La aventura empieza

To my beloved family and friends,

I'm sure you're all like, "OMFG, he actually wrote another blog. LOL".  But if my mother asks for updates, bet your ass my mother gets updates. Plus I know some other family members actually check Facebook occasionally, so maybe they'll want to know this stuff as well. The ridiculous part of this blog is I've only been out of the Peace Corps for 2 weeks, so obviously there just isn't that much I can have to say.  But a couple stories I wanted to share.

So I spent a week in Nicaragua after finishing my service because it was the week before Easter which is vacation for the whole country and a great opportunity to say goodbye to everyone and to the country that had been my home for a significant percentage of my life.  It was fun, but very sad at the same time.  But I'll be back relatively soon, so I was actually able to avoid the waterworks.  From there I just went straight to Costa Rican border and crossed that sonofabitch.  Feelin' all big and ready, with my chest puffed out and everything.  But then I was like, "HOLY SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. WHAT DID I JUST DO?"  It was actually a super surreal feeling, although maybe it shouldn't have been considering I went to the States twice during my service.  But something about the realization that I no longer live in Nicaragua made it more than a literal border I was crossing.  Now I'm just another gringo that was there, not one who lives there. I didn't really like the feeling, but there was still the excitement of not knowing what the next 2 hours would bring that kept me trudging forward underneath the overbearing sun and absurd weight of my goofy backpackers backpack.

I had already decided that I was going to go to Liberia and then continue on to Tamarindo because it's a very famous beach town.  But then I met this English woman on the bus with one of those Central America books, and she read me a section about Playa del Coco that made it sound pretty cool.  Plus, it was a lot closer to Liberia than Tamarindo, and it was getting late in the day so on the the fly I changed my plans and decided I'd go to Coco for a couple days and then continue on to Tamarindo after that.  So we change buses to go to Coco and on there I meet a couple Costa Ricans (from here on out referred to as Ticos, because that's what they call themselves).  We get to talking and kind of hit it off.  They're brothers, really nice guys, make fun of me for my Nica accent, (which they are allowed to do because their parents are Nicas, otherwise I would've had to slap them both), they suggest a hostel for me and we part ways.  The next night I was walking around town with some other backpackers I had met, and a car starts honking at me.  It turns out to be them, and I invite them to our hostel to hang out for a bit.  We're chillin' and chattin' and they mention that they're going to Tamarindo the next day in their car.  CAN A BROTHA GETTA RIDE??  I pitch in for gas and the next day I'm on my way to the next town.  But en route they convince me that Tamarindo is extremely touristy and therefore outrageously overpriced, and that I should just visit for the day, then go back with them and stay at their house with their family.  Apparently I'm the first gringo-Nica they've ever met, and had already told their parents about me and it was cool if I ate dinner and stayed the night free of charge. Winning.  So of course I accept, they show me Playa Grande, then Tamarindo, and then we head home.  Their family turns out to be absolutely amazing people and we hit it off immediately.  Then Gilbert, the older of the two brothers who sells tours on the beach to gringos tells me he can take me to a different beach the next day, and the possibly can hook me up with a Timeshare presentation.  Needless to say, I was down.  So he takes me and another backpacker, (who was over 30 because that's necessary to sit through a Timeshare presentation), to Playa Hermosa, we hang out for a couple hours, he gets his friend to hook it up, and shortly thereafter we eat a super fancy buffet meal and then have an all-inclusive and access to the pool for the rest of the day.  That, my friends, is how you backpack.

The next day I was actually able to liberate that poor family of their American burden and left for the capital, San Jose, which is where I currently am, staying with a friend of mine from Rivas that I met while still living in Nicaragua.  He works everyday from 1 to 10pm, so I kinda have all day to explore and hang out and then we go out in the night.  Not too shabby.

It's only been 6 days in Costa Rica, but so far I'm sticking pretty well to the budget and everything has been going well. Hopefully it stays that way.

Love and miss you all so much,

Nick