Jaco - Costa Rica

First blog on the road....here we go!  Arrived in San Jose around 2pm and made a quick stop at the foreign exchange booth (440 Costa Rica Colones to 1 CAD!) then I was off to my first hostel.  I hopped in a cab and took the 20 minute white-knuckled, Fast and the Furious inspired trip to the bus station in central San Jose.  From there I snagged an expensive ($4 dollar) and short (3 hour) bus ride to the west coast surfer town of Jaco.  After trying not to look like the lost gringo who just arrived (I failed miserably), I wandered town until finding my hostel, Beds on Bohio. 

This place is full of laid back surfers, hammocks and amazing coffee.  Sharing a bedroom with 3 other strangers only a few feet away is interesting, but everybody's attitude is so laid back and accepting it's tough not to think of them as good friends.

I've met people from Australia, Switzerland, Bolivia as well as all over the US and Canada.  The local beer here is delicious, it's called Imperial and it comes in various size including a 1L size bottle for only $2!  I had some real good fish tacos down on the beach as well as gallo pinto, which is a typical Costa Rican dish comprised of rice, beans and sometimes meat and vegetables.

As for my plans over these next few days, I'm going to hike up to a local ocean side cliff which has amazing views of the area and take some pics, and I've booked in some surf lessons with a guy who came down here for a week, and has been here for 6 years (which is common down here).

Happy Mothers day Mom!