San Jose, Quepos & Jaco (Costa Rica) - Week 12

San Jose - 30th Nov to 3rd Dec

We left El Castillo at 6am to take the boat back down the river to San Carlos where we changed our remaining cordobas for Costa Rican colones and got onto the boat down the Rio Frio to Los Chiles. Long queue at the border crossing, delicious chocolate cake in Los Chiles and then straight on the bus to San Jose, changing at Quesada. The buses here are great - not a chicken bus in sight! Everything is way more expensive here though and we're paying more than double for accommodation than we were in Nicaragua. Still, we're compensating by doing more of our own cooking which is quite nice after a million restaurant meals of chicken, rice and beans!

Stayed in San Jose for four nights, not because it was particularly charming or beautiful but we had lots of admin to sort (still admin to do on a year-long holiday - not good!) and the hostel (Costa Rica Backpackers) was nice:

Highlight for Katie was buying some red 'croc' shoes that she'd had her eye on for ages:



Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park - 4th to 6th December

From San Jose we took the afternoon bus down to the Pacific coast to Quepos. It was a boiling hot day and we were absolutely roasting in the coach and what should happen but a bloody puncture! We had to wait in the searing heat on the side of the road for 45 mins while the bus driver and a couple of helpful locals wrangled with the spare wheel. The remainder of the journey was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of horrendous bridges (James was not at all convinced by the rusty flanges and had a good deal to say re possible improvements) and we arrived in Quepos four hours later. Luckily, the hostel we stayed at (The Wide Mouthed Frog) was lovely with pool and nice rooms so we relaxed in straight away!



After a day relaxing by the pool it was time to get active so we took the half hour bus up to Manuel Antonio National Park. As the bus pulled up to the entrance we were a bit concerned as the whole place was swarming with rich americans and the main street was packed with hotels and restaurants. Once we got into the park itself, however, it was absolutely beautiful and even better once we had steamed past all the fat americans who all stopped at the first beach!

There are several trails in the park which are lovely for walking and you can reach lovely secluded beaches and see lots of wildlife:



We spent a lovely day wandering, exploring and swimming.

Jaco - 7th & 8th Dec

The day after the national park we left Quepos for Jaco, a beach resort along the coast. The beach at Jaco is okay but nothing special so we are just staying for two nights on the way down to Montezuma. It's quite 'party party' here and last night we found a bar with ladies night. Katie managed to pass as a lady and drank free vodka and cokes all night - dangerous!

Books we read: Grave Secrets, Kathy Reichs - not bad crime book set in Guatemala (might have made it more exciting than it actually was...)