Hello. I´ll begin by mentioning that this is a Spanish keyboard, and I have yet to become accustomed to the setup. Please excuse any egregious errors in my typing.
At 7:15 yesterday morning, I boarded my first flight. I was one of the last to board, and when I got to my seat, I realized I had the vacant window seat that was blocked by two already occupied seats. I smiled sheepishly at the two men, pointed to the seat and said, ¨Good morning! That´s me.¨ They stared silently and slowly began to get up. ¨I´m sorry. Oh dear,¨ I babbled. ¨I´m that person.¨ I sat, they sat, and not a word was spoken. It was painful.
Shortly after the flight took off, I decided to inflate my miniature pillow and try to sleep. I wrestled it out of my bag and began puffing away. I am absolutely certain the man next to me was literally DYING to look and see what the hell I was inflating, but was unable to turn and stare at me for fear of being too obvious and rude. We passed the entire hour two inches apart and without a single word or glance.
On the next flight, I was seated next to a man and his adolescent son. I settled in next to the window (second window seat in a day!) and immediately turned to them and cautioned, ¨I get violently airsick.¨
They both froze.
¨Just kidding,¨ I said breezily, and settled back in with my inflatable pillow. I´m not entirely sure they believed me, and after hitting some serious turbulence, I was starting to doubt myself as well.
After landing in San Jose, I exchanged a substantial chunk of cash for Costa Rican colones. I didn´t bother asking the kind man behind the counter to use English, so I merely smiled and nodded while he explained the exchange rate and counted out my money. (At least that´s what I assume he was saying. For all I know, he was explaining how he likes to dress up as a woman and do cabaret.) I took my money, thanked him, and left.
I then caught a taxi to the bus station. The roads in San Jose were crowded, bumpy, rutted, and generally treacherous, so naturally, my taxi driver never went below fifty miles per hour. Out of sheer terror and a need to fight the urge to vomit, I closed my eyes as we raced through the streets, dodging cars, buses, potholes, and the corpses of mowed-down pedestrians. I would not have been entirely surprised to learn that the driver also had his eyes closed.
The first bus ride to San Carlos was long, but exceptionally scenic and relaxing. I leaned out my open window to savor the sights and the refreshing breeze, until I noticed that the girl seated next to me was dramatically holding her sweatshirt over her face, apparently to block the rush of the wind. I put her out of her misery with my pocket knife. Okay, maybe not. Maybe I closed the window and drooped back into my seat despondently.
Despite the indication in the guidebook that the ride would be a mere ninety minutes, I was on the bus for well over two hours. It came to my attention that the route we took, if taken ¨as the crow flies¨, would probably have been only about two miles, but with the circuituous route we took winding through the mountains, it was more like two hundred miles. It was gorgeous, however, and I took great pleasure in seeing cows teetering on eighty-degree slopes as they peacefully grazed.
The second bus ride was painful. Recall the old joke: ¨How many Guatemalans can you fit on a bus? Two more.¨ It also applies in Costa Rica. When I boarded, there were no empty seats, forcing me to stand in the aisle while wearing my enormous backpack AND my small carry-on backpack. After forty-five minutes of agony (and after collecting an additional two dozen passengers), a single seat opened and the kind people standing around me invited me to take it.
I rolled into La Fortuna at around seven in the evening, and found a quaint hotel. It costs me eight American dollars a night, and for that price, I don´t even have to pay extra for the bugs. It´s such a deal.
After a delicious dinner in which I ordered seven of everything, I showered (with hot water!) and got an exceptionally good night´s sleep. I awoke today to a torrential downpour outside my window, and read in bed until the sun came out. I then caught a taxi to the La Catarata waterfalls, and hiked down to one of the most gorgeous spots I´ve ever seen. (I´ll post pictures when I return.) After the falls, my intention was to undertake a strenuous hike deep into the rainforest, but I decided instead to undertake the strenuous hike back to my hotel.
The walk was thoroughly enjoyable and gorgeous, and I passed cows, chickens, stray dogs, horses, hummingbirds, banana fields, and little huts. I also found a tree with an unidentifiable fruit, so like any rationale person, I picked it, hacked it open with my knife, and ate it. I´m not dead yet and that was an hour ago, so I´m assuming it wasn´t fatally poisonous. My guess is that it was an unripe papaya.
My plans for the next few days include an all-day boat trip through Caño Negro, a trip to Volcan Arenal and Batido Hot Springs, and a horseback ride through the rainforest to my next destination town. As of this point, I´ve concluded that Costa Rica is an amazing country. However, I must go for now, because a dog with six toes on each of his back feet has just fallen asleep under my chair, and he smells appalling.