Wow! Trip got off to a rocky start. I landed in Costa Rica and watched with a sinking feeling as my fellow passenger's bags all appeared on the carousel and mine was nowhere to be seen. The last bag came out and was claimed as I stood there looking forlornly at a now empty baggage terminal. So, filled out a lost luggage form and proceeded to my hostel with nothing but my carry-on bag. Definitely a bit stressful, as you can probably imagine. Long story short, I called the airline 7 hours later and they said the bag had missed the connection in Denver and they would deliver it to me the next morning. I went to sleep that night feeling a little better about the whole thing and the next morning there it was. Relief! A tearful reunion ensued as I hugged my pack and promised it, "never again!"


Well, 3rd and final day in San Jose. It's been fun but I'm definitely ready to leave the city and head out to more naturalistic settings. I leave early tomorrow morning for Monteverde, a national park of cloud forests. It's an interesting scene here in the capital, spent my first full day doing the museum, market, general tourist stuff. The hostel has been fun, met lots of cool people from all over the globe.


Went out last night and started at a fairly seedy downtown casino/bar. I'd estimate that there were about 10 "working girls" for every actual patron there; lots of 50+ year old gringos dancing with with young locals... Wasn't my scene, so headed to a nearby complex of bars and nightclubs, which was much better: lots of locals just out for a fun Friday night of dancing and drinking. No pictures unfortunately as bringing a camera out at night is not advisable.

I understand now why the British are considered the assholes of Europe. We had a pair in our group last night that lived up to that reputation and then some. In addition to being unable to properly speak the language they spawned and always walking on the left in narrow corridors and stairways, they behaved in a generally disrespectful and obnoxiously drunken manner towards the locals. I'm now much more sympathetic towards the general trend of taxi drivers and other locals to try and steal from and rip-off tourists.

Finally escaped San Jose and made it up to the Monteverde Cloud Forest area. It's amazingly beautiful up here and the small-town feel is a refreshing change from the city.


I woke up early and was the first person to enter the Reserve and was rewarded by seeing what I believe was an agouti scamper across the trail right in front of me, followed closely by a sloth of some type in the trees and some small loris looking animal. I'll have to do some googling to confirm the species types. From what I heard from others though it's fairly rare to see mammals like that in the forest.


The next day I gave in and splurged on a Canopy tour, which was basically flying high above the ground on zip lines, with a little rappelling for variety and then something called a "Tarzan Swing, which was quite the adrenaline rush.


Day after I went by Jeep-Boat-Jeep to La Fortuna which sits below the recently active Arenal Volcano. It's an impressive sight though often shrouded in mist.


Took a good long hike up to a Waterfall above La Fortuna for a swim, felt good, it's constantly hot and 100% humidity. I take back all the mean things i said about the French. A French girl and her mom picked me up hitching, saved me an hour walk in the ridiculous heat...


Will post some more pics to my other photo sharing site once I find a computer that isn't mind-numbingly slow.

Anyway, enjoying myself so far, hope you all are doing well as well. Will try and post again soon with lots more pictures. Must find monkeys!

Pura Vida!