costa rica - day 5 - santa teresa/san josé

slept in on tuesday morning, managing to get breakfast in just before the 10am cutoff downstairs. today's fixins include mango, watermelon & pineapple to go with gallo pinto (a costa rican staple) topped with two fried eggs. since we are headed to san josé by way of the 2:30pm direct bus, we race into town to look for souvenirs and to the beach in search of sea shells for my mom.

we say our last goodbyes to casa colina, then head to an arbitrary intersection where the bus arrives twice per day for san josé. even though it's about a 6-7 hour trek, it's not that much slower than taking a shuttle since you still have to get on the same ferry. plus, you pay about $8 vs. $55 for the shuttle.

we take the ferry from paquera to puntarenas - where the bus boards as well - and get back on the same bus when we return to land. top left below is our bus, top right are some of the mangoes locals are peddling at the docks:




we arrive at the coca cola bus terminal in san josé around 9pm, then cab it to our hotel (casa 69) where we groggily check in. most of the restaurants in the neighborhood are closed, so believe it or not we do take out at pizza hut and make it an evening in our room, complete with dessert of cream cheese rolls + ice cream.

however, we're thrown for a loop as heidi can't find her passport and we start retracing our steps earlier that day. i do a bit of research online that evening and locate the US embassy in san josé, as we make plans to visit first thing on wednesday morning in case her passport doesn't turn up at casa colina. this makes for a nervous night...