Here at last - San Jose

After not going to bed at all in order to finish packing and get to my 6 am flight on time, I am in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Once I went through immigration (which wasn't so bad, considering I was one of the first people off the plane), it was just my luck that my bag was one of the last ones off. My heart skipped a beat when it saw that pack, as I grabbed it off the conveyer belt and ran to exchange some money and get a taxi. The currency here in Costa Rica is colon (colones is plural) and it's around 470 colones to the dollar. Wow! So I got about 65,000 colones just to have on me, and went to get a cab to a part of town called Barrio Amon. Luckily, I was able to find someone going to that part of town also so I didn't have to pay full price. She said she was here volunteering and I told her my plans. Though she spoke no Spanish whatsoever, saying that she would be taking classes while here. I wished her luck as she got out at her hotel, thinking just how much deep shit she was getting herself into. I spoke with the cab driver about what hostels were good to stay at. One I had read about that sounded really cool was called Tranquilo Backpackers, which he was adamantly against taking me to because he said it was dangerous because a lot of people stayed there so lots of things got stolen. Instead he offered to take me to this other hostel which was near the bus station I need to go to tomorrow to get to the coast. I told him I'd take a look, walked in, saw a room, heard the price, and ran straight out. Even if it was a bit nicer and close to the bus station, it was not worth that price for one night's stay. So I told him to just take me to Tranquilo Backpackers. I walked up, keeping in mind how he said it wasn't safe, and saw how the whole hostel was surrounded by a high barbed fence. You have to ring a bell and the people at the desk have to buzz you in to get into the actual building, so I figured it couldn't be that dangerous. After getting a cheap room, I realized that one reason the cab driver may not have wanted me to come here was because he got a commission from other hotels if he got people to stay there. Whatever, this place is sweet. Hammocks and guitars lay around everywhere, free internet, free breakfast, free cable tv. And they said they'd hold your bags if you promise to come back and stay with them. Sounds awesome!

After putting my stuff down, I picked up a map and found out where the bus station was. Walking around Barrio Amon is interesting: dirt and trash everywhere, driving like there's no tomorrow, and vendors on the streets selling everything you can imagine. And since the streets are not well-marked, finding the actual bus station took even longer. Eventually I got there, got my ticket (I leave tomorrow at noon for Samara, the beach town on the Pacific coast), and started to walk back to the hostel. I was looking around at food places, and found a small restaurant type place that sold two pieces of fried chicken for 500 colones. Two HUGE pieces of chicken for a little over a dollar. How could I not take up that offer? Gobbeling down the chicken felt so good after the gross airplane food, and I realized just how easy, not to mention cheap, this whole trip is going to be in terms of food and beverage. I'm not sure if I'll go out and check out the night life tonight. I'm a bit tired, but if I meet the right people, who knows. Already the Spanish is getting better, and so far nothing has gotten stolen. More to come from Costa Rica. Ciao!