Planning Day!!

22nd MAY 2009 - ARRIVAL IN COSTA RICA!!
Loads of taxi men outside the bus station again but after hearing the American girls story we decided to give the taxi a miss. We asked at the bus station for the nearest ATM and luckily it was just up the road. I drew 70,000 colones out!! Love it!! Armed with cash we managed to find a hostel nearby. It wasn’t anything special but much better than the previous night and the hostel couple seemed really nice. I felt loads more relaxed in Costa Rica as it did not have the dangerous vibe going on!! So glad that we had finally arrived!!

Once we had dumped our stuff the hostel man walked us to a nearby food place so that we could get some tea. Not a great choice but we managed to stock up on some rice, meat and veg. So good to eat a proper meal!! Back at the hostel we chilled for a bit and then went back out to use the internet for an hour…some serious blogging to do!!

5 days in Costa Rica and we needed to plan how we were going to spend them. We decided to get up and visit some travel shops the next day and get some advice rather than do internet research. Weird being in our final destination…really does feel like the end. I had really mixed emotions as I was excited to go home and see everyone but I also wanted to continue my adventures as I felt really at home travelling the world!! I was scared, nervous and excited all at once and although I knew I would be home in less than a week, it didn’t feel real at all!! So many thoughts swirling around in my head, I was surprised that I managed to sleep at all that night!! 6 days to go…wow!!!

23rd MAY 2009 - PLANNING & MOVING ON!!
We were both up pretty early as usual. Showered, dressed and sorted for the day, we headed out into San Jose city to try and find some breakfast. It proved to be a challenge especially as little Nat had pancakes on the brain. No one seemed to serve normal breakfasts…it was either muffins or cakes, gallo pinto (whatever that is) or meat sandwiches which I think are more of a lunch item. After trekking around for a while and fighting off the shreddies monster from hitting my rumbling belly with a spoon we admitted defeat and headed for the yellow beacon shining brightly in the sky…McDonalds!!! They did pancakes too and to be honest they didn’t taste so bad. It was a pleasant surprise!! As for McDonalds…I have been in about 3 times on this trip…that’s more than in the last 20 years of my life!!! Wow!!

The city centre was quite nice. They had their very own Covent Garden (a square covered with pigeons and also a feed the birds man), a lovely looking theatre building and loads of shops. Much nicer then the other capital cities in Central America and a much safer feel to it as there were a fair few tourists knocking about. I no longer felt like I had to keep one hand on my knife and stash spare money in my

Bellies satisfied, we continued on our way into town to try and find some travel shops. We needed a plan for our final 5 days and wanted some advice. The first 2 shops we found were closed but after a bit more searching and asking people for help we found one that was open. The lady in there was really nice and helpful too. She didn’t try and sell us a tour or anything; she just gave us some free helpful advice about the best places to visit in the time we had. The plan was to visit Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano for a couple of nights and then head to Manuel Antonio (a beach town) for a couple of nights to top up our tans before we headed home. She also warned us about it being green season which meant that every day, the morning would be sunny and warm, but at around 12pm storms would hit for the entire afternoon. Oh goody…I would look forward to that!!

Armed with a plan we went to seek out a bus timetable (which we found at the museum of all places) before heading back towards the hostel. I ate a twix Mcflurry along the way and it was the sickliest thing I have ever tasted. Not my cup of tea at all and I ended up throwing half of it away!! Ronald should definitely stick to burgers and breakfasts and leave ice cram making to Ben and Jerry!!! Looking at the time table we didn’t have a bus until 12.30pm and so we had a good hour to kill. We headed to the internet for half and hour to catch up on some emails and then went to the hostel to pick up our bags. Bags on back complete with waterproof covers, we set off towards the bus station. Sure enough…12pm came and the rain came down. Massive droplets of rain, roaring thunder and clear fork lightning!! It was bad but we had no choice but to keep on trekking to the bus station. I had visions of me falling over again and looking like a turtle on its back. Not a good walk either and we got a bit lost. So many different apart the one we needed. Eventually a guy pointed us in the right direction and we made it looking like drowned rats!! We missed the 12.30pm bus too but thankfully there was one at 1pm. We bought a ticket and got in line!!

We first caught the bus to San Carlos which was a 2 hour journey on a very busy public bus. I was so fed up of buses by this point and just could not wait for a day when I didn’t have to get on one. In San Carlos, I bought some fruit from the market whilst Nat bought a burger and we then got on another bus for another 2 hour ride! Next stop Fortuna!!

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