It was very easy to go out of Nicaragua because bus staff did for passengersโ visa. But I have to get Costa Rica visa by myself and I wait for one hour to get Costa Rica visa because of many people. Anyhow it is very easy to get Costa Rica Visa. I thank that I get visas very easily so far.
I took a bus in Capital of Nicaragua on 7 am but I arrive in Capital of Costa Rica on 6:30 pm. It is too long and I am tired. Costa Rica means Rich Coast because there are the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. I have only one picture of San Jose, Capital. San Jose is well-developed city. I thought San Jose will be very cool because itโs located at an altitude of 1,170 meters(3,840 ft). But itโs still hot in daytime. Night is okay to sleep. Thatโs enough for me.
Costa Rica uses Colon which is their own currency but also many people use the US dollar. When I arrived in a bus terminal, it was dark. Some guy introduced me 12$ hostel near the bus terminal but he was liar. It was 15$. But it looked not bad and I was too tired to find another hostel. The next day, I find 12$ hostel and it is better for me. WiFi is faster and quieter than 15$ hostel and also it is included breakfast. (Pictures are 15$ hostel. I forgot to take picture of 12$ hostel.)
( 12$ hostel – http://backpacker.co.cr It is also near bus terminal.)
There is a big mission for me who has a right to vote. So, I go to Korean Embassy to vote Assembly election. (Assembly election is every 4 years in Korea.)
I see the park on my way. San Jose is really well-developed city.
It is a stadium which china built for Costa Rica.
Itโs such a cute animal.
After I vote, one of Korean invites me to their restaurant so that I have really good Korean meals for two nights. Itโs always so much fun to hang out with Korean in the abroad because I am Korean. haha
Itโs Costa Rica beer. The left one and the right one are fruit beers. Later, I find that three beersโ deposit is over 600 Colones (USD 1.2$). Iโve heard that Costa Rica treats that nature is the most important and I think itโs true.
It just starts Eastern week after I arrive in Costa Rica.
I got a Central America of Lonely planet book from German couple in Guatemala. But I just exchange to other books. Because I am not familiar to read information in English and there is too many information in the book. Does it make sense? โฆ
Okay. I need just books to read.
I heard Eastern which is called Semana Santa in Spanish is very important in Central America. So I contact Warmshowerโs host and I stay for three nights in their home.
Hostโs mom has a restaurant that I can eat delicious foods. I also help them a little bit. She says that I should stop to travel and work for them. haha. The first and the second picture are typical Costa Rica meals. The soil is fertile because of the volcanic action in Central America. Thatโs why most of the people eat rice. Also thatโs why Costa Rica is famous for coffee.
She looks like my mom. She is always smiling and I love to be around her.
I also hang out with my host. Ceviche is a sea food and The Mexican people put spicy things in there. But Costa Rican put Mayonnaise and ketchup. Itโs interesting to taste it with different sauce. My host job is very special thing that he is a nurse but works on the sky. If somebody who has injured in out of the town, then he picks them up by flight to Capital. He is really amazing that he has to be ready for 24 hours. It means if somebody calls their company in midnight, he wakes up and has to go to work. I love to talk with him and I hear very interesting thing that COSTA RICA DOES NOT HAVE ARMY.
Costa Rica is constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949.It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the worldโs 22 older democracies. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranked 69th in the world in 2011. Also was cited by the UNDP in 2010 as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, and in 2011 was highlighted by UNDP for being a good performer on environmental sustainability, and better record on human development and inequality than the median of their region. (From Wikipedia)
They investment money for education, environment and welfare, not for army. How amazing country in the world???
I tried to stop to take the rest in San Jose. But I had to write journals so that I couldnโt sleep well and I catch cold for three days before I leave. To write journals takes too long time. But I am really happy to share my traveling story with people.
Always itโs exciting to ride a bike again.
I thought there will be just downhill for 70 km (43 mi) because I can check the elevation with website (http://www.perfilderuta.es/perfil.php?lng=en#). But the real is that there are also a few hills.
Itโs for lunch. Costa Rica is more expensive than other countries in Central America. But there are not many poor people like other countries in Central America. Itโs 2400 colones (5$) for lunch but it is really big so I am very happy!! Even the owner receives just 2000 colones although I donโt say anything.
Itโs so colorful.
The wood looks like animal. I plan to ride over 170 km (106 mi) today because I though there will be only down hill over 70 km ( 43 mi) from San Jose. But it is an impossible plan because there are also some hills. So I stop in Jaco where is over 96 km (60 mi) from San Jose. There is a big hill for a few kilometers before Jaco and it is so hard.
Every hotels are expensive because of Eastern.
I find some tents on a beach so I ask them that the place is safe. They say itโs okay and I think also it would be no problem. So I set up my tent on a beach.
Itโs not easy to ride a bike on the vacation season because itโs hard to find a place to sleep.
There is cloudy.
Finally, it rains after 6 pm.
Something happens on the sky and it is the my first time to see it. All night, the lighting flashed in the sky and I can see every second the lighting flashed at the sea.
(Here is video…my computer is too old to make good video)
The next day, my tent and everything is so wet because of damp.
Costa Ricaโs road is really clearer than other countries in Central America.
Costa Rica is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. While the country has only about 0.25% of the worldโs landmass, it contains 5% of the worldโs biodiversity. Around 25% of the countryโs land area is in protected national parks and protected areas, the largest percentage of protected areas in the world (developing world average 13%, developed world average 8%). Costa Rica has successfully managed to diminish deforestation from some of the worst rates in the world from 1973 to 1989, to almost zero by 2005. (From Wikipedia)
Thatโs why I can see so much green on the road. Also, Costa Rica is ranked the second one for education in Central America and South America( The first one is Chile). Medical welfare is also the second one in Central America and South America. (The first is Cuba). Itโs really interesting country to me.
I love this sign! Letโs keep our heart in inside by using belt.
There is river around the place I stay for a night. I take the picture of the river later but on the daytime there were many people.
There is a diving place on the left. I canโt touch the ground around diving place about one meter (3 feet) but itโs no problem because thereโs a strong current in the river.
I donโt know how to swim but I practice by myself around there because of a strong current in the river and that is my big my mistake. I am almost going to die. It is too serious so I calm down and go to inside water and relax my body. Thanks to a strong current, I donโt die. I should not practice to swim by myself anymore.
Itโs Eastern today but I am so lonely.
Couch surfing host lets me set up my tent at her private place. The bathroom is very wild so I have to take the shower in one minute. Because I saw men passing before I take the shower.
The next day, I also wake up early around 4:30 am and go to a road around 6 am. I see a turtle on the road so I move it to the side. I hope itโs okay for the turtle. Iโve seen thousands of dead animal every day. I am so sorry.
Itโs flat today. I can see so many amateur cyclists today. I think because itโs holiday and flat road. When I am so hungry, I go to a restaurant. Itโs so small but it costs 1800 colones (USD 3.5$).
I like this sign. I guess it means that itโs a family restaurant so we should not say bad words in here. Yeah, itโs true that some people say too much bad words in everywhere and I have to hear those against my will. I Do want to hear just good words!!
I just buy a few things for eating but it costs 5000 colones (USD 10$). Many things are more expensive than other countries in Central America but itโs no problem for me. Because I love their system so much and I am learning so many things from them.
When I was in San Jose, I saw rain every day. But itโs just for couple hours in afternoon. Today after 5 pm, it rains again. When I try to wear waterproof jacket, somebody invites me to their house on the road. Actually the house is for weekend. They live in San Jose and come to here every weekend. They say itโs over 4 hours driving from San Jose to weekend house.
Itโs a big dog. One of them brought their dog.
I sleep very well because of kind Costa Rican family. The next day itโs sunshine again.
It looks like the bomb.
I think he taking the picture is very emotional. Because there is nothing to take the picture. But.. I find thatโฆ
There is kind of crocodile! Oh my goodness. Why you are on the road?
Actually, I see some shocking thing. Itโs not because of ravens eating dead animal. When I see it first, there is a dog eating dead animal. I read Blindness by Jose Saramago in Korean. Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. I read that dogs are eating dead people in the novel. And today I see similar thing. But the different thing is that when I close to it, the dog runs away.
Again it rains. One of people in bus station is drunken so I am a little bit afraid. I wish rain stops as soon as possible or the people are with me before rain stops. I wait for thirty minutes to stop rain. Fortunately, itโs happy ending that bus comes after rain stops so I donโt need to be alone with drunken people.
But it starts to rain again soon. I think it wonโt stop soon so I wear waterproof jacket and I ride a bike. But it is so heavy raining that I wet.
My bike is 750$ and bags are 290$. I heard this bags are strong and waterproof. โฆโฆโฆโฆ.Thatโs why expensive.
Funnyโฆ.. Every time water comes inside although they say waterproof.
And actually itโs more and more broken. I am worried about that how I can keep traveling with broken bags.
When I am riding a bike with heavy raining, I see a hotel and it is just 20 $. I think itโs cheap price in Costa Rica. Hotel has Air conditional and it is very clean. Costa ricaโs money looks different. It looks like more friendly with the nature. I think I just love Costa Rica system so much.
Costa Rica is my ideal country.
Although they donโt have army, they have a police for citizen. Costa Rica has a long-term disagreement with Nicaragua over the San Juan River, which defines the border between the two countries. One time Costa Rica asked other country to protect their country from Nicaragua because of the San Juan River.
Some people say that anyway few times Costa Rica uses other countryโs army so itโs hard to say โNo army in Costa Ricaโ
But my opinion is different.
For example,
I am traveling by bike.
But sometimes I take the bus and I hitchhike.
Anyway I am trying to travel with a bike.
Costa Rica doesnโt have Army.
But they ask other countryโs army for protecting their country few times.
Anyway Costa Rica is trying to make the earth peaceful without army.
The most important thing is that we are trying and trying is always good.
When I was in Canada, I joined activity because it was different culture and I loved to meet people. When I played badminton (2:2), I made mistakes every times because I was not good at playing. But my team and other team always said to me โNice try! Good try!โ and I learned something from that.
I think Praise is not just for a successful man, but also for endeavorer.
I am so impressed that Costa Rica is trying to make the world better.
Also, people are so generous like the Mexican people.
I hope I have a chance to come back this country and learn about Costa Rica.
See you later!(Hasta luego!)
===================================================================
Route
Days in Costa Rica= 11 Days
Distance in Costa Rica = 405 km (253.12 mi)
Cities I stayed = San Jose, Heredia, Jaco, Londres, Puerto Cores, Neily
Costs in Costa Rica = USD 107 $
(1$ = 495 Colones)
Hi, Paco from Mexico. I love how you explain things. The post explaining how trying is worth the effort in peacemaking is so cute (and so true)! Bests. Paco
Hi, Paco from Mexico. I love how you explain things. The post explaining how trying is worth the effort in peacemaking is so cute (and so true)! Bests.
์์ ๊ฑฐ ์์์ ์๋นต๊ณผ ๋ฌผ, ์ผ์ผ๋ก ์์ฌ๋ฅผ ํ๋ ๋ชจ์ต์ ๋ณด๋. ์ญ์๋ ์ ๊ฐ๋ํ ๋ฐฐ๋ญ์ฌํ์ ํ์๋ ์ํผ๋ง์ผ๊ณผ ๋ฒค์น์์ ๋งค ์์ฌ๋ฅผ ํด๊ฒฐํ๋ ๋ชจ์ต์ด ์๊ฐ๋์ ์…. ์ง ํด๋ณด์์ด์ ใ ใ . (๊ทธ๋๋ ๊ทธ๊ฒ ์ง๊ธ๊น์ง ํฐ ์ถ์ต์ธ๊ฑด ์ฌ์ค. ๋งฅ์ฃผ๊น์ง ๊ณ๋ค์์ผ๋ฉด ๋ง์ฐฌ)
I have not yet seen Costa Rica but I also love this beautiful country like you. I wish to visit this blessed place soon.