Costa Rica

Just to let everyone know, I'm sure this set of travel blog entries won't be nearly as entertaining as the Europe trip a year ago. For one, I'm already home and I'm backdating all of my entries, since net access in Costa Rica was an issue. With that footnote, here goes...

Day 1 - San Jose

I'm traveling with my friend, Joel, from work. We had been looking for a weeklong "rugged" vacation for the last several months that we could do for this summer. Most of our focus all winter had been a planned backpacking excursion in the summer on the Pacific Crest Trail in either Washington or Oregon. Logistics and the fact that taking a full WEEK to backpack made such a trip a little more difficult and somewhat uninspiring (this year).

So, somewhere along the way Costa Rica got thrown into the mix. We found this "killer" package deal on the net back in the spring, but a little digging showed some flaws. For one, any package involving a 4WD rental car included some nasty insurance and taxes. Costa Ricans aren't exactly known for safe driving and State Farm won't insure my driving down there either.

So a couple months ago, I ran across an Atlanta - Costa Rica airfare for just $308 (taxes included). Booked! So here we are, flying out of Atlanta this very, very early morning and headed for San Jose for 9+ days. This isn't going to be your average Costa Rican vacation either. No ecolodges...no 4WD rentals...no plush beach rentals...just hardcore, independent, by the earth travel. We'll be traveling by local bus, staying in hostels and small hotels and there won't be any frills thrown in.

We land in San Jose @ 10:40a after a brief layover in Miami. San Jose is on Central Time, but they also don't observe Daylight Savings Time. Sun-up is at 5:30a and sunset is at 5:30p. Now doesn't those hours suck? Twelve hour days too? Yep...only down near the equator in summer. The sun's directly overhead and it's very intense too.

San Jose is a city of over a million people. We aren't going to Costa Rica to see city, so we're immediately headed to the bus station on foot and headed up into the mountains. The first bus is a 5-hour trip up the Pan-American Highway and then some rough dirt and rock roads to the city of Saint Elena near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. That's where we plan to really start our trip. Enjoy!