Costa Rica, Day 9

Today was another ‘travel’ day. We woke up and had breakfast at the peace lodge. (Riceandbeans!) Then we checked out and hit the road, on the way back towards San Jose. We actually stopped near the airport where we flew in to drop off the car. The bumpiness, craziness of the roads, and general weirdness all combined to give me a stomach ache, but we made it through just fine. We checked our car back in and then the Poas people offered to take us to our hostel. Boy am I glad they did. Here’s a tip for all you travelers out there. Don’t drive in San Jose.

The first half of the drive wasn’t bad. It was a typical freeway, but the city proper was bonkers. There was a road closure that just made the traffic worse, and at one point were were on a 1-way, four lane road that had been ‘converted’ to a six lane road by everyone just squeezing in as tight as they could. People treated lane lines as suggestions. All the while, dudes on motorcycles weaved in between cars, trucks, and busses, as if they had right-of way because they were small. But our driver got us through just fine. We tipped him really well. I’m sure glad I didn’t have to negotiate those roads.

We stayed at a place called ‘Cinco Hormingas Rojas’. Five red ants. The hostel was very impressive. When you drive up, you end up between normal, concrete houses, looking up at a twisting mass of vines and trees growing up from somewhere inside. The lady that runs the hostel has spent the past thirteen years converting the place into a little ecosystem, like a bit of the rainforest in the middle of the city. (We got some video of it, but It’ll show up later). The front yard even has its own canopy, with lots of birds nesting up in there. Down at floor level, it’s mostly dirt and bugs, but you have to have something for the birds to eat. The whole place was also very artistic, for a certain value of ‘art’. (That value being boobs, brush strokes, cloth, old plants, darkness, and mess.)

Getting some advise and directions from our hostel matron and leaving valuables behind (because who knows what to expect?) we went out to see San Jose. On foot. Our first task was to get some more cash, also verifying that we knew how to read a map. After that, we walked down toward some of the museums. We stopped on the way to check out an ‘art row’. Really more of a ‘costa rican swap meet’, but there was still a lot of interesting stuff to see. We got a set of hard-wood dominoes in a beautiful box. After that, we saw the national museum, learning more about Costa Rican history and seeing some nice artifacts. I liked the pre-colombian gold artifacts. Our hotel Matron also recommended a couple of restaurants to us, and both were very nice.

We hung out for a while, playing dominoes (I won so hard!) and then had some dinner across the street. After that we got to bed early, ready to be picked up to raft down the Pacuare river.

Sorry, no pictures or movies today, we were too busy getting places.

-N