We had breakfast in the hostel (pancakes, watermelon and banana) with our German friend from the ride to the hostel and a man from NYC who said he had traveled in Central and South America a lot. After breakfast, the German man, Grant and I walked to the bank that was about three blocks away. You have to be careful walking across streets in Costa Rica. Drivers will not stop for you, and they are happy to run you over (although when we were in the shuttle, several cars slammed on their breaks for a dog that was running through the streets without a leash). there are not really lines in the middle of the street, or to separate lanes that go in the same direction. People stay more or less in a straight line, but it's far from rigid like in the US. The bank doesn't open until 9am, so we waited in line outside. When it opened, people were only let in the bank one at a time; they are stopped at the door by a security guard who waves a metal detector over you. Once he declares you safe to enter, you grab a number and wait for the next available teller, kind of like at the DMV in the united states. Since it was early and we were close to the front of the line, we didn't have to wait very long. But, you can only go to the teller one person at a time, so I had to change money by myself. There was no fee to change money, and I didn't really have to explain myself - the lady knew what I was trying to do. When we were standing in line, our German friend told us what the German perspective was on politics in the USA. He said that they see Obama and watch because he cannot get anything done. They also see Sara Palin and the Tea Party, and they think they are sad and ridiculous. They see the two party system in the USA as counterproductive, since nothing can get done unless one party is in full power.
When we got back to the hostel after the bank, we took Gaudy's shuttle to the Pavas Airport (Tobias Bolanos) and checked in for our flight to Puerto Jimenez. Turns out, the didn't even check our bags. they just had us each stand on a big scale with out backpacks on, then said we were fine. We couldn't believe there was no security, and no bag search! We had 1 hour wait, so we went upstairs and had fried fish, rice and beans for an early lunch. They called our flight, and there were only 6 passengers, 2 natureair (the name of the airport) employees and the two pilots. the plane was small, but it wasn't the smallest we saw in the airport. the view from the plane was amazing!
I learned that it's best to wear sunglasses in these little planes though. the reflection of the sun off the clouds was blinding. the seats were small, and I was so tired that I fell asleep for a few minutes. But the view was beautiful of the city (Grant has some great pictures of the National Stadium) and the urban sprawl of the city. San Jose is home to 60% of the country's population, and its obvious from the amount of land area that the city takes up. Especially since the town that we flew to is tiny.
We landed on a small airstrip on the outskirts of town, right next to the ocean. Immediately after getting off of the plane several Scarlet Macaws flew overheard. The airports office here in Puerto Jimenez is literally a shack. it's a one room building, with a ticket counter, a few chairs and a potted plant or two. There was no exiting security; once we got off the plane, we were free to go. When we exited the airstrip, we met Elias, who drives a black truck for private tours, etc. The guy who checked us in to Natureair in San Jose told us about him, they are friends. Elias agreed to drive us around town for just a few dollars (we paid him $3.50 total) and tell us about various landmarks. I climbed in the backseat, and we drove around town for about 30 minutes. We ended up at a place called Cabinas Backpacker, and the guy (Frederico) said it was $24/night, so we decided to stay. He didn't have any double beds available, but when we insisted that two single beds were fine, he said he would bring a double bed into our room. We think he was sort of testing us to see if we would be testy or something. While he was changing the single beds to a double, we walked around town. There is one main street in the town, and it is paved. It's roughly a two lane street, but again there are no lines and everyone drives fast. the speed limit is 40 km/hr. People walk in the street, bike, ride motorcyles, dodge cars. The rest of the roads are gravel and dirt and rocks, and they are very potholed. Stray dogs run all over, and even dogs that are owned are free to wander wherever they want. Grant and I agreed that taking a dog from here back to the USA would be cruel. here they are free to wander around, but back at home, they are kept leashed and gated. Here, the people collectively care for the animals. At home, if someone found a stray dog it would be reported, taken to a shelter, and probably euthanized. The only thing about their animals here is that they tend not to neuter them, which results in too many strays. This is changing though. There are a few cats, but not many. the waterfront looks like this:
when we got back to the Cabina, Frederico had put together a double bed for us, and arranged our towels into hearts with flowers on top:
we walked around town some more, this time to look for macaws! We got lucky; when we walked by a tree by the waterfront where two macaws were munching away on the fruit. when they are in flight, the cry loudly. when they are sitting and eating, they talk quietly to each other. the tree was small, so we had a great view. They were about 8 feet up, and they let us sit under the tree and watch them for a while:
we came back to the Cabina (Cabin) and the owner, Frederico, made us a drink with rum, fruit from the front yard, ice and sugar. the rum was from Panama (alcohol here is extremely expensive). He and Grant talked for a long time in Spanish. I can generally follow along with what they are saying, but my speech is too slow still. We went to the major market (about the size of a one story medium sized house in the US). we picked up one loaf of bread, 2 bananas, 4 oranges, 1 plain yogurt, 1 box of milk, and 4 eggs, all for about $5 (the general rule is, however much the price is in Colones, the Costa Rican currency, multiply that by 2 and take away 3 zeros to convert to American dollars. For example, 1500 colones would be $3. The placement of the comma is a little confusing, as we found out when we tried to get money out of the ATM at the local Banco National. Luckily, we only pulled out 10,000 colones ($20) - not $100,000, which we were mildly afraid we had done. the problem was not so much where the comma is, but the lack of consistency in its placement from screen to screen on the ATM). the produce is a lot less visually pleasing than it is in Safeways back at home. At home, fruit and veggies that have bruises or spots or any imperfection are not displayed. here, that's no big deal. So far, its all been great.
we decided to eat out the first night though. the first restaurant was really pricey, and the waiter was not very nice, so we moved down the waterfront to an outdoor restaurant. the girl was nice, and the fish we had was excellent. all for about 11,000 colones. went back to the hostel, took cold showers (there are two showers at the hostel: one has cold water, one has hot. since it's so hot and humid here, we've been opting for cold showers). then we layed in the hammocks that hang all around the cabina and listened to the bugs in the night.
ps: we also saw a giant iguana sitting in the crook of a tree when we were walking by the waterfront! We went to take a picture, but he disappeared before we could get the camera ready. We try not to just wave our camera everywhere, since we don't want it stolen and we don't want to be rude.
Apparently there are campgrounds next to the crocodiles in Puerto Jimenez
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