Costa Rica Trip '08 Part VII

11 April
--Slacker--
Yep, I slacked it up good. I missed three days of writing! I'll go ahead and get today out of the way: not much goin' on. The bus ride back to San Jose was long, but (somewhat) restful. We got a meat lover's pizza (delicious) and watched subbed American TV. It was nice not to feel so far from home.
Yesterday wasn't too much different. Up with the sun (instead of before it) and an hour of beach walking to Carate, a two-hour ride in the back of a taxi truck - leg cramps galore - and a day in dirty Puerto Jimenez. Again, not eventful. The hike from Sirena to La Leona was... interesting. Most of it was on the beach, which turned out to be murder on backpackers. I did see some amazing scenes, though, and we got to beach-bum a little along the way. Nothing quite like lying on the beach, under the palms, sun peeking through the clouds... Not too hot, not chilly, maccaws squawking overhead, hermit crabs scuttling purposefully on the sand...
In other words: Paradise. (2030, 11 April)

14 April
--Backtracking Again--
12 April: Unnecessarily long bus ride from San Jose to Santa Elena. I spent most of the ride asleep or gaming; from what I saw of the landscape, I didn't miss much, although Jesse says there were some pretty parts. Our arrival in Gatlinburg... er, Santa Elena was immediately fraught with peril. Little did I know that the hostel we had reserved required payment in cash. Cash! We had all but spent what we had gotten in Puerto Jimenez. And so began our epic journey through the town to find a working dinero machina - "working" meaning "would take MasterCard." We did eventually find one [...] Long story short, we got enough money to pay for our stay. This hostel isn't very nice, though, and I suppose we should've heeded the wallpapering of signs that said, "We don't have many rules, but here are a few..." Jesse was immediately at war with this guy when he was told not to put his pack on the bed. Internet gets shut off at 10pm, which is also lights out / bedtime. As Jim would say: totally lame-o. That's why...
13 April: We used his internet to find other hostels for our trip back through! Nothing was said, but he very clearly saw the giant headings of his competition in town. Score. But before any of this happened, we went hiking in the Santa Elena cloud forest. More on that later - time for taxi-boat-taxi! (0745, 14 April)