Hello all-
It dawned on me a few days ago that maybe I should try to keep some sort of blog while I'm away instead of keeping up over email, etc.
Two weeks ago, Chris and I decided to leave Vermont for the mushy month of November and head somewhere warm. Destination: Costa Rica/Panama. We found some el cheapo tickets online and headed out a few days later!
We began our travels via aeroplane from Boston to San Jose, CR, arriving at 10pm last Saturday night. We found a decent hostel in a seemingly sketchy part of town - hookers and the like a block from our place when we pulled into town, and rested there for a day before getting out of the city and into the wilderness/coast. San Jose isn´t the most attractive, nor the most entertaining city in Latin America, so we were ready to leave. We did, however, manage to see part of the cattle parade, a yearly celebration on the main drag to celebrate the agriculture lifestyle and the cows... hundreds of people and even more cattle carts marched for quite the show. Monday morning, we left San Jose and headed to Montezuma - 3 buses, 1 ferry and a taxi ride later, we arrived at the small beach town which seemed to be filled with old hippies and ex-pats. It's situated on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast, and is filled with huge jungle plants and colourful birds. One night and half a day later, we shared a taxi with some guys from the US to our real destination for the week - Mal Pais, or "The Bad Country". Apparently this town used to be very hard to get to, and I can see why: very rough roads that get completely washed out during the rainy season, not much access to necessities until recently, and still no doctor, etc... It has become a big surfing destination, as there's not much else going on here other than the beach. We plunked down here 4 days ago and plan to leave in another 2. We're at a great hostel called Tranquilo Backpackers - one large 2 level building with a huge covered porch on both levels, lots of hammocks and swinging chairs, a big outdoor communal area and an open-aired kitchen. Free pancakes in the morning! We're met lots of great travellers from Germany, England, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Israel, and on and on... because of all of the travellers, we haven't had the challenge of conversing in Spanish lately. Chris and I have been renting surfboards and getting up at the crack of dawn some days to hit the water before it gets too hot out.
We're headed south to Panama in the next few days, with no real agenda as of right now, other than stopping in on some old friends from Vermont who have since moved to David, Panama.
Home for Christmas!
More soon!
J.
