Backpacking Trip 2010

We are leaving San Jose today and headed east to Puerto Viejo! Contrary to what we had heard about San Jose, we have thoroughly enjoyed this busy city! It has similarities to Miami (the driving) and NY (the hustle and bustle). Yesterday Katie and I ventured out, we decided to just keep walking until we didn´t want to anymore. We found so many beautiful parks, art, mercados (markets), and local hang outs. We managed to navigate the city on our own without asking for directions, which we were very proud about! We came back to our hostel briefly and then took a 15 minute bus ride to San Pedro, a close neighboring city. The receptionist at the hostel, Vinzente, said he was going to San Pedro to meet his girl friend at the Universidad de Costa Rica and he would show us how to get there. So, we got great advice from this friendly tico about La Fortuna (where he is from) and got recommendations (getting advice from the locals has been the BEST!) and had a great time just talking and learning. We got to San Pedro and followed him to the Universidad, the we went our separate ways. Katie and I decided to walk the campus, which was basically a school in the middle of a gorgeous and lush forest. We explored the city, then decided to find a spot to stop and eat. We kept walking until we found just the right spot; a local hotspot called Bufalos. That was when & where we experienced our first prejudice. It is also where I had the best veggie nachos I´ve ever eaten and also where we discovered malfado, a green colored kind-of-like-a-beer drink. We hung out there for longer than we had planned (because of the prejudice, it took about 3 times as long to order, get our drinks, then our food) and by that time it was dark and we needed to head back to San Josue because we had plans to meet up with our new roomies, Bibi and Shannon, and one of the employees at the hostel, Jonathon, to go out dancing! So, we bused back to San Jose, navigated the city again, this time in the dark (it gets pitch black here at 5:30pm) and found our way successfully (we´re finally getting a hang of things). When Katie and I got back, one of our original roommates, Veronica, had gotten back from Monteverde and she was going to come out with us, too! So, me, Katie, Bibi, Veronica and Shannon all went out! We were going to be meeting Jonathon at a bar close to the hostel, called Poas (like a volcano here), and then he was going to take us out dancing! When we met up with Jonathon, he had brought a friend, Paolo, to come out too, so it ended up being seven of us! Paolo spoke VERY little english so it was difficult trying to communicate with him but luckily Shannon speaks fluent spanish as well as Jonathon so we were all able to communicate well. Me and Katie have been wanting to go out at night since we got here but we didn´t weren´t going out by ourselves and we´ve ended up going to bed before 10pm every night because we´ve just been tired. So, we finally got to go out and see San Jose at night, with some ticos, and we knew they´d take us to a cool place. We all ended up taking a bus back to San Pedro to a district called Calle 3, basically a strip of bars, and went to a place called Terra O, a total local hot spot. We hung out there until around 11pm and the girls (Shannon, Bibi and Veronica) were tired and wanted to go back to the hostel (Bibi is flying out today, Veronica has a job interview, and Shannon was just tired). The last bus was at 11 and they had just missed it so we all walked San Pedro until we found a cab terminal. It was sooooooo much fun, all of us walking the city, talking, laughing, taking pictures. We had a blast! We all rendevoused back at the hostel but Katie and weren´t ready to turn in yet, after all, it was our first night out in the city and we are leaving today. So, me, Katie, Jonathon and Paolo went to a place by the hostel to play pool. By that time, all of the prostitutes had come out. Prostitution is legal here and I was kind of disappointed I hadn´t seen a prostitute yet! lol. Well, we saw plenty last night, it was insane! And probably the most insane part about it, is that they are all transvestites!!!!! The guys here say it is so wrong they are men because they are so pretty! lol. They call them ¨pretty men.¨ I tried not to make eye contact! lol. Anyway, we went to this hole in the wall place and played about six games of pool. What we think is a bad pool table and pool stick in the states is nothing close to a bad pool table and pool sticks here! lol. We switched partners for the first two games, then the guys said, ¨guys against girls.¨Katie and I won the last four games and the boys ended up buying all of our drinks because we kept winning! haha. Then we called it a night and the guys walked us back to the hostel, passing about ten more transvestite prostitutes on the way! We had such an amazing day, walking and exploring all day, then going out with our awesome roommates and dancing, then going out with our new tico amigos and playing pool! Yesterday was the first day it hadn´t rained in a very long time and everyone was excited about it! As much fun as we´ve had in San Jose, we are greatly looking forward to moving on to a new city. We´ve been here three nights and today is our fourth day and we have already been fully exposed and emersed in the culture here. It feels like we´ve been here two weeks already, based on how many (AMAZING) people we´ve met and things we´ve done and things we´ve seen! We´ve met and made so many new friends, ticos, ticas and gringos and gringas! We have to check out in a few hours and then we´re taking a five hour bus ride to the Caribbean coast to the hippy/rasta surf town of Puerto Viejo. We´ll be staying at a hostel called Rockin´Js where we can sleep in a hammock for $5/day or a tent for $6/day (I´ll be doing the hammock thing!). We´ve heard from many people that we will love Puerto Viejo and Rockin Js is the place to be! We´re not sure how long we´ll be staying there but after that we have a loose plan to go to Monteverde. We actually know people who are going there or are there or will be there and we´d like to meet back up with them there. We´ve got a loose plan to go to Monteverde, then Arenal, La Fortuna, Liberia, then the Guanacaste region, then traveling down the coast. Again, it is all tentative because if we meet people and they recommend a place to go and convince us, we will go, which is how we found out about Puerto Viejo. So, I´ll keep in touch and let you all know when I know! My spanish has improved greatly and I have already grown as a person in just the short time we´ve been here. I could get used to this!

I´ll be doing A LOT less calling than I thought. Unfortunately, the price for phone cards is too expensive. A 3000 colones phone card (or $6 phone card) gets me less than 5 MINUTES to the US. Sorry guys, I can´t afford that! I´ll be doing A LOT more emailing and blogging, so keep checking my blogs. I would love to keep sending individual response emails to each of you on Yahoo but don´t know how often I´ll be around internet, specifically free internet. I´m writing so much now because we just got here and I´m trying to keep everyone informed. Fortuntely, the majority of the hostels in this country offer free internet/computer usage so that will be a HUGE help and bonus! The sun has been out all day so far and we just got back from walking around San Jose with our two remaining roomies, Veronica and Laila, who are both awesome people I´m fortunate to have met! Laila speaks Portugese which has been a big help, also. Laila and Veronica are both leaving today to go to Monteverde; Laila will be there for 7 weeks but Veronica will be coming back tomorrow night, so we´ll still get to see her again before we leave San Jose. We´ll definitely be going up to Monteverde to meet up with Laila! I just love everyone´s stories, why they´re here, how they got here, where they´re going, their journey to get here so far. We haven´t heard back from Alyssa about the beach trip we had talked about taking together, but it´s only been a day so we hope to hear back from them soon. If not, we aren´t worried about it because we have so many others things to do and places to see. We haven´t gotten ahold of Parker yet and we did find out this morning that her flight got cancelled, so the next step is unsure. But, like I said, we have no where to be and nothing to do but everything and nothing! As of this point, I have the world at my disposal, I can go everywhere, do everything and anything and be anyone I want to be. For the first time in my life, I have no obligations, no one to answer to, no where to be, nothing to do and I am truly free. It feels amazing to look at the mountains surrounding me and know that I have the rest of my life ahead of me…my profession is now a writer and photographer! I´m picking up more and more spanish with each passing hour and I´m feeling better about that! It can feel overwhelming at times to have a world around you speaking to you and you have no idea what they´re saying or what to say in response to them. It puts into perspective people coming into the US and don´t ever learn our language; I couldn´t do it! The most frequent things I´ve said are, ¨Lo ciento¨(I´m sorry), ¨Hablo un poco de espanol¨(I speak little spanish), Ëntiendo un poco de espanol¨(I understand a little spanish), Ëstoy mirando¨(I´m just looking), and ¨Donde es….¨(Where is…¨), ¨Mucho gusto¨(I like very much), and the two full sentences I know: ¨Por favor puede hablar mas despacio.¨(Can you please speak more slowly) and ¨No, lo ciento, estoy mirando pero mucho gusto¨(No, Im sorry, Im just looking but I like very much). lol. I´m learning! lol. I know I stick out like a sore thumb and hope more and more as the days go by that I start looking more like a tica! Well, we´re getting ready to consult our lonely planet book for maps so we can venture further out into the city before it starts raining (it hasn´t rained yet today but it will, oh yes, it will!). I´ll just end this blog with, the weather here has been AMAZING, even considering the rain. The weather, I would guess, is in the mid-70s with a cool breeze; I got goosebumps this morning! It´s been so relieving and wish you all the same relief from the heat soon! Talk to you soon! xoxoxo, Ang.