Costa Rica Diary: Here I Come

On the Journey is very pleased to announce Gurkhahere as its first ever guest writer. In this post, and the series that will follow (hopefully ), Gurkhahere will share with us the memories of his recent trip to Costa Rica.  

How often can you have a great bar night with a bunch of people, all with varying accents, in a place where very few people speak English. Not often, right?- at least that hasn’t happened with me before. 

It is fresh. It is different. The refreshing air nicely complements the magnificent weather. People are speaking Spanish everywhere which makes me realize that I really am in Costa Rica. I’ve just escaped the cold DC weather and the daily hustle to be in Costa Rica and the first day (January 16, 2010) has treated me well.    

Just up the street from my house

 Costa Rica has exceeded my expectations of being a developing country. At times, it reminds me of back home while at others it makes me wish my home was like this. The streets are well paved, the mercado is well organized, cars are decent and of course the bars are superb. There is a freeway here, although without shoulder but only a few high rises. Streets are fairly clean and there are neighborhood guards to patrol the streets at night, who greet you, every time you walk by with a simple buenas noches.

The street I walked everyday

 At the San Juan Airport, I got picked by Ingrid, a very nice woman who spoke no English. I am proud to say that we had a nice conversation on the way to the “home.” Go me! Seems like my attempt and the desire to learn Spanish finally paid off. We drove along the freeway, through downtown San Jose and into San Pedro to get to the “home.” She showed me a few landmarks along the way, including Hospital Mexico, which is apparently the biggest hospital in Costa Rica (hun?). We also drove by the Universidad de Costa Rica, a huge and the most renowned university in Costa Rica. Ingrid mentioned that the university is very competitive. She showed me a couple of parks where people just hang out, play futbol, basketbol, and bicicleta, and basically just hang out with families on Sundays. Downtown San Jose was pretty lively with people just hanging out on the streets. The stores were closed but bars were open. Seems like the Ticos have their priorities figured out.   Read the rest of this entry »