Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!

It took three sleepless flights, and nearly twelve hours to get here, but I'm here, and everything went smoothly... well, almost everything.

The first thing I noticed was the heat, and humidity. When I stepped out of the airport in San Jose to catch my connector to Liberia, I immediately started pouring sweat. Flights typically dehydrate you anyways, so it was very important to continually drink water while traveling.

The plane from San Jose to Liberia must have been the second smallest airplane I've ever been in, with only 12 seats, and 5 passengers, including the pilot and co-pilot. The smallest plane I've been in, I jumped out of with a parachute on my back.

I met my new friend Anthony at the airport, who picked me up and gave me a quick tour around Coco & the neighboring villages. It was door-to-door service, and very welcomed. The only address I have to this town-house I rented reads "500 meters North of the Lizard Lounge"... Seriously! That's how they do addresses here. There are very few street names, and even less house numbers. You just kind of have to know where you're going, which I did not.

Once at my new home, I tried to unpack. However, and this was the only thing that went wrong during my trip down here... The airline bag-handlers had broken my TSA approved travel lock on my big red bag. Its a combination lock, and the numbers wouldn't turn, so I couldn't open it. I so badly wanted to shower and change my clothes, but that wasn't going to happen for a while. However, I did eventually found a wedge that I pried the lock open with, thank goodness.

My place is literally across from the beach. You can see it from the pool! Here is a picture of the walkway, and you can see the barriers at the end of the street. On the other side of that, sand!

I stuck my feet in the water which has to be at least 80 degrees. Its just perfect, and beautiful here. On the south side of the beach, is a reef that you can walk across to get out to a little party island. On the north side, its deeper, with great snorkeling and more secluded areas of beach.

The beaches don't seem to get crowded, but I hear that this is the slow time of year. Probably because of the heat, but I don't mind. I kind of have the whole place to myself, perfect!

One thing about living so close to a rain forest are the animals. So far, I've seen wild dogs, wild cats, a strange all white squirrel, some kind of a meerkat looking thing that popped out of a rain drain, rainbow colored lizards, tons of bright butterflies, jumping fish in the ocean, and too many birds to count.

I've made a few friends already, and even meet some people from Long Beach... small world. They stopped me to ask for directions. Sorry guys, I only got here a few hours ago, but I'll walk around with ya! They were looking for something called the Bumble Bee... Good luck :)

Some things are immediately different here. Google goes to its Costa Rican version, which is all in Spanish. Netflix, Hulu, and even Pandora are not available. I have not been able to get my VPN working yet, which will give me access to those services. The bread here is cut into really thick slices, and takes some getting used to. All the eggs are of the brown variety, and they only sell 2% milk... Delicious, but I think I'll stay away for the time being.

I did happen to forget a few things, like soap, shampoo & conditioner. I'm used to traveling in hotels, and it didn't even cross my mind that those wouldn't be waiting for me. I left my mouse charger at home, total disaster! The sunscreen is not cheep here, so I should have brought more from home, along with some aloe. I managed to get sun burnt my first day, but not that bad though.

All-in-all, I am settling into my new life just as happy as can be. People move much slower here, and for good reason, its so Hot! I am trying not to run the A/C, but at night I just can't help it. I figure, the quicker I get acclimated to this climate, the better off I'll be. I give myself a week or so... But we'll just have to wait and see...