Day One: San Jose, Costa Rica

Well, it was a bit of an adventure getting here, but I made it. My flight from Jacksonville to Huston was delayed a little over an hour due to inclement weather in the North East. This meant that my less-than-cushy hour layover in Huston was now reduced to about 5 minutes. When I stepped off the plane I saw that my Costa Rica flight was delayed 10 minutes and I had 15 minutes to get across a half a mile or so of airport with a short bus ride in between terminals. Needless to say, I missed the plane. However, I would like to brag that I only missed it by 5 minutes and I have the small "burn" on my lower back to prove it from sprinting through the airport with a 30-40 pound bag on my back.

So I worked it out to have a free hotel room last night and got a new flight for this morning at 9:30 which was pleasantly uneventful.

Arriving in San Jose, however, is another story. The immigration was surprisingly fast and the customs was virtually non-existant (they ran our bags through an x-ray and that was all).

Stepping onto the street swarming with taxi drivers grabbing you and yelling to compete with one another for your attention was overwhelming in the sweltering heat. I was not dressed for the 90 degree weather and high humidity.

I had met a guy named Steve on the plane who was just coming off 7 weeks in New Zealand and he shared my cab to the hostel I had prebooked (assuming I was going to arrive at 10pm the night before).

The cab ride revealed the chaotic harmony of this city. Pedestrians running or walking across 4 lane highways, cars nearly running into each other at 50 mph (as the norm), black smoke billowing out of trucks and filling your lungs and if you left your arm dangling out the window, it is likely you wont go home with it. And yet somehow it all works and people arent killed or run over or maimed .. at least .. it seems like it works. That is something I learned in cities like Rome and Cairo ... somehow the lack of strict transportation authority works.

After settling at the hostel, Steve and I decided to brave the streets and the local food. We found a great little hole in the wall eatery (and I mean Hole-in-the-Wall!) and dived in. Steve was a bit more risky in his meal, tempting fate with the beef (or something), while I stuck to rice and beans (partially for digestive safety, partially because my Spanish is rusty enough that I couldnt figure out how to ask for anything else ... there were three things on the menu).

I think we both made the right decision not to have the melon drink they gave us. I am not about to ruin this adventure with more time spent in the bathroom than necessary!

So that is about all for today. The rest of the day will be spent walking around, dodging cars, looking at the absolutely random and bizarre architecture and passing the time until I can hop on a bus tomorrow to some lovely and more tranquil beach town far, far away from San Jose.

Until then ...