So we crossed the boarder at Penas Blanca and took a bus to Liberia were we wanted to stay for a night to decide where to go. The town had not a lot of sight seeing places, but was just pleasant. We walked around to buy some important traveller stuff that needed refilling. We also refilled our cash bank and went to a ATM machine 520 Colones to 1 US Dollar! We felt like millionaires. With all the rushing we forgot our debit card in the ATM machine and were so happy and thankful when the costumer after us came running towards us with the card waving at us.
During the evening we decided for two destinations in Costa Rica. We wanted to try a volcano again, as the weather was not too bad today and we wanted to see a tropical jungle on the Pacific Coast.
The next morning we packed our now almost dry laundry and started to walk towards the bus station when it started to rain heavily. By the time we reached the correct bus station we were soaking wet.
We bought a bus ticket to the airport of San Jose as we had to change buses there. All wet we boarded this fancy bus with the way too cold air condition. We were happy when we stopped for a toilet break to dry our ourselves with the hand dryers in the rest rooms. The second part of the journey we were first stuck mostly in a traffic jam and then the bus driver rolled the bus into anther bus behind him and we had to wait for the police. As we arrived in San Jose at 21:00 instead of 17:00, we decided to stay for the night and take the bus to Alajuela the next morning.
We took a taxi to the hostel we decided on from the lonely planet. When we checked in we found out that the rooms for US$ 20 were already fully booked and the cheapest option is a double room with bathroom and breakfast for US$ 45. As it was late and we did not want to wonder around or take another taxi, we took the room. Our most expensive hotel room as of yet. The room was really nice and we had had a hot shower the first time since Mexico, at least it felt that long ago!
After a good night sleep we woke up to be surprised by this wonderful breakfast buffet. There was an egg station, great salads and bread, the best pineapples and fruit, no "Gaillo Pinto" in sight!!!
We walked about 40 minutes to the bus station and about an hour later we arrived in Alajuela. We dropped our bags at the hostel and tried to go to Vulcano Poas. We took a scenic bus ride and got stuck in a village called "Poas". As it started to rain heavily we took the bus back and wanted to try again the next day. We spend the afternoon by walking around in Alajuela when the rain stopped and returned to the hostel to work on some computer stuff.
The next morning we took the one bus that leaves Alajuela 9:15 to go directly to the Volcano Poas. The ride took about an hour and a half and it was raining very hard. On top of the Vulcano we walked to some of the view points were we were suppose to see the below:
But we saw this:
All wet we went to the visitor center to have some hot coffee and to wait for our bus to go back at 14:30.
A little sad about all the rain we departed that afternoon to get to the town of "Manuel Antonio" and were hoping for better weather at the Pacific Coast.
We got up early in the morning and entered the 2nd smallest, but the most visited national park in Costa Rica called like the beach town "Manuel Antonio" We got in a group with a guide and started our adventure and "YES" it was not raining and we even had blue sky!
The guide walked with us for about 3 hours and showed us a lot of animals we would have never spotted with our own eyes. The combination of Tropical Forest and beach made this park picture perfect. We enjoyed every moment of it and every moment without rain.
After the tour guide left us to ourselves we walked a few trails that were very muddy or already closed off due to all the rain. Robert turned out to be also an excellent animal spotter and we were able to see a two or three toed (was not able to count exactly) sloth.
We also saw some monkeys having fun:
At about 13:30 it started raining again and we went to a hostel restaurant close to the park to have a lovely lunch.
Later this afternoon we picked up our backpacks and drove to a surfer hot spot called "Dominical". We never really got to know the small town as we arrived after sunset and got up the next morning at 3 am to catch the bus to the boarder of Panama at 4 am. Not to mention that the bus did not leave until 5 am.
For more pictures click here. Costa Rica
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