Although I had promised to call my friend Karol upon arrival in San Jose, I thought it would be too late at night and we went to "Tranquilo Backpackers" instead. I am mentioning it because it is a great place and I definitely recommend it if you are planning to stay in the city. Any hostel with real hot showers that look like they were made by Gaudi is worth a visit, I think!

Anyways...

Moving to Karol`s house was quite a change in lifestyle, as for the first time in weeks Silje and I were sleeping in separate rooms... We soon got over the shock, and learned to live with our newfound privacy :-)

San Jose lies in a valley surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. On our first night, Karol and her fiancee Marcelo took us far up the hillside to a bar/restaurant with a stunning view of the city. The car felt almost vertical going up... Over beer and snacks we decided to head off on a weekend trip together, all eager to see some nature instead of concrete. The only problem was that since Costa Rica is so small almost anywhere is within easy weekend-reach... We were spoilt for choice - not a bad situation to be in, really!

Our plans to explore a few mountains and volcanoes got scrapped the next morning as we couldn`t find a 4x4 rentacar. Instead, we headed off in Karol`s sedan to Manuel Antonio NP on the Pacific coast.

The drive was beautiful, taking us over San Jose`s surrounding mountains, through river valleys and out to the ocean. It was nice to go by car for a change as we could stop along the way. Marcelo & Karol pulled off near a bridge, nearly scaring the c$%& out of both us and themselves when we saw the creatures that inhabited the river below... Having lived in Florida I thought I had seen some big gators, but the crocodiles peering evilly up at us here were in a weight-class of their own. OK, I may have been imagining the peering part, but it`s hard not to feel a wee bit nervous around a bunch of 3 meter long monsters that could have all of us for dinner with room for dessert.

Taking our time, we arrived in Manuel Antonio after dark thinking we could get a room at any one of the 50 (?) hotels right outside the park. Oh, how wrong we were... After getting the "sorry, we`re full" message from every hotel on the strip, we ended up at the first place we had checked (and quickly rejected), a run-down, musty motel with two horrible rooms to spare. Silje and I volunteered for the privilege of staying in the back yard of the building, in a room and area clearly not intended for guests. We were delighted to see a machete casually laying about right next to our room, and also to have the company of a 10cm long cockroach and a colony of ants. We burnt mosquito spirals all night long to cover up the smell (-of death by machete??).

After a night out with dinner in an old train (?!), drinks in an old fighter plane (??!!) and more drinks at a sketchy rooftop gay bar (which we all enjoyed except Marcelo), we fortunately didn`t have any great problems sleeping or dealing with our pets...

With the hangover and the heat, we were all moving slooow in the park the next day... Manuel Antonio is a beautiful place, and quite a hit with both locals on weekend trips and the elderly safari-gear-wearing cruiseship crowd. Wherever we turned, another tour group was busy spotting birds and other wildilfe through powerful binoculars, so we ended up getting a semi-guided walk through the park without paying a cent for it :-) The amazing thing is that despite the crowds (or because of the crowds, ironically), the wildlife in Manuel Antonio is unusually tame. The animals just go about their business unless tourists come too close, so we ended up seeing more animals in a couple of hours` walk here than in six days in the jungle... Colorful Toucans, lazy sloths, two kinds of monkeys and several of some black, furry, 1m long ground-walking animal that I forgot the name of... The highlight was watching a family of cute, tiny monkeys with white faces (Cariblancos) hanging out on a branch just a couple of meters from us. I will get pictures up soon... After our energy ran out we crashed on a beautiful beach, slept for a while, and went for a swim in the warmest ocean water I`ve ever been in.

A nice, slow weekend that ended way too fast... Six short weeks in Mexico & Central America that definitely ended too fast... Before I knew it I was on a plane heading for the mountains of Ecuador, wondering if it will be another five years until the next time I see Karol... I hope not.