Liberia, Costa Rica

Last Night (Monday, May 23):

Sauer and I napped after our all-day excursion to Monteverde. We then cooked up some pasta, shared a liter of peach juice, and had a baguette. We were able to chat some more with the 4 gals and 1 guy from the UK traveling through Central America. A few of them have been traveling for 7 months now. We also met a Canadian (Toronto) couple also traveling after having graduated from college. It's always fun to chat with other travelers in hostels, since we all have the same mission: to frugally travel.

We spoke to the owner's wife/gf regarding how to get to Liberia the next day. Her news made us a bit nervous: there's only one way - take a public bus to Chomes (doesn't exist on the map) and then transfer to a bus headed for Liberia. The first bus was to leave at 6 AM. Wow. A bit intimidating, since we previously had only dealt with bus shuttles (such as from San Jose to Arenal, and Arenal to Monteverde).

After dinner I was able to read some Charles Spurgeon: Prayer & Spritual Warfare and he may be my current favorite writer. He has a very big view of God and the promises of the Bible. After showering one last time, Sauer and I packed up some of our stuff and headed off to bed.

We set the alarm for 4:45 AM. This is always scary, at least for me (Austin), since our alarm is from our watch that we bought at the airport and has a quiet beep alarm. But, it hasn't failed us yet...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011:
We woke up at about 4:30 and decided to stay up until the alarm went off (why risk it). We packed up our things and left the hostel to walk about 5 minutes to the bus stop/station. After purchasing a $2 ticket for a 2 hour bus ride to Chomes, we boarded the bus. The UK group was with us also. The first ride was fine, since we were able to nap on and off along the windy mountain roads. We were nervous, however, since Chomes appeared to be the 5th stop and was supposed to happen at about 2 hours on the dot. After about 2 hours, 15 minutes, the bus finally came to an actual cross-road, the first one, and it was a highway. The driver turned around and said "Nicaragua, Liberia, (and he said a few more)" so we hopped off and grabbed our bags. We spotted a cement slab where a few others were standing on the highway and made sure that the bus we were taking to Liberia would pick us up here. No more than 5 seconds later, the Liberia bus came. How great! Although the timing was great, Sauer and I both had to use the restroom but simply did not have time. Oh well, we'd better hold it for two more hours! This bus was only $2 more. Ha! Instead of taking a $40 or $50 bus directly, we essentially went directly and only paid $4. What a deal.

The second bus was running from about 8AM to 10AM, so it started getting hot on the bus, and we both started sweating pretty badly. But, we made it to Liberia, the final stop. We actually walked to our hostel in a matter of minutes and checked into our rooms by 1030AM. Went very smoothly.

Once we'd checked into our hostel, we both took cold showers. (There's only one dial on most showers - who needs warm water in such a hot country?)

Our place is called Hotel Guanacaste but functions like a hostel. It actually has pretty bad approval ratings on hostelworld (68%) but we think that this is because people expect a hotel, not a hostel. It's not too bad. It has a couple of courtyards, a restaurant/bar connected to it, free towels, iguanas everywhere, a fan in the room, and we only have to share the bathroom with one other bedroom. For only $9 a night, I'm not complaining. (Although, I have killed about 75 ants crawling across our wall... I think I've killed the entire group).

It is sooooo hot! According to weather.com, it is 88 but feels like 95 degrees. After Sauer and I bought some groceries and withdrew more money, we decided to just chill for the rest of the day (It's only 2:30 PM).

The reason we came to Liberia was to hike at the Rincon National Park and since the park is only open 7 to 4, we didn't have time to go there today, since we're 10 or 20 km away. We will be there all day tomorrow, however, where we will hike to the crater of a volcano and a waterfall that is well known as a very beautiful swimming hole.

Back to reading, catch you later!

Austin & Matt