La Fortuna

Ok.... well we decided that San Jose was a bit of a dump so we left its cockroach infested streets in search of somewhere nicer to stay. We left the hostal (Sally taking out an innocent tourist with her rucksack on route) and hailed a taxi to the bus station. Our taxi ride was....interesting to say the least....as our driver spent much of it making gorrilla impersonations and telling us that "big monkey" would carry us off tarzan style because of our white skin! The journey-4 1/2 hours on a bus packed with locals and chickens was not that eventful. Sally made friends with lots of the locals and one guy raising money for charity gave us all heart shaped keyrings and declared his love for jules before accidentally elbowing her in the head! (I think he loved us all a little less when we failed to donate large sums to his charity tho.) I on the other hand got attatched to a guy by my rucksack and dragged him half way up the aisle of the bus before he got free -ooops.
Anyway, we successfully made it to La Fortuna by the afternoon and checked into Gringo Petes, our hostel for the next two days. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see much of La Fortuna that evening (small town overshadowed by a very active volcano) as we found out first hand exactly why it is called the rainy season! Confined to the hostel by a thunderstorm directly above us, it was a contest between our fear of getting struck by lightning v.s. our hunger as to whether we would venture outside. As the evening drew on, hunger won out so we donned our waterproofs and made a run for it to the supermarket. As sods law would have it however, no sooner had we reached the supermarket, completely soaked through, the rain stopped. Typical.
There is little else to report for today as it has rained solidly, although it has let up a little this afternoon so we are off to some hotsprings this evening, and will hopefully see the volcano properly if the clouds disperse-fingers crossed for clear skies.
Oh yes and Tommy and Leo- Jules managed to bore herself by her own conversation. At lunch yesterday she just switched off mid flow and wondered why Sally and I were still looking at her!

We`ve Arrived!

Firstly, apologies. The Costa Rican keyboard is rather different to the English or American ones so I´ll probably make lots of typos!
Well we´ve finally made it to San Jose. The flights weren´t too bumpy although in the one to Madrid we hit a rough patch and I accidentaly missed the armrest and grabbed the leg of the random guy sitting next to me....he looked pretty scared (of me). After a bit of confusion with seat numbers at Madrid airport, leading me to board the plane by a different entrance to Emily and Sally, we settled down for the 10 hour flight to San Jose. Having scanned the plane`s radio stations we found a rather nice Dick Wittington story followed by a totally surreal ganster style rap about Tigger the Tiger. During a rather nice Disney film about huskeys Sally was rather startled by a big seal (no really) and let out an almighty scream. I think that was when we first became popular with the people around us. However, the guy sitting in front of Emily stayed stubbonly asleep. So she hit him on the head for good measure (accidentaly she assures!) 10 hours is a long time to sit in one place and we each entertained ourselves in different ways. I met my intellectual equal in the toddler sitting in front of me and spent a portion of the journey having a face pulling contest. I won. (Yes!) Sally hit the guide books and started learning the lingo and Emily attempted sleeping(inbetween frequent questions from Sally) and did some pretty intense staring. The seat tray in front now has burn marks.
Upon landing in San Jose we easily caught a cab to our hostel and booked in with no problems. Until we tried to follow the check in lady´s directions to the hostel bar. Apparently it's 2 blocks up the road but depending on which one of us asked, it was either up the hill, down the hill or along the road. Lovely. But we´re here now (despite the efforts of the many road users who did their best to mow us down. Good effort lads but no road kill this time).
It´s only quarter to 7 now but it´s already been dark for about half an hour. This of course means that we´ll have to be making the most of the mornings (Leo-that´s the time before noon that you´re not familiar with). Tomorrow we plan to hit the tourist information office, phrase book in hand and smiles a-beaming, to plot our next move.
Thanks for all your comments, keep them coming! Until our next post, adios!

Last minute preparations!

Hello everybody, welcome to our blog! This is the online journal of Jules, Sally and Emily: 3 friends who met in Glen Eyre Halls at Southampton University. We've decided to spend a month in Costa Rica (no real reason, just sounded like fun!) and here is where you can keep up to date with everything that happens to us.
After a couple of stressful days of preparations (lost passports, wrong flight confirmation numbers...) we're just about ready to go. With all the exams, library courses, etc. at the end of term we haven't really had a chance to do a fixed itinerary yet but I think we're going to base ourselves in San Jose for the first few days at least. We've got a 10 hour flight to get through so I'm sure we'll have a chance to scour through the guide book and come up with something! We'll also be using that time for another purpose- learning Spanish. So far I can ask for an orange, Emily can tell someone off for forgetting their exercise book and Sally can smile politely in any language. We'll be fine! Personally, my biggest worry is finding somewhere showing the England football matches...
I'll be updating this as much as possible over the next 4 weeks and putting up photos where I can, so check back soon for more from us!