day 1: san jose, costa rica

i arrived this afternoon in costa riquiiiisssssima...flew from washington thru ft lauderdale, and almost missed my flight while chatting with mom and dad and my friend sarah from the airport pay phone. the phone malfunctioned and gave me back about $10 in quarters from the original 3 quarters i started with, so i kept feeding the phone for my conversation. luckily, i arrived at the gate just in time and they hadn´t given my seat away! i got to costa rica around 11:30, found a cab, and met my friend jerome at the hostel where i found him waiting for me!!!

we spent the afternoon exploring...there are some nice pedestrian streets downtown san jose with restaurants and shops and a ¨plaza de arte.¨ we meandered through parks and markets and sat and stared at a beautiful church which the guidbeook described as boring and uninteresting. we tried to get into museums that were closed for independence day today :( and then after some rest in the central park walked up to the beautiful public cemetery which was a field of white monuments and sculptures.

we closed off the day with local fare of chinese food!!! off to bed to rest up for tomorrow, when we set off across costa rica...