52 Days

Sunday: We woke up in just enough time to brush our teeth and run out the door to the bus station.  Thank goodness the bus left on time (6 am) because we were in for quite a drive. We arrived at the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica at about 9 am.  Everything had gone pretty smoothly up until this point, and we felt like we were making great time.  Something about getting across those borders is really sticky though.  Costa Rica is particularly picky because apparently a lot of Nicaraguans try to cross the border illegally.  Anyways, we sat outside at the border, waiting for the guy to finish up with customs and stuff.  My face actually got a little burnt just waiting outside. 

I decided to make the most of getting a chance to get off of the bus and use the bathroom, because no one likes to use the hot, smelly one on the back of the bus.  There was a long line of ladies waiting to use the restroom, and you had to pay to get a wad of toilet paper.  After waiting about 10 minutes I made my way into the (also hot and smelly) bathroom.  As I neared my turn, I saw ladies coming out of the stalls and grabbing an old milk container with the top cut off to scoop water from big barrels.  Then they would pour the water down the toilet to get everything to go down.  And then, if that isn't bad enough, the same water used to flush the toilets was used to wash your hands. Ewwy.  I was pretty grossed out, but I did what I had to do and got out of that bathroom as quickly as possible.  

Yes still at the border, but Jess had a frisbee in her backpack, so we tossed it around for a while and a Nicaraguan/Costa Rican (?) boy joined us.  He watched for a few minutes as we played and then hopped right in and laughed and ran around with us.  It helped pass the time, and eventually (2.5 hours later) we got back on the bus.  Then went across the border, got off again to unload all of our luggage, and then got back on to ride the rest of the way.  Thank goodness we didn't hit anymore traffic or run into anymore hang-ups.  We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica around 5 pm, which made for a long day, but we were glad to finally get there.

First things first,  find our hostel for the night. We didn't stay in San Jose the whole time, just for one night, and then we made our way to the coast (which will come later).  Anyways, the taxi drivers, were swarming, so we found one who would take all five of us and headed to Galileo's Hostel.  We didn't know much about the place, just that it was fairly close to the bus station and another cheap night.

Side note:  I'm not sure how familiar you are with hostels, but here's the low down.  Some can be pretty nice (almost like a bed and breakfast) while some can be downright disgusting: just a bunch of beds in a big room to lay your head, and maybe running water to clean off. 

Anyways, Galileo's was a decent place, but if you can't tell from the pictures below, I'll describe the atmosphere.  As soon as we walked in, we saw a sign that read "Smoking Marajuana on the premises is prohibited", right beside a sign that said "We will hold your drugs at the front desk if you have any."  What had I gotten myself into?  We all just kinda looked around at each other and knew we were out of our comfort zone.  The people were nice, just different than us, and we had a private room (except for Matt) to keep all of our stuff secure.  Our room was right above the 24 hour bar, so there was quite a ruckus all night long, but thank goodness I am a heavy sleeper (some of the others weren't quite so lucky)! The showers were clean and warm, and I just tried not to think about all of the people who had probably slept on the bed before me. 

Community Bathroom

 Crazy Chandelier as soon as you walked in

A big chalkboard on the wall...anyone could write on it

Stairway up to our bedroom

The Alcohol Selection

Day 2 was successful.  A lot of riding and waiting, but we were now that much closer to relaxing on the beach!