Its good to see the sun
Trip Start
Feb 23, 2008
1
25
32
Trip End
Aug 23, 2008
Puerto Viejo,
Province of Limon,
Costa Rica
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
San Jose has a lot of traffic, especially after coming from Nicaragua and after nearly being hit by numerous cars (they will drive on the wrong side of the road) i decided to stick to the pedestrian areas. This is where we saw our first cow statue - a pole dancing cow complete with g string and false eyelashes. Further up the road was another colourfully pained cow, and then a statue of 2 cows dancing. I still dont know what was going on.
On the way back to the hostel we tried to find the other hostel to check it out
Hostel in San Jose
. We eventually found it in a yellow building behind a tall steel gate covered in razor wire. A small hatch opened and we asked the guard in our best spanish if we could come in and have a look around but he was having none of it. We obviously didnt look enough like backpackers.The next day we checked out and went to the "inviting" hostel - Hostel Panguia. This tme we got inside. It looked nice but looks can be deceiving. After a lazy day we went to the cinema to see the lastest Indiana Jones film - this can be summed up in 3 words - dont see it. It was bad,really bad.
Back at the hostel i was expecting something for the extra $2 this hostel was costing but no. You couldnt upload photos on the computers, you couldnt bring food or drink into the hostel, the food they served was overpriced and wouldnt feed a small child and despite being busy the bar shut at midnight.
It was my last night travelling with Dan. It had been a fun 2 weeks but i was headed to the coast and he to South America
The 4 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo on the coast passed banana plantations and more banana plantations. Every spare acre on the Caribean side of CostaRica was devoted to growing bananas.
On arriving i went to Rocking J's Hostel
Whats with the Cows
. For $5 a night you could stay in the hammock hotel - an open air structure housing dozens of hammocks. But just a word of advice. Hammocks are great for dozing in but sleeping they are not the most comfortable.The town was full ofamericans for better or worse and most of them were young. It was like a mini spring break with beer drinking going on to the early hours and as it was right outside the hammock hotel i thought it best to join in. I actually thought if i had enough beers the hammock might seem more comfortable
I got up early and saw the sun for the first time in a while. I was going diving. Diving in Costa Rica is not cheap. Almost double the price of other countries i had dived and i really couldnt understand why because the diving here was poor to say the least.
After another restless night in my hammock, i hired a bike and rode 12 or so kilometres to the end of the road past sandy beaches, dense jungle and small comunities. I rode back along the beach to the hostel for my last night in the hammock. Although by now i was getting use to it. Tommorrow i was headed to Panama, the last country on my trip south and where i would have to turn around and head all the way back to Guatemala.
