costa rica: pura vida

Or puro dinero is more like it. Not only is everything double or triple the price of Nicaragua, but you can see money in action immediately after crossing the border. Take for example this fancy bus right here, compared to Nicaragua's chicken buses, this is riding in the lap of luxury. Also, after we survived the chaos that is called "the border" it was ironic to see Nicaragua's muddy puddle of a road turn into nice new pavement on the other side.

Let me just vent on the border for a second. Wow. Ok, so after you pay 1 dollar (3 or 4 times) to the community of Penas Blancas on the Nica side, you walk through a gate into a huge lot/road area with buildings, cars, buses, people who will rip you off with exchanging cordobas to colones or vise versa, banks where the ATM is not open, and by the way, without a clue as to where to go or what to do. Good thing I like to read informative guide books before I attempt such an adventure, or we'd have probably ended up in jail. You must get your passport stamped on both sides of the border which sounds easier said then done as the Nica immigration building is like a block away behind what looks like a bus stop and the Costa Rican one is down the road a good football field or two. Also, you have to pay a hefty fee ($4 pp) to leave Nicaragua and an even bigger one ($12 pp) to get in. However, Costa Rica doesn't make you pay a penny. Ok I'm over it.

Needless to say, after our 12 and 1/2 hour bus adventure we made it to Jaco (J sounds like H in Spanish, so phonetically it's Haco), Costa Rica, which honestly looks just like it sounds. It's a visual onomatopoeia. We say this because it's a tourist trap, without a pretty beach. But it was worth it, because we got to see our good friend Sarah Medrano and meet her 30 peace corp buddies as well. They were staying in this killer pad with a sweet swimming pool, which we took quick advantage of. (And also the hot water showers!).



What we learned about peace corp volunteers might sound like common sense: THEY ARE MOTIVATED, AMBITIOUS INDIVIDUALS.. who love to drink! They decided to cook homemade pizza, pancakes, and an entire Thanksgiving feast for almost 3 dozen people. So lucky for us, we got in on a most tasty American tradition. Plus the turkey probably came skinned straight from one or their sites.

Matt and I's new favorite game, we'd like to teach to Andi and other friends back home.

Liar's dice!

So another topic of discussion between us and the Costa Rican peace corp crew, was that of what these 2 silly countries think of each other. And who does the Rio San Juan really belong to? Well of course as you can see here clearly marked on the map, it's 100% NICA! (As they show us daily scrolling along the bottom to local news challenge). But it is a sad typical story when neighborhood countries can't get along, one is rich and one is poor, so the poor immigrate to the richer country in search of jobs to support families back home, and the rich complain about the social services the poor are taking advantage of.... in addition to blaming the poorer countries inhabitants for all the drug and crime related problems, when really they are caused by locals just as much if not more. Sounds familiar.... Besides who invented borders anyways? They are just lines drawn on paper, and as our Native Americans ancestors taught us, land does not belong to anyone.


On a more serious tone, did you know that in Central America, rum and cokes come prepackaged in a can???? Amazing!
P.S. This was just for show, after taking one sip we decided to stick to our original intentions of not condoning the consumption of coca cola products, or sodas in general. Yuck, or Jaco! We'd much rather just stick to drinking Tona!!! In fact, we're drinking one right now! Yum.

So our ride back on the buses began with an alien invasion: ATTACK OF THE GIANT GRASSHOPPER! Seriously, this dude was on the inside of the window to begin with and is literally as big as my hand. If you know me, you know I have big hands! And Matt being the hero he is, gently opened the window and ushered our friend out. While Navi panicked and said, "ahhhhhh get that thing away from me .... but i want a picture!"
Sadly, we do not have pictures of the HUGE crocodiles we saw on the side of the river bank as we drove by, or the majestic red and green parrots flying from a tree into the sky. Which reminds us, Renee - you need to invest in some glasses that double as cameras. That are stylish too.

We stayed the night in Liberia to break to 12 hour trip up coming back home. We were impressed by this newspaper wall. And by our favorite food ever- plantains!

They're like the cottage cheese of the fruit world, you can cook them like 12 different ways and they go with everything! Matt even says you can make a belt out of their skin.