I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I figure you all want to hear about my trip to Costa Rica… 
I took the red eye and arrived at 6am, waited until 11am for Alex, and we were off to find La Radial bus station so we could take the bus to San Ramon. We took a $4 (!!!!!) taxi from the airport to the bus station and had our first encounter with the tourist leeches. Another taxi driver pretends to work at the bus station and tries to convince us not to take the bus for less than $2 a person (a 2 hour trip!) and take his taxi for $40. Thank you Lonely Planet for warning us about these people. We waited two hours for the bus. We had a nice walk around Alajuela and ate a ham sandwich and french fries at a Mexican restaurant (???)
Our first bus experience… We stood the entire way to San Ramon from Alajuela because (which was good for us) they pack the busses until you can’t possibly fit another body into it. I’m not sure if the bus drivers just take the extra money or if this is normal policy, but I couldn’t reach the bars on the ceiling and almost fell over a few times going through the mountains. It was entertaining and a cute little Costa Rican old man made friends with us even though I was REALLY rusty with my spanish and he didn’t know ANY english. I was sad to leave him.
We met Ran, our couch surfing friend, in San Ramon. He told us to take a taxi to his house, and gave us directions, find the market, go 100 meters north of it, then 50 meters south and its the white house with the fence. Why not just an address, you ask? Because there are no street names or addresses in Costa Rica. Muy entertaining. I gave him some cookies and he was happy. Alex and I walked around San Ramon, I bought some coffee, then we went out with Ran. He had us take shots of Cacique, which is the traditional Costa Rican liquor drink. Instead of limes at the end, we ate some strange fruit with salt that came out of a tree in his backyard. I liked it, Alex– not so much. Ran cooked us an amazing breakfast the next morning and sent us off to the other bus station to catch the bus to La Fortuna.
Not wanting to stand 4 hours to La Fortuna, we pushed our way to the front of the line and got seats on the back of the bus, which is nice and airy, no sun beating down on you. We listened to the ipod most of the time… Alex introduced me to a lot of new (fantastic) music, and we met some other travelers that spoke English. They were on a volunteer trip for a few weeks and decided to see the volcano that weekend. We all decided to stay in the same hostel, Gringo Petes.
The Group with Mr Lava Lava
We all checked into Gringo Petes, Alex struggled with a hammock and took a nap and I booked our first outing to see the lava with our hostel owner, Mr. Lava Lava. Alex and I took a nap while the rest of the group went to Baldi hot springs. Mr. Lava Lava woke us up, we picked up the rest of the group, and went to see lava. We stood outside in the dark for a while when El Senor (mr lava lava) started shouting “LAVA LAVA! JESUS CHRIST! LAVA!!” It was pretty exciting, the first lava sighting was huuuuge and then we saw a few more smaller ones and decided to go eat dinner at Baldi. The dinner was a fantastic buffet where I was introduced to the juice shakes that are all over Costa Rica. AMAZING!
The next morning Alex cooked us some fantastic breakfast (and I cleaned) and we were off to Rio Celeste with the group. It took about 2 hours in a tourismo van, about 30 minutes of which were the bumpiest Mr Toads wild ride I’ve ever taken. Our tour guide stopped along the way to show us a sloth, a huge ass tree, and to get us some free pineapples that had just been picked on the farms we were driving past.
The hike through Rio Celeste was amazing, we saw a HGUE ant mound, a gorgeous waterfall, crossed the river (I almost fell in), crossed smaller creeks on wooden logs, saw the Rio Celeste where the two rivers combine to form a grogeous blue lagoon (only place in the world where this happens), then finished the hike through what seemed like a monsoon, mudslide, etc… Now I know why they call it a rainforest. A few things about rainforests in case you didn’t know… They sound just like the “rainforests” at the zoo; It is more gorgeous than anything you can imagine; They are very muddy and slippery; If you plan to hike one, it will be a VERY good workout; and finally if you plan to do the one in Costa Rica be sure to take a guide with his own van. You do not want to drive that by yourself.
Waterfall at Rio Celeste/ Rain Forest
The next morning Alex and I took a canopy tour in La Fortuna in the rain. It was kinda fun but apparently slippery and hard to stop. My arms are still sore Then we walked around La Fortuna, bought a few souveniers (Happy Birthday Ashley Oddi) and got on the bus back to Alajuela. The first hour of this bus ride was the worst experience I had in Costa Rica because my window would. not. open. Por favor, ayudame con este ventana? Yeah, no one could open it. The sun was beating down on me, I was in a hot box and nowhere to go on the most crowded bus ever. Then in San Carlos everyone got off and Alex and I found new seats, together, with working windows. The next three hours were a very nice ride back to Alajuela. Another $3 cab ride and we were at Alajeula Backpackers hostel.
Countryside on the way back to Alajuela
Being our last night, we went out to eat and I had what I’d been eating the whole time, Casada, which is the traditional dish in Costa Rica. It is basically rice and beans, with some sort of meat, small salad, platanos, and a potato. I miss it already. I ordered extra platains because they aren’t exactly easy to find in Colorado. I also had a bastida pina con agua. (Pineapple juice/shake). FANTASTIC.
Alex and I went back to the hostel and crashed, as our shuttle to the airport was leaving at 5am the next morning. The hostel was gorgeous and really close to the airport, but we didn’t spend much time there.
Back to Colorado, it’s snowing again. I guess that just means I have to go skiing. Hmmmmm yeah, that’s what I’ll do tomorrow!
Sounds amazing! Let’s go!