Last Blog.

I am writing to you from an hostel in Alajuela.
I picked Tim up at the airport on Tuesday. His plane was about a half hour late due to turbulance which he enjoyed tremendously! We caught a bus to downtown San Jose and found a taxi to take us to the Caribe Terminal. There I grabbed some arroz con pollo and a couple empenadas to hold us over til our arrival in Puerto Viejo. We had a 4.5 hour bus trip there. Tim was pretty cracked out on the all the travel. To make matters worse we had, as Tim put it, The Hills cast sitting behind us the whole trip. For those of you not familiar with the show it is a "reality" series about girls who grew up in SoCal and spend their lives debating what to wear, who to date and a sundrie list of other vapid things. A show I adore for it's retardedness. So annoying when they are talking at full volume about how smart and worldly they are. I can't begin to explain how painful that made the trip. I am sure upon arrival
that Tim will try and do it justice.
I had made a reservation in Puerto Viejo so we wouldn't be wandering around tired. We checked in and dropped our bags on the floor determined that our first dinner would be delicious. Oh, it was. We had shrimp cocktail, amazing ceviche, a coconut shrimp rice that was amazing and a pitcher full of Sangria. Yeah! All of this about 30ft from the ocean's edge- Although we couldn't see it.
Exhausted from the long trip we went to bed early.
The next morning we had breakfast. I insisted Tim have the Pinto. I had a large plate of fresh, tropical fruit. We walked around and explored the town. The weather was warm, mildly muggy and overcast. Not exactly sunning in the sand weather. Originally I had thought that Tim would like to do some surfing but looking at the surf he wasn't so sure. The water there is called Salsa Brava. Literally translating to Brave Sauce. A bit crazy and unruley.
Then it was on to find some ice cream. That took quite a bit of time, surprisingly. We had huge servings of ice cream, mine with fresh fruit and Tim's with cake and rum. We snacked through lunch on yuca chips and beer while walking along the beach. Did a bit of touristy shopping and waited to find some really great place to have dinner. I knew I wanted typical Carribean Costa Rican food as that was one of the reasons I had wanted to come to that side of the country. Rice and Beans was all everyone talked about. It was what you'd expect but with coconut milk and a lot more flavor. We ended up at a soda. Tim having already tried the three Costa Rican beers chose his favorite while I had a pineapple batido. I ordered the fried chicken with rice and beans but, because of a waiter's error, got the most flavorful, amazing chicken I have ever had. Rice and beans makes up for having annoying girls on the bus in my mind. Tim may not agree but I love food. His dish was somewhat uneventful. Rice and shrimp. But I have always been better at ordering. It rained pretty hard during dinner. My first real Costa Rican rain.
The next morning I let Tim sleep in as he had a bad night. At 9.30 I woke him up because we wanted to leave on the 11 bus. Otherwise we would have to wait til 4. We had breakfast at Bread and Chocolate. They made their own breads and chocolate. We rushed out of the restaurant to get to the ATM so we could catch the bus on time.
5 hours later we arrived in San Jose. I wanted to get the the local artisan market so I could get some souvenieres. Tim was miserable walking around San Jose with his backpack. We got a cab to our bus stop and caught a bus just in time. The 20Kilmeter trip took about an hour. We arrived in Alajuela at night. Tim was not happy. I found the hostel I was thinking we would stay at very easily and while proud of my directional skills, Tim was not happy when we found they did not have any rooms available. We walked around the corned and got some beds in a dorm style room. Started we walked around looking for a soda. The first thing we came to was a chinese restaurant and while it looked sketchy, I knew Tim would kill me if we kept walking. Note to self- follw your gut. We got what has to be the worst food, not only of the trip, but maybe ever. I ordered chicken with potatoes in curry sauce. I got a mound of french fries with chunks of freezer burn chicken that was covered in a yellowish gravy looking sauce that was completely gelatinous and tasted of weird Asian guy. We happened to have ordered three dishes we were so hungry. Thank God they were the small portions. The second dish was a chow mein that also had gelatinous goo with stale won ton crisps and weird Asian guy flavor. For those of you who don't understand that= It is a smell you often encounter in some Asia homes. I don't mean to be mean but it's true. The third was a shrimp rice that was a pretty standard fried rice other than it was overly salty. I paid the $12 and we got the f out of there. Two of the dished were pretty much untouched. I headed for the nearest market and bought more yuca chips and cookies. We sat in the park and listened to an orchestra play for awhile before calling it a night and heading off to bed.
That brings me to right now. We are headed to San Ramon where Tim will be shown my old haunts. I am thinking we may go to Las Musas. A small waterpark that has a huge waterfall as a back drop. We leave tomorrow morning so this wil most likely be my last blog in Costa Rica. It's been fun!!!