Hostel Pangea Province of San Jose

San Jose. Dirty, seedy, loud, bustling. Those are just a few of the words that come to mind after being here for three days now. But, it is the necessary landing spot for beautiful Costa Rica so it must be beared. A few interesting, entertaining, and informative facts I´ve discovered so far: 1. Costa Ricans are called ´ticos/ ticas.´ 2. They honk a lot. For no reasons I think other than to just honk. 3. You don´t dispose of your used toilet paper in the toilet, you throw it in the trash. Trav...

We hopped a bus to San Jose yesterday. Actually, we had to take a bus back to the dreaded Puerto Limon first, then catch a bus to San Jose. It seems like Costa Rica has a less user-friendly bus system than Mexico, or even Panama. We are staying at the Hostel Pangea. It is like a secure mini-city in here. To get in, you have to buzz the door and show them your ID bracelet (actually just one of those cheap stick-on concert bracelets). Then they buzz you in, and if its evening, a security guard ...

We left San Jose after 2 nights and headed to La Fortuna. The bus ride was pretty spectacular--climbing and winding through banana, pineapple, and eventually coffee fields situated on steep slopes. In one small town that we passed through, the zocalo was literally covered in topiary(?), all forming strange arches. Not for the weak-of-stomach. La Fortuna is a small (7,000) town situated at the base of Volcan Arenal. Mostly, gringos go there to stare at the volcano, which is pretty archetypical...

Hello, Just given you a bit of an update on the last few weeks. We are now in our 7 country since starting the trip, and had a mad few days when we tore through a few. We left Antigua and headed over the border into El Salvador. As we got closer to San Salvador the heavens opened and we never knew that the sky could hold so much rain, it fell in buckets for hours. We had a very brief stay of one night in San Salvador, and then headed on through the country to the border of Honduras - neither ...

(I knew I would return someday, I just didn´t realize it would be this soon...) Hello everyone! Here´s an update on where Tony and I have been in the past week. We have set foot in not one, not two but FOUR countries in the past week. Countries, amigos, not states. We left our home away from home in El Salvador with a tear. While most of our emotion was due to our departure with our dear friends Nima and Jeremy, most of it was jealously that while they continued to drink cuba libres in hammoc...

Wow, it feels so good to actually be here in Costa Rica! We thought we might never make it after much stress and hassle at New York. Our flight from Manchester to NY was delayed so when we arrived we rushed through immigration and baggage reclaim to get the flight to San Jose. All seemed to be going well, we found the gate and had time to spare for something to eat ( a big american salad in my case) We had boarded the plane when the stewardess called our names and got us off.the airline had p...

Arrived in San Jose on Friday early evening , pretty tired after a late & rather alcohol-fuelled night last night in Fortuna and a long bus ride. San Jose is another one of those Central American capital cities that has a seriously dodgy reputation - other travellers & the guidebooks alike urge a sense of caution and according to the locals just about every street corner is highly "peligroso" (dangerous) , all of which builds up a sense of trepidation & an expectation that you wil...

Finally, we have reached our destination - Hostel Pangea in San Jose, Costa Rica!! After saying goodbye to our parents and Oli´s mum again, and again, and again and finally again!! we headed for the departure lounge of Manchester airport, with everyone passing through customs smoothly except me!! Having scanned my bag, frisked me twice, scanned my jumper and shoes individually, I was allowed to get dressed again and we headed to a bar for the first drink of the holiday. I managed to find some...

Hey everyone!!! The last two weeks have taken place in Puntarenas. The weather has been miserably rainy for the last 10 days as the most recent hurricane has parked itself over northern Central America. Boo to that. The temperatures are nice but its just always wet, nothing ever dries here and it starts to smell. After that little peek into life in CR, here is what I have been up to since I got back from Panama. The boys from U of Washington hosted a party at their house for Tama and I's 21st...