I was up and out of the house by 3:30am. Woof. I flew from Chicago to Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica.
I arrived at the airport in San Jose around 11:15am. I figured I'd grab some lunch while I read my book and waited for Chelsea and Tash to land. However, the airport was the size of a shoebox and once you picked up your luggage you were directed outside and not permitted to reenter. As soon as the doors to the outisde opened I was engulfed in a screaming mosh pit of taxi, bus and van drivers, all wanting to take me to my next destination. I had to wait two hours for my friends and this mosh pit was not the place to do it, so I wandered through and somehow came out alive on the other side. I wandered down the drive a bit and found an unoccupied seat on a bench where I could rest, safely away from the moshers. I made a friend while waiting (imagine that!) who was from Costa Rica but had just traveled to Texas. He was really friendly and gave me some great suggestions regarding things to do (and not do) in Costa Rica. Around 1:00 I wandered back to the throng of drivers and found the van driver with a sign for my friends and I. I attempted to speak to him in broken spanglish while we waited for Tash and Chelsea.
Our first destination was La Fortuna, a small, landlocked town in the north of Costa Rica. We drove about four hours to get there. On the way, we had lunch at a rest stop. What're the odds there was a McDonalds, Taco Bell and KFC? I thought I was getting out of America and getting into the land of rice and beans. Thank goodness for the one local food option. The girls and I had rice, beans and chicken wrapped up in tortillas. We drove on, winding our way through the mountains, which after awhile became nauseating, so the three of us tried to sleep instead of continuing to take in the sights.
We arrived at our hostel, Arenal Hostel Resort, which was absolutely gorgeous. There was a lovely outdoor patio complete with hammocks, rocking chairs and a swim up bar. We were given complimentary drinks before we headed out to do some exploring.
Apparently it rains A LOT in Costa Rica. I had missed that memo and hadn't packed a state of the art rain jacket like my two travel companions, so we headed to the local grocery store and I purchased a pink poncho that would become my best friend over the course of the next three weeks. After, we got dinner at an outdoor bungalow and then headed back to the hostel for a few drinks at the swim up bar. What a fantastic first day.
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