Backpacking Trip 2010

We made it! I´ve been up since 4:30 this morning and it´s been non-stop going, going, going since then. Flying into the country was absolutely gorgeous and ít looked like something out of a dream. I kept looking out of the window saying, ¨This is unreal!¨ I knew coming here would be different from anything I´ve ever known and even then, I knew it would be different than the different I thought and be completely different than any idea I had and it has proved to be true. Katie and I arrived at the hostel about 3 hours ago and it’s been such an adventure just to get to this point! Even though we´ve been planning since last August, we got here and felt grossly unprepared! We had a map on how to get to the hostel and knew which bus to take to get there but the map does no good when there are absolutely no street signs to indicate where we were or where we were going or when we needed to get off the bus. Fortunately, we followed the bus in the right direction (all we knew was to go southeast) and we ended up at a bus terminal about 10 blocks away from where we needed to be. But, seeing as there are no street signs, we had no idea where we were other than we knew we were in the right vicinity. As soon as we got off the bus, we met two locals (Nicky, a guy, and Alyssa, a girl) who also got off at the same terminal and happened to think we needed help. By that time, it was downpouring. And you all have no idea what downpouring means until you experience downpouring in Costa Rica! haha. Anyway, Nicky didn´t speak any english but Alyssa did so she translated for us and they wanted to help us. Alyssa is a native Floridian who moved here yrs ago with her parents; they came here on vacation and never left so she´s been here ever since and she knew what we were experiencing. They advised us to go to a cambrio first to exchange our dollars to colones because more places than we were told don´t take us dollars. The four of us shared a taxi and Nicky paid for it for us! After we went to the cambrio and exchanged some money, the taxi got us to the hostel. During the taxi ride, we got to know our two new friends (thankfully with Alyssa´s help we were able to get to communicate with Nicky, too). We exchanged our information and hope to meet up with the both of them in the next few days, then we got dropped off at the hostel and said goodbye, til next time. The hostel is awesome, art work from wall to ceiling and over every surface, and as soon as we got here, felt like this would be a cool place to stay for a few days and stay even longer than the two days we had planned. Things aren´t looking good with Parker and Josue´s original travel plans; we haven´t spoken with anyone on the phone since we got here, so I´m not sure how things are going, but based on the news we´re hearing, their flight most likely got cancelled. Now that they´re not meeting us here on Thursday, we are trying to plan around that, which shouldn´t be hard at all. We couldn´t find calling cards at either outbound or inbound airports and since it´s been downpouring this entire time, we can´t really venture out to get one, although we know exactly where to go when the rain stops to get one. The hostel does have an international phone but it has been occupied since we got here, which is why I´m updating my blog before calling. The hostel has plenty of computers with free internet access so I figured I would update my blog asap and email everyone that I updated my blog because I figured that would be the quickest way until I can use the phone to call. I´m sure our parents are wondering how we are and feel bad that this is all I can do right now, but it is what it is. The point is that we are here, we made it and we´re safe and we are ok and we will be getting calling cards tomorrow and calling everyone! I will be trying to call people tonight when the phone frees up. In the meantime, the downpouring rain is peaceful and calming and we´re getting ready to sit down and drink a few more Imperial´s, the Costa Rican beer here. Then, I´ll try to use the phone again and then go to bed. We¨re both exhausted and the rain and beer makes for a drowsy mind. After all of our hard work to get here, it´s so unreal that it´s finally happening! First day is halfway through and I´m already in a daze! I´ll update all of you soon! xoxo 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.