Welcome to Costa Rica

It's Sunday evening, almost time for dinner, and I am enjoying my wifi in bed.


Saturday I made it to the market and bought a bag, a hoodie, and a baby hat for a friend. I'll get to pictures of those eventually. All three of those cost me less than $20. It's amazing. I did travel from vendor to vendor for awhile trying to compare prices, designs, and general product selection. It's a bit overwhelming. They all say "good price" or "buen precio." I ended up buying from 3 different venders.


It started pouring while I was shopping and luckily the artesans market had a roof. I returned to my hostel to drop my stuff off and went to Maximo for the wifi. I had several hours to kill until the Maximo party with free food. I talked to Chuck, browsed the internet, and waited. Finally the food was ready so I grabbed some and went to be antisocial in the corner. I had tortillas, refried beans, a chicken dish, and a very spicy onion/jalapeno/carrot dish. It was pretty good.


It was about 8p and I went back to my hostel to chill. I had a roommate who was reading. I found some books and started reading. Never really spoke with my roomie, but he went to bed quite early and I fell asleep shortly after. 


The mattress was very uncomfortable. I felt like I was sleeping on the floor. I didn't sleep too well and heard my roommate get up early, maybe even around 4. I had my alarm set for 7, but I was awake by about 6 and just laid in bed. I got up with my alarm and gathered my things to leave. When I had booked my room, I was asked to pay but I requested to pay when I checked in. It was someone different who checked me in and I think they had thought I had already paid. I could have probably gotten away without paying, but it seemed to be a family run place and I wasn't going to rip them off. So I paid the entire 30Q, about $4 and left.


I went to Maximo to brush my teeth and use the bathroom (remember sketchy hostel bathroom). They were supposed to open at 8 but were late. I was starting to worry my bus to the airport would be early and I would be without my luggage which was locked away. Luckily Maximo opened and I was able to use the wifi for awhile before getting my luggage and waiting for my ride.


On the way to the airport, I talked with a guy from Norway, or was it Finland? I can't remember. He was a really cool dude and was backpacking through Central America. He was well traveled and had been to Peru, multiple countries in Central America, and much of Europe. He talked about how he was on his second gap year, that's how much he enjoyed it. When he graduated from high school, he went to a "school" for a year to sort of learn about philosophy and life lessons. This is what many young adults in his country do. The government is all for it and they help to fund it. It sounded awesome. 


I finally reached the Guatemalan airport and went to wait in line at Taca to check in. The line was moderately long and shouldn't have been too bad. But for some reason they only had 2 or 3 check in agents and I wanted a full hour. Yes, an hour. What sucked even more was that the line was double the length by the time I got to the front. I wonder if they all made their flights.


Security was a breeze luckily. I had my liquids in a bag, and one bottle was actually bigger than it should have been. Security asked if I had liquids, I said yes, they glanced at the bag real quick and said OK. Sorta funny. Another amusing bit was that after the metal detector, everyone gets a pat down. I didn't realize it until the woman was like, come back here! I had been wondering why the metal detectors were seperately labeled "men" and "women." 


I had some Quetzales left so I bought a piece of banana pound cake. It was pretty good. I was able to exchange the rest of my Q to $ at that place so I was happy.


Flight was a little less than 1.5 hours and flew by. We landed in Costa Rica and I met up with the people from Maximo. There were 6 other new volunteers there as well. We piled into the van and the guy who had met us with the sign (not the driver) asked for a tip. At first I wasn't sure if he was serious, because I had never come across that in Peru or Guatemala. But he was, so I forked over some money.


We drove for awhile through San Jose. Maximo and the houses are on the opposite side of town as the airport. We got our folders with our information (mine was semi-lost and we had to go to the driver's house to get it) and then we were dropped off at our houses. No one else in the van was staying with me, but I wasn't concerned because I knew there would be other volunteers there to hang out with.


I was wrong.


It's just me right now. I think someone else is coming tomorrow. But I think this house only fits 2 volunteers in 1 room. I'll have to wait and see.


It is a nice house. Two floors, nice kitchen, and a funky bathroom. I need to take pictures of the bathroom because one of the walls is angled and it's the wall with the mirror and it's kinda trippy.


My host mom Tere doesn't speak much English, but we can communicate decently. Her son Josue is pretty good at English. He showed me around the house, took me to an ATM down the street, and he's taking me to Maximo tomorrow. At least I'm not completely alone.


So that's my excitement for today. Oh, the ATM was fun. 5,000 Colones is about $10. So to pull out about $200 I took out 100,000 Colones. I hope my math was right. It's a little confusing with such high numbers. I bought a good size bottle of San Pellegrino for 2K. But that's actually, wait, it is a little pricey. But I needed change for the bus tomorrow.


Alright, that should cover it. I'm waiting for dinner and then I will promptly fall asleep. I don't know why I'm always tired.