Day: 142
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After a restless night of tossing and turning (kind of an uncomfortable bed) I finally rolled out of bed around eight-thirty. Within minutes my roommate, Jeremy came in and asked “You want to go upstairs and get some breakfast?”
“Sure.” I replied, “Just give me a sec to brush my teeth.”
“Ok. I’ll be up there.”
I headed down the hall to take a piss and brushed my teeth, then went upstair to find Jeremy who was on the patio with Mike and a German named Johanas who I had meant last night. We all ordered and got to talking, I was still trying to figure out what to do today, Mike and Jeremy had to get on a airport shuttle in an hour and Johanas was heading to Turrialba for a supposed festival with bull fighting. The bull fighting sounded interesting, but my Lonely Planet didn’t really sell any other aspects of the town so I couldn’t make up my mind. I figured I’d come to me sometime, so I just enjoyed my breakfast and view, then went down to see the tour information guy at the front desk.
“Do you know anything about this festival in Turrialba this week?”
“Turrialba?” He asked. (I think I mispronounced it)
“Yeah, someone was telling me they have bull fighting and stuff this week.”
“My family is from there and I was there last weekend; I haven’t heard of anything, and the town is boring.”
“Oh. Thanks…” That about sealed it, I didn’t want to go there. I inquired about a bus to my second choice, Arenal, a active volcano.
“Eleven thirty, at the San Carlos bus station, it takes about four hours.”
Well I had a plan for the day, I said goodbye to everyone I had meant, told Johanas I wasn’t going to go with him, and got in a taxi to the bus station. The taxi drove me all the way across town for $1.20 and dropped me right outside the terminal at about 10:30, I was early but I didn’t have anything else to do in this unsafe town, so I just found a couple other backpackers waiting for the same bus and started talking to them. The ticket window didn’t open for another half hour but the Brit, Dan, and an Iowan couple were interesting enough to keep me occupied. We got tickets, complete with little tourist warning notes in English about not using the overhead storage in the bus because if you fall asleep, someone will steal your stuff. They had special “tourist luggage storage” in one of the compartments under the bus and the driver would only open it for you. Least they are looking out for us.
The distance the bus had to go was about 50 miles but the ride took us just over four hours through the mountains, complete with overcrowding and some old Costa Rican cowboy’s armpit in my ear while he had to stand for with his arm holding the luggage rack for about an hour. I slept through the smell.
The bus dropped us off next to the park in La Fortuna, the small town of 8,000 just next to the Volcano (which was covered with clouds today). I asked one of the locals which way to the Arenal hostel, and they told me it was about 400 meters up the road. I said goodbye to Dan and the Iowans (They had already booked there own places) and hiked up the street until I found the hostel. I checked in, took a shower and went to the front desk to see what kind of tours I could get for tomorrow. They had all kinds of options, Zip-lining, Canyoning, Rafting, ATV’s, Horseback riding, Hiking, Natural Hot Springs, and Jungle Jeep rides. I decided to go with a Volcano hike and a visit to the hot springs after. The guy at the desk asked me which one, because there are town different hot spring and the one that is more expensive is supposedly “opulent” according to Lonely Planet. The cheap one was $35 for transportation, park entry fees, hiking guide, and the hot springs entry fee. The “opulent” one cost $60 but comes with dinner and a supposed touch more class, I splurged at the desk mans suggestion, telling me it’s normally overbooked and the only reason I can go is because I am alone and they have one space left. I didn’t really believe him, but the pictures looked fancy.
I headed back the 400 meters into town to find dinner and a bottle of rum for the evening. When I got back the sun was setting behind the dark clouds and it looked like it might rain, but after saying hi to a few new people, I went out to the pool to listen to the crickets and frogs and drink my Cubra Libre’s. After an hour the rain came and chased me under the lobby’s shelter, with a few other long term travelers (A girl from Singapore on the end of her 3rd year, A British woman on the 3rd month of a year, and a Swiss guy who left in November) who I quickly befriended and spent the evening drinking and talking about the world and everything everyone has seen.
Day: 136
Just a few minutes after midnight on day one-three-six and I am sitting in terminal 207 of Ontario International Airport in a black pleather chair waiting for my flight to board and take off to Costa Rica. The recent terrorist plans in London have this whole place feeling like a jail. Heavily armed military at every crossing, not sunblock on the plane, and extended periods of serching through our bags. The young girl in glasses next to me is rocking herself to sleep on her pillow in her lap. The people here look exhausted and dreary, like one to many late night flights have flown their way. I am having a rush of adreniline surging through my body in excitemnet to get to someplace completely new and foreign. American has been nice to me (horrible on the budget), but I really enjoy the struggle of finding a place to sleep in a land where everyone jabbers at me in a different tounge. Life just makes sense to me when I have to figure it out every minute, like I am up to a new challenge with ever passing moment. I have eighteen days for Costa Rica before I am home for an entire month, for 10 days of work, some siblings birthdays and my friend’s, Christine, 21st birthday celebration. She was trying to make it to Costa Rica with me but budget constraints wouldn’t let her. It’s too bad, I would have enjoyed the company. I guess I’ll Just have to make some new friends, part of the adventure.
Time to board.
Time for a 3 hour flight, land in Houston just after 5am. I chased that with a four and a half hour layover and another 3 hour flight into San Jose, Costa Rica.
I booked a Hostel online, The Pangea, and they have a service that for $6 they’ll pick you up from the airport and take you right to their hostel. A great deal considering that a Taxi for the same ride costs $14. The bad side of this is that I was introduced to “Tico Time”, a Tico is what the Costa Ricans calll themselves and a sense of time is what they lack. It was about fifteen minutes before I found Oscar waiting for me and about another half an hour until Oscar found Martin and Andrea, a British couple who were shareing the van with me. Then Oscar called the shuttle and we waited another half an hour until it arrived, packed to the brim with a departing school group. We finally arrived at the hostel just after two. I showered and even though I was exhausted I decided to go for a little walk through this grey city to see if I could find some lunch and an ATM. I found some money and a chicken sandwich then decided on a little nap, seeing how I didn’t manage to sleep much last night.
When I woke up it was just after six and another guy, Jeremy from South Carolina, had just moved into the room with me. We got to talking and headed upstairs to the hostel bar for a beer. I understood San Jose wasn’t really safe after dark but Jeremy who had been in Costa Rica for the last 10 weeks started telling me scary mugging stories. At first I didn’t completely believe him, but soon another guy joined us, Mike a med student also from South Carolina, and he also had his own stories and reasons not to go out after dark. I decided to believe them, and since it seemed everyone else at the hostel also planned to stay at the bar all night, and beers were only $1.40, I didnt see any reason to go out. I spent the evening drinking beers and listening to Costa Rica advice from everyone who had already spent a few weeks here. I made some friends and drank half a dozen beers before all the time on the airplanes and inadequete sleep caught up to me just
Day:135
Time to go home, a week for me before Costa Rica, and back to pushing the last legal drug for Aaron, Matt and Chad. Lei Lani and Christina had somehow manage to miss their flight this morning (Lei Lani seems to have a knack for not getting on the plane on time (no offense Lei)), and all of the sudden Skittles was overflowing with people. There was no way we could all manage this ride home with six of us.
To everyone’s dismay, Matt didn’t finish the trip with us, or get to be in the California state sign. He found a ride with one of their other friends that was in Vegas who wasn’t leaving for a few hours. The rest of us were on a race against the clock because Aaron had to be at work at 4:15pm and Chad was only fifteen minutes behind that. After dropping off a still drunk Matt at the Wynn, I hit the pedal and hit the highway cruising eighty miles an hour all the way home.
I was home just before 3pm, and thus ended my American part of The World Tour. In just a few days (after I babysit my 2 and 4 year old nieces for three days while their mom and dad are in Hawaii) I will be heading to Costa Rica and bringing you, once more what you really care to see, me getting drunk in OTHER countries. Oh, yeah and probably some shots of beaches, rain forests, food, and stuff.
I for one am really excited to get back to where traveling is cheap.
Day: 134
My brother, Aaron, came into Vegas late last night to meet up with his friend Ian’s bachelor party. I thought I’d be for the best if I made my way to the Aladdin to see what kind of trouble they’ve been getting into. Also I wanted to possibly partake in any party that they may of had going on. Aaron (the other one), Matt and Chad wanted to meet up with some friends that they had invited to Vegas at the Wynn, and also had to get Aaron’s sister (Christina) and Lei Lani from the airport. We loaded into Skittles and they dropped me off to find my brother, while they went to find all their friends. We promised to meet up later.
I got to rooms 1407 and 1409, to find a room full of partially drunk guys who had just spent the morning drinking free Mimosa’s (OJ and champagne) with their buffet. This was on the right track so far, except for Pep, who thought it would be the best idea to have 14 Mimosa’s with breakfast, so he was kind of trashed. I said hello to my brother, got a drink, took a hit off of the vaporizer (a neat little machine that gives you all the THC without any of the smoke), and headed down to the pool to see about what kind of trouble we could get into this afternoon.
At the pool Aaron and I found the two most important things we had to buy before we could get in the water, sunblock and cocktails. We lathered each other up as the rest of the boys had already found a bachelorette party to crash on the far side of the pool. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the sun, drinking Ketel One and pissing off the Bride, who for some reason thought I’d be ok to keep taking my hat. I eventually dunked her in the water and Aaron called her a “Dumb bitch”, which I completely agreed with. The funny thing is she kept acting pissed off but would always come back, let us know how pissed off she was, then just stand around and talk to us while we pretty much ignored her. I will never understand women.
Before I knew it (and after six applications of SPF 30) we were back in the room getting ready for the night. Aaron had agreed to go with me to dinner with the Road Trip crew, then head back out with the party. Aaron and I had a couple of hours until the dinner reservations so we wandered around the strip drinking $2 you-call-it’s and playing a few hands of $20 blackjack, which I won at and immediately found the closest bar and drank away my winnings.
We all finally got together out front of the Wynn and headed across the street to Maggiano’s for some Italian family style dining and a little dancing. Dinner was an amazing assortment of food, and with there being 10 of us we could actually try quite a few things. After dinner we all were heading down the strip and eventually got lost in the crowds until it was just Aaron and I. I knew everyone else was heading to New York, New York to go to the piano bar so I just figured on catching up with them in a little while. Aaron wanted to get back to his party so we tried in vain to hail a cab. Eventually we were walking down the strip trying to hitchhike back to the Aladdin. After about 20 minutes of this a cab picked us up. $16 later we were through Saturday night traffic and back in the room with Aaron’s friends.
Pulp Fiction was playing on TMC and I layed on the bed for a little break while everyone else was finishing getting ready. Things faded for me quickly, and it was only 10pm.
When I woke up the room was empty. I glanced over at the clock and saw it was nearly two in the morning.
“Damn” I thought, “I just lost a whole night in Vegas.”
But just then I heard the redeeming accent of Sean Connery, teaching his Scottish friend what it meant to be a Immortal! What luck! I may not have a phone (remember I left it in a cab in Boston) or any way to get in contact with anyone in Vegas, and I may have just slept through my last night of the Road Trip, which was supposed to be a big hurrah, but The Highlander was on TV! How do I get so lucky!
I stayed up until 3:30 watching the epic battles and walked out of the hotel looking for a cab quoting “There can be only one!” (Although, to be honest, when I say it it is nowhere near as cool as when Sean says it). I found a cab, and $14 later I was at Matt’s dad house , where I was the first one to make it home. The night might not have been what I planned, but I realized good things do sometimes just happen. At least I left Vegas with some cash in my pocket.
Day: 133
So since we were staying with Matt’s dad, Kirk, and tonight was Kirks first night off work since we’ve been here, Matt wanted to make it a bonding day for him and Dad. We didn’t make any big plans (other than making it to the theatre to watch Will Ferralls new movie Talledega Nights), and spent most of the afternoon drinking, giving the dog beer, drinking from a funnel, and having a guys night in.
