Monkeys, Leo got robbed, beer pong, and the casino

We made it to Backpackers Manuel Antontio, where we stayed on the 8th through the 9th. We got there in the evening after Leo picked us up in Jaco. We bought a new connector cord so we could rock out to American beats in the car. So upon arrival, we wandered into town and got a deal to eat on a rooftop, eat Casados, and a drink daquiri for only 3, 000 colones, or about $6. Good start, no? The hostel we stayed at was pretty cool, although our sleeping quarters were far from ideal...an 18 bed dorm. After that, it is safe to say we will not be staying in a dorm anymore. So we wandered down to the pool and bar and low and behold, we found ourselves a beer pong table. So we played about 4 or 5 games of beer pong at the hostel bar and befriended the bartenter - Alando. Cool dude. We also determined that we speak much better Spanish when we are drunk.

The next morning we got up early and went in the the National Park at Manuel Antonio. It was great. The beaches were spectacular, and trails were great for hiking. We saw some raccoons stealing food (one sniped an entire plastic bag of food from some lady) and we hung out with the monos (monkeys)! They came right up to you. There were some great views from the trails.

We have also determined that the beer flows like water here and people smoke like chimneys (everywhere).

We returned to our hostel and hung out for awhile. Went to the grocery store and cooked some dinner. Leo went to his bed and someone had taken about $50 from his wallet, which was in his backpack. Luke, intelligent as he is, left his camera and wallet(?) sitting on his bed below, but they were untouched. wtf? Fortunately, Luke found $20 earlier in the day, so what better than to head to the bar and play some more beer pong. And like most bars we go to, we ran it. Chris hooked up his iPod and we rocked out. After this Leo wanted to go into Quepos, only a five minute taxi, to find a party. We found the discoteca, but they were charging $6 to get in...so we decided against it. Frankly, we hadn't drank enough to do that anyways. So we wandered down the street and found the casino. Luke sat down at the roulette table (uhoh) claiming greatness. After losing $8 we left. But in his defense, he tried to change his bet on one but it wouldn't let him, so he would have broke even. At least he is still up in Central American countries. The guys working the table asked us if we wanted some crack or weed when we walked in. And the waitress asked us if we wanted drinks, and I didn't realize they were free. Dammit. But I guess the goal there was to get you messed up so you lose all your money. Damn Best Westerns.

That's it for my post. And we have been drinking the water in the places we have been staying..probably not a smart decision. We haven't gotten sick yet, but we probably all have a parasite.

DA

Tie the door shut with a rope..and don't let anyone off the bus

As you might notice, all three of us are in the midst of posting right now. The internet in Montezuma is limited and therefore we are all limited to using the Internet cafe. Hopefullly we won't overload your brains.

Yesterday morning started out much earlier than we had anticipated. About two hours earlier. After Leo got robbed on Saturday night he was hot and bothered to get the hell out of Manuel Antonio. So instead of leaving about 9 am for the 10:30 bus out of Quepos we ended up leaving and riding with him all the way to Jaco at about 7:30. Unfortunetly we missed the connecting bus headed for Puntarenas which we inteded to catch, and therefore had to wait three hours on the street for the next bus. Bummer, and just the start to a long days journey. During our layover in the street we camped out at the bus stop where Prez and Chris were told that they were not allowed to sleep on the park benches. WTF? Apparently PDA is ok but not sleeping. Chris and I found a glory hole in the public restroom- dirttty. I read my book while the other two played a game of cribbage and then we decided to get lunch; Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas. So good. Noon arrived and the bus didn't. We began to worry but just about as we were going to take up a cab drivers offer to porter us up the coast for 60 bucks the bus pulled in. For about 2 dollars each- this was quite the bargin. The bus ride to Puntarenas lasted about an hour and a half where we had to take a cab ride for 4k to the port. Here we bought tickets for the ferry across to the Nicoya Pennensula and a small town called Paquera. As we were about to board the boat (packed with people, cars and even semis) we were told we were trying to get on the wrong boat. Oops. Luckily the other boat (the one we were supposed to get on) was just pulling into port as well. We had to wait a little extra time for it to unload because an old lady was taken off the boat on a stretcher to a nearby waiting ambulance. According to Chris (from his previous experience working in Puntarenas) nobody wants to go to the hospital here. The boat ride was actually quite pleasant. (We were literally on a boat) It was airconditioned and they even had America's Next Top Model playing on a t.v. in Spanish. Apparently Tyra Banks speaks Spanish now? Exiting the boat proved to be the biggest challenge of the day because nearly everyone on the boat wanted to pack into the one bus that was waiting in Paquera. Somehow we managed to all cram in (see pictures). Our bus driver made us tie the back door shut so that it wouldn't fall out. If we would have been in an accident I think we all might have died. The next hour and a half of driving on dirt road was less than pleasant but we all rocked out to various songs. Prez to Maino and Chris/myself to Gaga. If you haven't heard her song Alejandro yet, I strongly recommend it. We stopped in a small town and everyone was instructed to get off. Except they wouldn't actually let us off. Instead we stayed on and had to pay for our ride and then kept going. Hopefully to Montezuma. Turns out we were on the right bus and eventually we made it to our final destination- a place to stay still a work in progress. The second hostel we tried had a private room right on the beach and we snatched it immediately; anything woudl be better than the 18 person hell hole we left the day before. Dinner consisted of pizza and Prez constantly walking next door to check on the score of the Packers/Cardinals game. Suck it Jiggy. We opted to not drink- well the other two had two beers and I had Tang. Nonetheless a man in the story asked us if we needed "some good stuff for our brain". We delightfully declined once more. What is with all the drugs down here!? Our first break from partying in days. We talked on the beach for a bit and then retired to our porch to play cards. In a great game I won by only 4 points. Retribution for my loss in the casino the other night. All and all the 10 hours of travel had taken its toll and we decided to hit the hay. Our next door neighbors were setting up bug nets- but that didn't phase us. A full day of fun awaited us.

"If they sell coke on the street they've got to be selling beer on the street"

That's the dilemma we ran into when we were drinking on the roof and ran out of Guaro after 10pm when the Licorera was closed for the night...

Good news, I survived that night from Luke's last post. But it made for a rough morning, and even worse when I decided to run with Chris down the coast to Playa Hermosa (means lovely beach in English). We thought it was about three miles, but it turned out to be about 4. So after almost dying on the run we returned to find that we both had blisters on our backs. Luke went for a little beach run and his blisters were as bad as mine. We think it is from the combination of copious amounts of sweat and sun.

Random sidenote. One thing we neglected to mention from two nights ago was our bum friend that we met on the street. He tried to get us to go to some pizza shack, but we decided it was too expensive, so he ended up just walking with us. He didn't do a damn thing, but when we got home he expected some money from us. We should have told him to get lost, but instead we pulled out a handful of colones for him. To which he responded, "I can't even buy candy with this." wtf, ingrateful bastard. We also found another prostitute we thought was a dude, but when she gave us to opportunity to feel her stuff we made like trees and got the fuck out. Then we saw him the next day wearing the same thing, and several times since. Earlier Wednesday night, we met some tools from Chicago. We watched one of them snort blow off his credit card. Chris hid their rum punch so we could finish it off last night.

Yesterday we took a cab back to Playa Hermosa. Luke just found a flyer for the World Surfing Games that were held there a couple years ago. Think we would find much success surfing here? Chris and Luke tried it again while I played in the sand. It is amazing how well I can entertain myslef by doing essentially nothing. They both diagnosed me with autism, I think it is more ADD.

We cooked a ton, literally, of spaghetti for dinner and then set off on a mission to call Leo. Who would have known payphones would be so difficult. They are on every block, but we couldn't use our change. We went to about six different phones before going into Mas X Menos (owned by Wal Mart) to find a phone card. unsuccessful. so we went outside to get some ice cream and re-group. Went back in, I guess you just ask the cashier, fyi, if you ever need a phone card in Central America. We ran into the St. Olaf group, who we partied with later in the evening.

The power just went out for about 15 minutes at this spot in the post. You just never know what to expect here. After going on another morning run, and getting some more blisters, we walked the strip looking for deals. We all bought some cute ankle braclets and Luke got some board shorts. He almost looks as cool as Chris and I do. We listened to "She Wolf" in Spanish in the store as he made the purchase. We went to the store and bought some Ramen, yummm. Six slices of generic cheese was $12! wow. we obviously didn't buy it. I showered for the first time in four days this afternoon. Felt pretty good. We just played with the owner's puppy! He told us he doesn't need to feed it because it just wanders around the city and begs for food. We probably have fleas now.

I just gave Chris more money. I feel like his dad giving him allowance each week. We paid $38 each for the three nights here. I think that's pretty good considering that's less than you pay for a shitty hotel in the U.S. This place was pretty dank.

We are waiting for Leo to show up any minute to take us down to Manuel Antonio for a couple nights. It is a national park, and it is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.

the guitar

chris is playing the guitar (i'd say he is the next carlos santana) and prez is passed out (loser). we lost the matches box and cant find the lighter for the stove therefore we can't eat the eggs that we bought. damn. tonight was quite the adventure. nothing of any value really happened. i guess that doesn't make it much of an adventure. we played some games and met a guy from kansas. he was really boring. i guess thats what you get for being from kansas. his friend made fun of us for having accents. minnesotans stand out down here. they had an open bar at this one place called la loft. all they served was rum and cokes. little did they know that's what i love. chris yelled at a bunch of people on the street and i thought we were going to have to fight them but luckily the security guards would not let them in. ha. on the walk back chris wanted to get pizza but it was too expensive so we just ate some leftover rice, beans and bread. prez went to bed. the office is on tv right now and i'm guessing i'm the only one still up in the hostel since its 3:30 am. wake up call is 9 am for a run on the beach and then more surfing tomorrow. time to go to bed.


love to all,
luke

Surf's Up... (or down in our case)

After posting last night we decided to walk next door to the licorera (liquor store if you couldn't guess) and gout ourselves a bottle of Guaro, which is the liquor of Costa Rica. It is very cheap and smells like rubbing alcohol, but when mixed with some Fresca, it becomes delicious. We went upstairs and joined the rest of our hostel-mates on the roof for some games of Presidents and Assholes and Kings Cup. They were playing without the essential component of a communal container to contribute to when you draw a king, so I quickly solved that problem and procured a bucket from the kitchen. Fortunately (or not... depending on your tastes) none of us drew the last king to drink the mixture of Imperial, Guaro and Fresca. After the games I looked off the roof balcony to see a rather tall looking prostitute in a red dress on the corner. She also looked like she had an adams apple... never a good sign. When she talked to try to suck our souls her voice was deeper than mine. Guess that's what you get for traveling to the town the guidebooks call a surfing, partying town known for it's blatant prostitution.

This morning we were awoken at 6am by a bird repeatedly flying into the window. I guess he didn't figure out that he wasn't going to get anywhere the first few times because it continuted for about 10 miuntes. Luckily he either died or flew away because we were able to fall back asleep until 9:30. When we got up this time, we all went running, followed by some Pedestal on the beach. Next we finally got economical and went to the grocery store and got some supplies to make ourselves lunch (egg sandwiches, watermelon and tang - mmmm).

After working out and getting some food in our stomachs it was finally time to try our luck at surfing. We borrowed a board from the hostel and headed out to the beach to find the waves. After many repeated unsuccessful attempts we called it a day. We were all able to catch a wave, but actually getting up on our feet on the surfboard is pretty challenging. We've got the whole rest of the month to figure it out though, so I'm sure we'll be successful some day in the near future. We then decided to take a walk along the beach. This turned in to a 2 hour walk to the end, where we climbed on some rocks. We ended the day by watching the sun set on the beach. How romantic...! We chose to do this over an offer from our Hungarian hostel owner. Earlier in the day he asked us if we wanted to go smoke joints with him on the mountain and watch the sun set over the ocean. We kindly declined, but I'm sure it would have been quite the experience.

Dinner consisted of grilling hot dogs on the roof of the hostel while drinking some Imperials. Pretty awesome. We also heard Lady Gaga on the radio, sandwiched between some Spanish club music. Random, but sweet. We just returned from the store where we bought ourselves another bottle of Guaro for the night. On the way there we were offered weed at least 3 times (no prostitutes this time)....

Well, we're off to see what the night will bring us. We met some guys from Chicago and a surfer from Duluth that arrived here today. They seem like a bunch of bros, but we'll probably end up going out with them tonight. We found out that last night, one of them kissed that tranny I talked about earlier... hmmm

That's all for now

-rivers

One shot, two shots, three shots, more shots...we think

I guess it is my turn to post, and I'm writing on a terrible keyboard so I appologize for my mistakes. I'll start where luke left off last night. We left our humble abode of leo's room/hallway to go downstairs for dinner. Leo already had the curazu blue sitting out with a shot glass, so it was time to take shots. We passed the liquor around the dinner table until we cashed it - about two shots each while we ate our wonderful steak dinner with rice, beans, some cheesy potatoe thing, salad, and some bread...delicious. I have to say it was a little weird taking shots at the dinner table next to a young girl, leo's mom, cousin, and some rando.

We soon left for another adventure to EL PUEBLO! We met up with a couple ticas and three members of the st. olaf group and onto La Periferica we went. We showed up at El Pueblo shortly after nine...way too early. Much to our dismay, the place was a ghost town. All of the bars were shut down. We decided to go somewhere else, but as we were starting to leave we heard some music. None other than the late, great 2Pac! I knew it could only be one place, Tony's! Tony is a bartender I met when I was abroad two years ago. He rocks out to only the best old school, American hip hop. We thought we would stay for one beer since nobody else was there, but one thing led to another and multiple beers and somewhere around 3 tequila shots later we were getting Jose Cuervo poured down our throats. We had a little dance party and ended up having a great time. We even got to dj.

It soon came time to leave and of course, like most times we drink, get some snacks. Rivers and Luke were already chowing down on some pizza, but I wanted chicken. Leo and I went to the fried chicken stand, but decided the price was too high. So we settled for pizza. That wouldn't satisfy me, however. I wandered back to the chicken stand and offered a price for two pieces that they couldn't resist. No one else was going to eat it, so they sold it to me. It came time to leave, so we made it back to Leo's and did some internetting....some of you might know what was sent. Rivers may or may not remember doing that...

We were going to catch a ride with Leo at seven am to the Coca Cola bus station for our journey to Jaco. I didn't wake up for my watch alarm, surprise surprise. Rivers and Luke woke up to theirs I guess, but didn't want to get up. So Leo woke me up when he left for work and told me how to get there, sort of. And I'm pretty sure I still had mucho tequila and Imperial in my system, so it was a bit hazy. So we winged another bus ride into San Jose, not really knowing where it would take us or where we exactly had to be. We got off the bus somewhere downtown and headed west to the bus station.

We were definitely targets for a nice little mugging as we walked with our big packs and could hear people talking about us as we passed them. Stupid Gringos. We stopped once to ask a cop for directions to the place, wandered a bit closer, asked another street vender and a kid overheard us and told me to follow some bum. Rule of thumb says never follow a bum to a second location (or according to Rivers). Not knowing whether or not we taken advantage of, I walked and talked with him in English as Rivers and Luke lagged behind telling me not to follow him. But I soon made a new friend. His English was quite good, probably since he lived in Dallas, Texas in 1972. I guess his cousin is a dentist there. He led us right to the bus stop, we only had about a block and a half to go so I think we did pretty well for having no idea where this place was. We arrived at 11:06 and the next bus didn't leave until 1:00, dammit. If we wouldn't have been so hung over.

We waited, met a couple people from Detroit, Michigan (that's depressing), read a bit, layed on the ground, Luke had to pay 100 colones (about 20 cents) to poop and only got a small ration of toilet paper, Rivers sought out some empanadas de pollo (sooo good, especially for our first food of the day), and we were serenaded by some Tico. We left on a full bus, there were many people standing in the aisle. We decided if any of us would have had to stand we would have died. Rivers had the worst seat on the bus, I sat there first but there was no room for my legs. He ended up giving his seat up to some lady and sat between to seats in the aisle. His hips were getting crushed, so I definitely would not have fit, cuz I'm fat. Rivers fought the urge to puke the entire bus ride, and there were several times when Luke and I felt the same. Winding around the mountains to get out of San Jose was awful. But it was beautiful. We eventually could see the Pacific Ocean, and the last few kilometers of our trip took as long as the majority of the length. We stopped all the time, and we couldn't wait to get off (sexually).

We are in our hostel now in Jaco, which is nice. I've got a hello kitty mattress and some STIDZ (but they don't phase us). Luke found a lighter on the bus, which single handedly cooked dinner for half the hostel. We ate the Taco Bar, I ordered pizza. Watched the Gophers bball game, they sucked. Now we are debating whether or not to go out again. The self proclaimed "hotttest beach party bar" is across the street from us. If not tonight, we will be there tomorrow, or both. The other hostel people are drinkin on the roof. We may also join them. Where's the basement?

We are going surfing tomorrow, so if we don't blog it's because we all drowned in the rip tide.

Peace and love,

Prez and the other two sluts

Viva El Pueblo!!!

Shoppin' the Deals in San Jose

After our 10 am wake up call, the three of us rolled out of bed (albeit painfully) thanks to our sunburned bodies. Prez was able to sleep a little better since he has the comforts of a bed; the air mattress was a little less forgiving for Chris and myself. After breakfast (of nothing) we left Leo's to find the Pereferica bus for an adventure in San Jose; Leo had to work and therefore we were truely on our own for the first time. Prez, after his month stint here a few years ago, had some idea of what was going on but much of our journey was on a whim. Our first stop was the American Mall. There we found pretty much nothing of great value. Lots of stalls and shops vending cell phones (pagers too?) and millions of games for the Wii. Needless to say the Spinning workout area was of the most interest. Leaving the comforts of an American mall behind we walked a few blocks to the building where Prez learned Spanish when he was here as a student. Class was in session and the security guard was a bit too scary for us to venture inside. Our stomachs begged for food so we visited the larger, more modern mall down the street. After walking around for a bit Chris decided to try a Quiznos sandwich- Prez and I got Subway. Ordering was a challenge- and later on we discovered that we paid twice as much in the mall as other places downtown; a common occurance we are learning the hard way too many times. And really, who pays 7 dollars for a 15cm sandwich!? I guess it's the price we pay for safe food? And if you were wondering, a foot long sandwich down here is about 13 dollars- not 5. After deciding to go see Avatar (for only 3 bucks) we realized that the movie was in spanish and was not 3-D (our main stopping point) and then didn't go. At the Apple store we bought Leo a cable for his car speakers so that we can rock out to our Ipods when he drives us around. Next we decided to take our journey one step further by heading toward the Mercado Central. The only problem was that we had no idea where to go. We had to make the choice between a 40 cent bus ride or walking 3k. I'll let you take a guess as to what we decided to do...suprisingly we took the bus. After getting on a random bus we somehow ended up right where we wanted to be! I'm guessing that will never happen again. The market was everything we wanted it to be, minus getting pickpocketed or shot. The task of the afternoon was finding myself a jersey and buying sunglasses for the other two. After a bit of searching I found a jersey on sale. I wanted to buy a La Liga jersey but the guy working the store told me that nobody liked them so I decided against it. To this point unsuccessful in their search for sunglasses, a street vendor approched us trying to sell his Ray-Ban glasses for $20 dollars and a deal was in the works. Bartering down to 15 dollars each, the man demonstrated the flexibility of the sunglasses and how sturdy the lens were (by banging on them with a lighter). Chris kept telling the man that he didn't want the glasses but to no avail. As soon as Chris would try and hand them back, the guy would put them back on his face."They're authentic", he said. The deals kept getting better- Prez asked if he could buy one pair for $12, but he would not have any of that. We all laughed at him the entire time- I even walked away and took a picture of the whole ordeal. In the end two pairs of glasses, suggested retail price (approx.) $2, asking price $40 was purchased for $10 each. Perfect. About the time we got onto another bus last nights dinner (Taco Bell) was ready to exit. But alas, we spotted the group of St. Olaf students who are here for the month. We talked to them for a bit but decided that we'd be able to catch up tonight when we meet them for a night on the town. I feel a little bit weird about seeing them but oh well. We walked back to David's old house and watched the end of Star Wars (La Guerra de las Estrallas). Back at Leo's Chris went for a 51 minute run; 6 laps around the University of Costa Rica while Prez and I did a card workout. All three of us showered but got dirty from our towels which were/are/and will be covered with black sand for the rest of our trip. At least we smell a little cleaner. Clean boxers for all- the first time since leaving Minnesota. Leo's mom is making us Steak for dinner, he asked if that was ok-- seriously? Plans for tonight include meeting the group for a night out..Opps.. time to take a shot.. Ok time to go. We're off to Jaco tomorrow morning; a surfers paradise. Our first trip outside of San Jose w/out Leo. Could be interesting. More to come later.

Luke