I started this blog section way too late. There has been so much to write already.

I finally got away to start my 2 months in Costa Rica! Man, don't I need this. Among other things, it's going to be interesting to see how I do on my own. But for now, I have my friend Lynn with me! I'm so amazed and excited that she's just as impulsive as I am. I booked my lodging on a Saturday, told Lynn about it on Sunday, and by Monday she we had her booked on a ticket to come with me for the first week - woohoo!

As much as I want/need time alone, I'm pretty excited to have her along for this first jaunt. Playa Zancudo is not the easiest place in the world to get to. With the help of Susan, the property manager (who for some reason I just assumed was a Tico, but she's an expat from the US) really helped by giving me details on how to get down here. We adjusted a bit on the fly, it worked out great and we got to the wonderful rental house (a whole house!) in about 48 hours after leaving home.

We met up in LAX, she treated us to the lounge - mmm fee munchies and wine ... and champagne, and Bailey's. :) We slept pretty much the entire red-eye and landed around 7am in San Jose.

Forget the $20 (started at $30) taxi from the airport to the bus terminal, or the $200 (started at $300) taxi all the way to Zancudo. We took the public bus for $1 (45 min) to the city, then walked a mile to the Tracopa bus terminal (trying new things at a fruit stand along the way and enjoying a La Merced Church and Parque Central). We took our time because it was only 8am and our bus wasn't until 3:30pm - ugh. We were so tired at this point and I really only want to lie down in a park and sleep. Lynn had so much energy - where does she get it?!

I really like to check in at the transportation place as soon as possible because you never know if something I cancelled, leaving at a different time, etc. It definitely paid off this time. Rather than waiting another 5 1/2 hours for the Golfito bus (our temporary destination in the South), a bus was leaving in 15 minutes for the nearby town of Rio Claro! Yes! Then we only needed to take a 1/2 hour local bus from there to Goflito. Other than one somewhat funny slip-up where when we wanted to get off in Rio Claro, the driver told us to get off on "the other side". I figured he meant the other side of town but then all of a sudden we were nowhere near ANY town! I asked him again so he stopped the bus and left us off at a roadside shelter in the pouring rain. He did explain that a bus the color of my purse would be coming along and going to Golfito. Okay whatever. haha Sure enough, it came and we were on our way right back through the town we had just been in, and on to Golfito. Successfully got the bus driver to drop us at Hotel Golfito (right by the pier we needed in the morning and recommended by Susan). Checked in (a bit pricier than I expected but still only $30 for the two of us) and went straight away to shower. Ick - I smelled so bad! [insert big sad face here] No water. None at all. The woman said it's because of a problem with construction up the road. WTF. Thanks a lot for telling us.

Cutting to the chase, we ended up moving to the Hotel El Tucan up the road. Only C15,000 ($25) and we were treated like family. We finally got some food (vegetarian being even more challenging at the limited options - becoming even more limited when Buenos Dias closed early for the night so we were left with Chicken Bros). We sat at the family's kitchen bar in the lobby, shared our food with them, and became fast friends. This is all in Spanish by the way. I translate for Lynn the best I can while barely being able to keep my eyes open. Good practice! OMG 8pm now I can finally shower and sleep!!!