In Costa Rica, but without my boys

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I can't tell you how bizarre it feels to be fending my way through the familiar hostel life all by myself, without Derek and Mark (my travel companions from my big round-the-world trip in 2006/7). Gingerly making my bed while checking for signs of bed bugs without Derek by my side just doesn't feel right, and checking out a bathroom without Mark laughing at me just is not the same. I'm on my own, now.

Not that it's been terrible. I've only been here in San José a few hours but I've been holding my own and catching a few breaks. There was an ATM right outside my gate as I stepped of the plane and, low and behold, it accepted my line-of-credit debit card for direct cash withdrawl!!! That's excellent because my accounts are in a bit of a frozen state right now and I was a little concerned about things. Why, in this day and age, banks still require days of "processing time" for electronic transfers is beyond me. And don't even get me started on waiting for checks to clear. Anyways, I have access to a bit of cash so all is good.

The second obstacle of concern for me was getting to my hostel. The part I dread the most in arriving in a new city is fending off everyone who is trying to get you in your taxi or to their hostel. While there was a bit of that, Costa Rica had a great system set up with a sanctioned taxi company who got me to my place at a very fair, metered rate ($20US) with no problems. Phew! I am SO embarrassed to attempt to speak Spanish, though. I'm so caught up on verb tenses and pronunciation and proper grammar that I end up just saying everything in English with hand gestures, which probably just seems rather ignorant (and I guess it is). I will have to try to work on that . Perhaps I'll do some Rossetta Stone tonight and work on it.

This is such a boring entry--sorry. Can you tell I'm tired? I haven't done a whole lot yet, but I do have a couple of things to say. I have made some friends, one of them being the Costa Rican who works at the front desk, and we're about to go the park together... hopefully there are the best of intentions there. =) I'm sure it will be fine. The internet at the hostel has been down all day, so he was busy getting it back online. That is why I had a delay in writing to let everyone know I'm here safe.

OK, I should go because Daniel (hostel guy) is waiting for me. I'll write more this evening and perhaps include some pictures. It gets rainy here in the afternoon, though, so the lighting is not great.

Remember, team, comments are good!

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Comments

[Dad]

Pics would be good
That's a country I'l probably never get to, so pictures would be a big help. Hope you brought your binos, Costa Rica has some spectacular birding. Have a great time and see you in a few weeks.

[Louise Page]

Dear Jessica, Thanks so much for taking the time to write this - in the middle of getting yourself set-up in Costa Rica. I'm going to try to be cool and not say anything about you flying off to Costa Rica without cash (ohmygodohmygod). Obviously I very much hope that your hostel passed muster and is mostly free of biting things. It would be great to have a few geckos crawling up the walls (they eat the little biting things) and you could watch their adhesive foot pads in action. Please get some sleep! Well I hope that Costa Rica is every bit as beautiful as we've been led to believe. Keep the blog entries coming! Love Mom