Arrival in San Jose

September 19, 2010

So after an infinity of flights and airports I was finally making my way to San Jose. Flew in over Cuba and a lot of small pretty islands before coming in over I assume Nicaragua and then the gradually more hilly/mountainous Costa Rica before coming in to land in San Jose with mountains in view on either side.

San Jose has a great airport, doesn’t look like much from the runway, but inside it is very clean, modern and quiet (when I arrived anyway). Short queues, well organised, out in a flash. Hostel pickup took ages though.

The drive to the airport was nice, pumping out Creedence Clearwater Revival as we passed by slummy (yet strangely attractive) housing areas and other main streets. Interested to see what the town center will be like. Picture to follow tomorrow or the day after.

Weather isn’t perfect, raining.. pouring for the period where I needed to get from the van to the hostel entrance.

Went to the supermarket, saw some Goth girls on the way (generally a sign of civilised society). The supermarket is very western looking inside – same sorts of foods etc. Seemed quite pricey at first glance though.

KFC for dinner >_>

Time for hundreds of hours of sleep now.

September 20, 2010

Wope up at about 5am this morning, dozed around a bit but only got up properly at about 8:30. There was a …thing on the wall next to my bed. It’s about 6-7mm long and slightly…fuzzy. I thought it was just a mark on the wall or a moth, but as I looked in the gloom and through my grotty eyes I realised there was something sticking out the end of it and it was wiggling about, a little tentacle thing groping around.. and then it goes back in…. and comes out the other end for more groping/climbing. I watched in horror for about half an hour before I blew it onto the floor and out of my consciousness. I’m probably going to need to harden up a bit…

Went for a walk to the supermarket for some fresh fruit and bread. Things learnt: Bananas are cheap (4 for US40c) and delicious, apples are huge and delicious, but expensive (about US85c each), bread is cheap and delicious, yoghurt is very expensive.

There are I think 5 guests, but I’ve only seen 1 of them – who shares my room (who had too much to drink last night and perhaps, in hindsight, would not have appreciated my undoing of velcro, ruffling of bags and general clamoring about since 5am).

Plans for today involve dithering about doing nothing, going for a swim perhaps and then if the weather stays nice heading into the town proper to sightsee a bit.

I’m hoping it clouds over and doesn’t rain – the sun is very very hot (27 high 18 low today)