San Jose to Quepos

My last night in San Jose I spent having some wine with a few people from Switzerland, Australia and the US. The hostel had an interesting vibe and the staff were great. There was even someone playing the guitar, which eventually turned into a bit of a kitchen party...felt just like home :) All good things must come to an end though and I hit the sack early, as I had a 5:00am taxi picking me up for the bus station. Now the bus station is an interesting experience in itself. It is located in downtown San Jose at the old Coca-Cola building. It's not in the best part of town, but if you keep a good eye on your belongings I think you'd be OK...in the daytime anyway. My limited Spanish vocabulary consisting of "beer", "bathroom", "hi" and "thank you" really wasn't that useful when trying to find out where I needed to go to buy a bus ticket...to this day I can't understand why not???? I decided to roam around for a bit to see what I could find out, before resorting to asking a police officer. He informed me that the ticket station was closed and I would just have to wait for the bus and if there was room, to buy the ticket from the bus driver. So much for my plan to come early to make sure I got a seat!!! To make a long story short, I finally bought a ticket from the bus driver thanks to the help of a woman police officer, a Costa Rican woman who was next to me in line and some man who I think just liked the opportunity to practice his English. Who knew it would be such a process to buy a bus ticket!! The bus ride to Quepos is approximately 3.5 hours south of San Jose. The nice part of getting out of the city is finally being able to see the Costa Rican landscape...palm trees, lots of little shops and markets along the roadside and of course, warmer weather. I arrived in Quepos around 9:30am in the sweltering heat and once again I was lost. I walked around town for a bit trying to find my hostel, only to find out I was standing right across the street from it. I really need to get a handle on my sense of direction or I'm going to be spending all my vacation wandering around trying to figure out where I am!!!!! Well that's it for me, as my time is up on the computer and I'm boiling sitting in this little room typing away. Once I get settled into my next location, I'll fill you in on my awesome experience at Manual Antonio National Park. Until then....