We got back to the airport with an hour to spare and waited in the airport, spending our last few pesos on postcards. We then flew to Costa Rica and appreciated how international flights (well Mexicana at least) still provide you a meal and lots of libations.

Around 12:30 we got in and got a cab to Gaudy’s Hostel located near one of the very decentralized centers. We had a nice room that oddly was named “Suka” and written out in Hebrew. We fell asleep around 2am exhausted after so many mornings of early wake ups and made scant plans for he rest of the day. We were waiting to hear from Heidi, James’s aunt who lives in San Jose with her husband Marco and son Johann. They have been busy with their upcoming service trip to Nicaragua.

At 8 when we got out of bed we discovered the folowing: 1. the hostel was filled with gringos watching TV 2. there was no breakfast as we had been counting on All in all, overpriced for what it was and lacking in character.

We walked down about 3 blocks to a supermarcado and picked up things for breakfast and sandwich making and then headed out to the San Carlos bus station to purchase tickets. We wondered the streets a little confused at first since: a) very few of the streets are named b) when there are street numbers, they aren’t in any consecutive order and they repeat c) every person we consulted told us to ask someone else

We got there, moving from the residential to the seedy area around the bus station and purchased tickets for 2:30pm to Santa Elena. With about 3 hours until the bus, we dropped our bags and headed to San Jose’s best reputed museo, Museo de Jade. For the steep entrance price ($8USD per person) and the 4 room collection we were not all that impressed. We next wondered in search of a popular vegetarian fast food chain called Vishnu’s where we found a tasty plato de dia and fresh papaya juice. Next we saw an attractive commercial area, stumbling across an international section (Indian incense, Chinese dried foods and Italian pastries all done in Costa Rican fashion, of course) and enjoyed the few streets closed off to traffic.

We return to the station and set off on a twisty ride up to Santa Elena on a crowed and old bus. At one point a torrential rain overpowered the bus and water seeped in all sides… About 20 km later, it was completely dry. There was no need for the jacket I brought as it is was nothing like Brazilian buses (which were freezing cold, AC on full blast!) and we got into town around 7pm.

After discovering that Pension Santa Elena (our 1st choice after reading the Lonely Planet) was overflowing with people, we looked for something a little calmer and came across the pleasant Casa Tranquilo. We are enjoying a private room and a hot water shower (breakfast included for $25). A little of exploring confirmed that this is a tourist town but tomorrow we hope to find a nice hike and hopefully see all the animals.