I have to confess, I´m in LOVE.. with Costa Rica!

When we got here I didn´t really know what to expect, all I´d ever heard of San José before was that was an ugly city. We thought this would be more or less a short pitstop between Cuba and Peru, but it has turned out to be so much more! I certainly didn´t expect to see so much of Costa Ricas great nature in only a few days, and even though San José isn´t the prettiest city I´ve ever seen, it absolutely has its charm.

Yesterday we we´re "real" tourists, and joined a trip to see the volcano Poás and waterfall gardens. Poás is still active, and has the second (or third, don´t really remember) biggest crater in the world (about 1300m wide), and the lake in it is among the lakes with the most acid in the world with a pH value of about 0,05. From there we also hiked up to the Botos lagune, which was really pretty. The waterfall gardens was much more than just waterfalls, with birds, frogs, butterflies, snakes, monkeys, hummingbirds and much more. The waterfalls was situated in the Costa Rican rainforest, and we really discovered why its called just that - it´s a forest, and it rains - A LOT!! I, of course, had forgotten my neatly packed rainpants on my bed at the backpackerplace we are staying, so I got soking wet, and were of last night on my last shift of clean and (more or less) dry clothes. Because of the humidity, we have been unable to dry anything, and even the clothes we haven´t worn yet is humid.

Today, however, we eventually found a drycleaner! But this would also make some trouble. After asking an officeguard for directions, we were sendt in the totally opposit direction of where we were going with only minutes to spare before the place was suppose to close. Nedless to say, we we´re on the right track BEFORE we talked to this guy. Risking having to go on to Peru without our clothes was not the best feeling, but, we made it, and I have never ever been so happy to have clean and dry clothes in my life.

Today we also went to El museo de oro, the Gold museum, with mostly precolombian art. It was really intersting, exept for the part where Guro had to report one of the guards for sexual harrasment. Exept for this, we went crazy shopping, and I barely have room for all my clothes in my already full backpack. The one thing I had decided beforehand to by, a t-shirt with the letters "pura vida" (pure life), the ulitmate Costa Rican frase which they use to say "hello, good-bye" and so on, was impossible to get. All sizes were mens models, because it for some reason is considered vulgar for a woman to wear this kind of t-shirt (even though they have no problem putting the frase on childrens gear). How rude is that!! Anyways, I´ll get one the next time I come here, ´cause I´m definetly coming back.

We finished of our stay here with dinner with Hugo at this quite classy restaurant, and had some more great food (yes, I know I´m always talking about the food, but they have so much good things here).

This is some of the reasons for why I have fallen in love with this country, and why I already have decided to go back. I can´t wait to see more of Costa Ricas nature and get to know the great people here, who are surprisingly calm for latinos. Another reason is that we have been so good taken care of here, and I think that has made all the difference (thanks again, Hugo ). Going places where you have friends really gives you the opportunity to see the country from another point of view, and has certainly been the case for us in both Cuba and Costa Rica. Even though I´m not ready to leave, tomorrow morning we´re going on to Peru.