel bit done. Time for the next TDA adventure to begin; to DOOMSDAY!
