I’m Working… I Swear

This trip has been amazing so far. Its pretty awesome traveling with erica and this guy mikey who I just met is pretty cool too. The people have been ridiculously nice and helpful to us so far and although there have been a couple sketchy situations everything has worked out so far.

My family seemed pretty stoked with the electronics I smuggled into the country for them. After dropping that stuff off we headed towards the coast and ended up at playa hermosa one of Costa Ricas most famous surfing beaches. Mike tried to surf but found it a bit too difficult. The girl who rented us the room I definitely would have married in a second.
We had a couple good meals and conversations with the dudes running the new “Dos Gringos” restaurant there. They had just opened up a week ago but were making good food using some pretty primitive equipment. They moved down here from the US to do this for the rest of their lives. The owner told us anyone could do it if they had three things:

1) No debt

2) Consolidate your possessions into a bag

3) Not have a need to see your family and friends.

And 4) (he knows he only said three but…) Grow a pair and do it.

I thought what he was doing was awesome, and I could definitely see myself doing something like that in the future but… Right now I just have too much to see to see to settle down in any one place. I’m seriously considering flying to Peru instead of home and crossing Machu Pichu off my list this month.

We spent our second day relaxing at the beach and had a nice makeshift picnic. It was a really relaxing day and I got some reading done while mike surfed. I don’t know if its in my genes but the women down here are definitely doing it for me… I can see why my dad fell for it.

Today we went ziplining and I learned a few awesome tricks like going upside down and stuff. We got some cool videos and photos Ill post up. Right now we are just pulling up to La Fortuna which was recommended by the zipline guy I talked to. Apparently Arenal the volcano should be a blast and we can do class four white water rafting here so I’m stoked. We plan on staying in a hostel tonight for under five dollars per person.

8/13/09

We drove several hours today on the recommendation of our ziplining guide. We made it out to La Fortuna which we found to be quite cozy and hospitable. We wandered into the first hostel we found in the book and found it to be pretty decent. Four bunk beds in  a room and hot water for 10 dollars per person. We decided that from now on we were going to haggle everything so I acted very insulted when the lady told me 10 dollars and demanded it for five. She looked at me like I was crazy. I thought that I had read this place should be 5 dollars per night but maybe I was insane. Anyway she said she’d give it to me for 8 and we went back and checked the book and turned out it was supposed to be 10 so when we found out the other hostels were full we went back and checked in.

Wifi was available but apparently died out in the evening and now that I actually want to use it the owner is asleep and I’m way too nice to try to wake him. I found out today that if I change my ticket its going to be a 225 dollar fee so I’m going to have to check how much it would cost just to fly straight to Peru. Maybe I can make up some lie about how it was cheaper to fly to Peru and then back to the US than just to fly straight there? I might get fired but I’m not sure I care that much at this point.

We met a really cool couple at the hostel while we made dinner for ourselves (which was pretty mediocre by the way, but we are living cheap). Anyways they are motorcycling together from San Francisco all the way to South America and have been on the road for 6 months. They are on their way back up right now. I took a look at their bikes and it’s a pretty amazing idea that I hope one day I could do. The guy is from Belgium and the girl is from San Fran and loves to continuously talk shit on Irvine (understandable). We booked a Class IV white water rafting tour tomorrow which I’m really excited about… it should be pretty intense. I hope we don’t die, well I hope I don’t die. Just kidding!

We set up our mosquito nets tonight and I feel pretty cool about it. My one roll of toilet paper I brought came in handy since they don’t provide towels, soap, TP, or really anything at this type of place. I’m really glad I have Ericas sack sheet to protect me from ringworm… yeah…