Part 1 of Day 1 in San Jose, Costa Rica

Well, all, I am here. Safe, sound and....wet. Let´s open with this: THe keyboards here are different, so, please forgive typos. Couldn`t really sleep last night. I´d guess I have around 2 -3 hours sleep. The trip from Detroit to Houston went really well, I highly recommend continental. Was planning on studying spanish on the plane, but, who can resist Patrick Dempsey on a 5 inch screen?! Sooooo watched ¨Made of Honor¨, which was cute. Did a little reading on the Houston to San Jose flight, but mostly watched scenery. Landed in San Jose and went into Spanish mode right away! Here´s the thing though, the better you sound, the faster they answer you! Me, being somewhat of a dummy, just says OK because I don´t want to keep saying ¨What???¨, especially not after they compliment me on my spanish! Sooooo we got taken at the currency exchange because I just didn´t understand everything she said, mostly because I wasn´t paying great attention. We lost about $20.00 because she gave us a lower exchange rate. BUUUUTTTTT....I had planned on taking a taxi, which, would have cost $20+ and made our lives MUCH easier. Kristen though, was feeling adventerous and suggested taking the public bus...soooo we went in search of one. TIP NUMBER ONE...NEVER ask a cabbie (especially a pirate/unofficial one) for directions to a bus, you´ll end up in Timbuktu. The good news ladies n gents, is that I was prepared for this type of trickery and grabbed Kristen (who´s to nice to be rude and tell him to get lost and walk away while he´s talking) and went to where I saw busses. Found a police officer and asked him the way to San Jose. He was soooooo nice, he babysat us until the bus came :) He kept telling us ¨Be very careful, san jose is verrry dangerous, you should take a taxi once you get to the bus stop¨ So got on the bus and eventually made it to downtown san jose. The bus trip cost about eighty cents, making up even for the 20 we lost at exchange since we didn´t pay the cab fare. Well, we didn´t know where the hotel was (didn´t have reservations either) so we just started wandering, ignoring the advice about a hotel....coul´dn´t be THAT far away, could it? Some may have whipped out their map, but, I refuse to look more touristy and to let people know I have NO idea where I´m at sooooo...we wandered...and the rain started....not heavy rain, but rain, wet rain (I was super smart to pack all my stuff into sealed plastic bags so that nothing would get wet inside). Occasionally we would ask for directions, and everything I had read about TICOs (what you call a Costa Rican) is true, THEY HATE TO DISAPPOINT PEOPLE SO EVEN IF THEY DON´T KNOW WHERE SOMETHING IS, THEY´LL JUST GIVE YOU RANDOM DIRECTIONS!!!! Well, out of maybe 7 people we asked, only 1 person gave us the right directions. After walking a mile or 2 we got to the hotel, looking like drowned rats, and they had no rooms available! We went across the street to Hotel Balmoral and now have a cute little closet to sleep in for the night...it´s tiny...BUT very cozy, with A-C free soap and shampoo and towels and it´s in the center of downtown. We laid down for a minute to try and take in everything that just happened, it was such a blur. What an adventure. We are off to a fabulous start!!! We were starved at this point and decided to wander till we found something local (sorry, I´m not here to eat Denny´s, KFC, Subway, McDonalds or the like...which are everywhere here) and cheap. We ended up in this little shopping center and got this incredibly huge and butter laden plate of food and a drink for $4.00. Had grilled chicken, rice with corn , fried tortilla, butter with mashed potates mixed in and butter soaked veggies...soooo yummy!!! (glad we walked so much!) Then we went off in search of a supermarket for water. Walked through a really seedy part of town (complete with the famous HOTEL DEL RAY which is the prostitute bar and hotel...in fact that whole area is one huge brothel). Now I´m here writing you guys, and the next step is to go collect our free drink from the bar, then try and fix my appearance some what, get dressed up, find a taxi and go out dancing. ....

Well, the first few hours have been fabulous. I still don´t feel excited. I feel like I have come home. I´m relaxed, I´m happy and I feel like I fit in. I promise to be safe as I live life to its fullest ;) Until the next time...
Alissa