OUR JOURNAL

We were pretty much done with Taxco, so it was time for the long drive to Oaxaca (Wuh-hah-kuh, with the accent on the hah). We have been through the state of Oaxaca, but never into the city thereof and have heard from many travelers that it is wonderful -- their favorite city in Mexico. So we felt we should see it and it was on our way to the border. We got in around 4:30/5:00 p.m. after leaving Taxco at 6:00 am. And Steve drove the entire way, feeling not 100 percent himself, while Bb scrunched down in the front seat trying to get as flat as possible. She wasn't sick, so much as her stomach muscles were sore and tired. Did we mention the entire drive, kid you not, was on a windy, mountainous, two-lane highway? Good lord, had this been our first trip through Mexico, we would have had a fairly low opinion of the place by now!

The countryside was beautiful, and when the road wasn't under construction it was fairly new and smooth (sometimes freshly tarred and thus HOT and stinky), but it was always about as straight as the roads they use for expensive sports car advertisements (though much less green). The hills gave way to more hills which gave way to more hills, with the occasional cactus forest, dry river bed, and dirty little town. There were some spectacular pink-flowered trees in the midst of the dry hills, but we could never find a good one to photograph from the road as the pullouts invariably faced the most barren and ugly areas of the drive. There were also agave fields that were planted on near-vertical rocky faces (how they harvest up there is beyond us!) and every now and then there are these spectacular, huge (often Blue) churches. Amazing that somebody (probably Spanish) came all the way out into that rugged, inhospitable landscape and decided "hey! let's build this HUGE church here!!" But build them they did.

notice the truck on the left, coming at us, the truck on the left going our way and the truck on the right, coming at us. Typical Central America driving	Beautiful cactus and chaparral on road from Taxco to Oaxaca	Barren landscape, poor town, huge expensive church	Burros on the highway

We got a room at the first hotel we came to and headed out into town to look for food. We made it the eight blocks to the zocalo, through some kind of fair/carnival full of street-food vendors and the like. Bb could hardly stand all the smells and was surprised to learn later that Steve didn't much like them either- candied apples and fried chicken and cotton candy aren't soothing to an upset stomach. But we found a gringofied cafe and sat outside where Bb had -- chicken soup! and Steve had chicken mole. Mole- sort of a chicken stew with chocolate, ground chiles and nuts and spices in a thick, dark, rich sauce- is a favorite of ours and good mole is generally found only in Mexico, so we had to get some in before we left. Steve took a walking spin around the square while Bb just sat and then we walked back through the smells to our room. Steve complained of having eaten too much and Bb just complained. A great pair we made!

About two hours after going to bed, Steve was up and in the bathroom getting about as sick as Bb three nights previous, but lucky for him, taking about a tenth of the time doing it. So strange. We still haven't figured out what hit him. Something from Bb? Stress? More food poisoning? Who knows? But it wasn't a very pleasant night for either of us.

Steve woke feeling tired but not sick and Bb felt loads better. Our hotel, however was loud and cramped and not a place we wanted to stay again. Steve was torn between finding out why everyone loves Oaxaca and leaving with a fairly bad taste in our mouth about the city. On our way out of town, he decided to drive through, rather than skirt around the downtown area. A great choice on his part. Just from our car, we could tell that Oaxaca has quite a bit of charm and interest. It reminded us a bit of Merida, Mexico. We left feeling that had we not been sick and had we more time, we probably would have really enjoyed Oaxaca and can return someday with excitement.

We (read: Steve) drove through beautiful countrysides and mountains; lots and lots of mountains, to get to Juchitan (not much of a destination, but the closest large town to the Guatemalan border) from Oaxaca. Today's hilly, windy slow road made yesterday's road seem like a speedway. We crawled along at about 30 mph for most of the day. We seemed to follow a mountain range for the better part of the day, rather then cut right through it. Gorgeous, but mildly endless driving. Arrived tired, but not to worse for the wear and stayed in a familiar hotel with good, safe parking.

Once again, food was a good 20 minute walk away, so we headed out hungry, but cautious, as Steve didn't want a repeat and neither did Bb. Strangely it seemed that many restaurants were closed or didn't have food (?) who knows. All Bb wanted was an enchilada, but when she asked one proprietess if they could make one, the woman repeated the word enchilada and looked at Bb as though she were green. Okay. No enchiladas in Juchitan. Onward. We found food at a really cute, nicely lit place with lots of plants. We ate light and mild and were given some tasty flan for dessert.

This hotel wasn't any quieter than the last, we found. Mexico is such a loud country. The disco on the floor above us closed at 10:30 pm, but the neighbors TV went full volume until about 2:00 am. That didn't set so well with us when we woke at 5:30 am to depart. Needless to say, we weren't worried about being quiet on our way out.

Yep, 5:30 am is early. Steve is such a trooper. Back behind the wheel again today. But it seems that we are both about 95 percent. Took us until noon to hit the border, which we expected. What we didn't expect was the three hours we spent there. Perhaps our longest border yet. It all comes down to the copies. We had some, but needed others and here's the number one reason we think that these Central American countries are mired in third world drudgery: We needed a copy of the pages of our passport that they just stamped as well as a copy of our papers stating we'd left Mexico legally. The man behind the counter, who processes our paperwork, doesn't have access to a copier. The bank across the hall has a copier, but can't use it for our purposes. The copy places, one across the street and one around the corner, are closed. The open one is only about three blocks away, but it takes about half an hour by the time you're back in line. Everyone else trying to cross the border needs these copies too. You can imagine the line/wait situation and the stress it induces. We finally got everything done and as we were about to leave, we learn we need a copy of the document saying we and the car are legal to pass through Guatemala so we can hand it to the cop at the border gate (who is less than 30 feet from the window where we GOT the paperwork). And yes, that means, back through the customs office and down the dirt road three blocks and back and another half-hour gone…

We drove for another several hours in heavy traffic, seeing the effects of two accidents and almost getting in one ourselves. Boy those buses sure are big when you're in their lane headed towards them! We gave up trying to make good time and just sat back and drove slow, until we got stopped again, at one of our favorite (read much sarcasm into that word) things about Central America: one lane bridges. We watched the last of the sunlight disappear while waiting on our side, thinking there was someone manning the traffic. So for twenty minutes we watched cars pour across the bridge, stop on the bridge waiting for their light up ahead to turn and then flow across the bridge again. Steve kept telling Bb that he thought there was a traffic cop up ahead and that surely soon, he would stop the oncoming traffic so our side could cross, but as the seconds ticked on Bb got more and more mad. Finally, it was just too much for her and her lack of patience. She grabbed the mag light (because nobody can ignore a very bright flashlight in their face), hopped out and told Steve to meet her on the other side. One thing we can say for Central Americans, they are used to random things: goats, people, trees, stopped cars in the road. Bb stood there in front of a growing line of cars and buses with her hand out and her flashlight dancing. Low and behold, they stopped! Steve crossed the bridge and picked her up and we were on our way. We think only about three cars after us made it through. Bb was pretty proud of herself. Steve always knew she had traffic stopping looks, just never figured she would use them to stop traffic.

The great news is that we made it to Antigua. We love Antigua. You can read about our first visit, our second visit, our third visit, or our fourth visit. Our fifth (July 01) was just a drive through overnight so we didn't write anything about it. We stopped first at our favorite hotel but they were full. While we were checking, our favorite Guatemalan mechanic walked by and stopped us to say hello. How fun! It feels good to come back somewhere and have people recognize you and chat for a bit, even if you are hurriedly looking for a place to stay. We found an alternate hotel that was expensive by Antigua standards- they were asking $50. But Steve talked him down to $40. That $40 included two ice-cold and delicious beers brought to our room, and the room itself was lovely: fireplace, comfortable beds, even a bathtub (which Bb LOVED). We paid an extra $1.50 for some firewood, then headed out for dinner, then returned and relaxed by a crackling (and slightly smoky) fire before drifting off to a comfortable sleep.

Steve enjoys breakfast	Spent a whole day shooting door pictures.	Nice, wide, fresh-paved Guatemalan roads are a treat after Chiapas.	Bb and a rose.

We were pleasantly surprised that the "continental breakfast" that came with the room wasn't what we expected at all. In the States "continental breakfast" seems to mean that you get a stale muffin and a styrofoam cup with some weak coffee or do-it-yourself tea. At Casa de San Jorge it means: Piping hot, delicious, Antigua coffee, toast, jam, butter, a bowl of fruit, a bowl of granola, some fresh yogurt, a mug of steaming, freshly HAND made cocoa (you could see the bits of cocoa seed that had escaped the mortar) and a glass of mango juice (or any of about five other flavors). Wow. We had all of that sitting in a sun-dappled lushly planted courtyard with a burbling fountain a few feet away and spent the moments between bites watching butterflies and looking at roses, pretty red berries, and a few dozen other types of flowers. Amazing what a difference $25/night makes!

But, since we've got more things to spend money on than money to spend, we decided to move back into our favorite (and extraordinarily inexpensive) hotel Casa de Santa Lucia #3. We'll only stay there on the top floor, but can't stay anywhere else if the top floor is available. It's only $14/night ($15 with parking) but the view is hard to beat and the staff is always friendly. To top it off, they've fixed the old, anemic water heater and now it is on from 6 to 9, morning and night, instead of just 6-8. That extra two hours is nice.

Nativity scene. All made in bread (at the breadshop, of course).	Antigua's version of a speedbump. Very effective.	Our room is on the end.	Little old lady napping in the churchyard.

We spent the next couple of days wandering the streets, reading in bed, sitting at cafes, shopping for some artesanias, updating the website, getting Sandy's oil changed and just sort of hanging out. We considered trying to haul tail southward and make it to Costa Rica by Christmas (or original goal) but decided that crossing one or two borders on Christmas eve or Christmas day couldn't possibly be a good idea. So we stayed.

While we've always been impressed by the amount of firecrackers in Antigua (every single day they are lit, somewhere, by someone) Christmas was amazing. There were fireworks/firecracker displays that literally lasted for two to three hours. And they happened four or five times a day. From 11p.m. on Christmas eve until about 2 a.m. there were no less than four fireworks displays (and up to six or seven) that we could see from our windows at the same time. Sleep simply wasn't an option, but even fireworks aren't fascinating enough to watch for three hours when we've been watching them for three days. The aforementioned were just the public displays. Throughout the entire night there were random bombs, gunfire, strings of firecrackers, roman candles, flares and whatnot that were lit off. If there is one thing at which Guatemaltecos excel, it is making noise. We were impressed.

Not to be outdone, nature provided us a fantastic view of nearby Volcan de Fuego as glowing red lava poured down the face of it one night. The volcano is nearly always active, but most of the time you can't see the flow from in town. This week, you could. Standing on the roof of the hotel watching that could have been the highlight of the trip had there not been so many other fantastic things that were just as wonderful.

Arches view from our hotel room in Antigua	Main church in Antigua, facing the sunset on a rainy evening	Campesino heads to work at sunrise, with his dog	Volcan de Fuego, as seen from the road from Antigua

Decided to do something different today and keep a road book or time log of the entire day. Turned out to be quite a task and we missed a few entries, but here is what our day was like.

5:32	alarm wakes us up
5:34	out of bed
5:35	upload waypoint coordinates for route and hotels to gps, make coffee
5:45	sunrise
6:00	hot water starts, take showers
6:15	load car
6:35	pull out of front gate
6:45	stop to take some photos of Guatemalan campesinos headed to the fields in multicolored clothing as the sun peeks above the horizon onto patchwork-quilt fields with mountains towering behind it all
6:55	driving again
7:25	stop for gas and directions
7:30	wrong turn
7:35	back on track
8:55	potty break
9:00	driving
9:01	stopped at wrong place to cross border
9:05	going again
9:10	guard at Guatemala-El Salvador border helped point us in right direction
9:13	made 3 photocopies for 18 cents
9:16	obtained Guatemala exit stamp in passports
9:22	started at El Salvador window (next to Guatemala window)
9:24	bought 2 tourist cards at $10 each, filled them out
9:30	got stamped into El Salvador
9:34	made photocopies of Guatemala car paperwork
9:38	fill out paperwork, wait in line, watch goats eat trash
9:48	still waiting at empty window #8
10:15	finally got checked out of Guatemala, walked over to window #11 in same office
10:19	started paperwork to get into El Salvador
10:22	guys signs us into book to enter El Salvador
10:23	go to bank to pay $1 entry fee for car
10:28	back to window #11 to process car
10:30	now window #12 where we are waiting
10:36	out to car where new person checks our belongings, our VIN#, and looks under hood
10:40	back to office to wait "about 10 minutes"
10:56	got photocopies made of entrance stamp, wait at new window
10:58	at window with papers waiting for very slow typist
11:12	vehicle papers done, back to photocopier
11:15	proceeding to gate
11:18	turn around and go back to get police to sign photocopies then to other window
11:22	get stamped
11:24	back to gate
11:28	change money
11:30	on the road in El Salvador
12:00	stopped along road to take a quick break and snap a photograph of beautiful coastline
1:15	stopped briefly for flagman because they are paving road
2:00	still driving, ate some snacks
3:00	still driving
4:00	stopped for gas and directions to border
4:35	arrive at gate before border where we wait because guard says border is too crowded right now. Helpers swarm Sandy insisting that we need to take one of them BACK up road a mile or two to get some sort of paperwork. Steve barely maintains composure after repeated kind words to leave us alone. Growls at one of them to leave. Now.
4:40	border helpers finally disperse
4:58	moving again
5:00	arrive at El Salvador border
5:08	at window after fending off helpers
5:20	out of El Salvador, across International bridge (about 1/4 mile long)
5:22	parked in Honduras
5:27	Passports stamped. Guy at window demands $1 fee. We pay despite knowing service is free
5:28	go to car paperwork window, find out we must go to office around corner
5:30	go to car paperwork office, explain to girl what we need
5:31	must wait for jefe (boss) to approve paperwork
5:40	Beebee goes and begs guy to stop talking to his friends because it is getting dark and she has no where to stay and she can't do anything till he approves our paperwork
5:58	Beebee follows guy into the office
5:58:30	guy glances at papers for 1 second, says "ok" (really and truly, barely looks at it)
5:59	girl finally STARTS typing (with 2 fingers) paperwork but stops frequently to chat with everyone who walks by office
6:08	girl finally finished whopping 2 page form (total typed words is less than 50 and she has made two mistakes in spelling)
6:10	back to car paperwork window
6:11	back across now-dark bridge to El Salvador to use computer, with guy from Honduran window because Honduras has no computers
6:20	we've been waiting five or ten minutes for guy to come back after he borrowed a bicycle from someone else, to go somewhere, with our paperwork. We don't really know where. Beebee is slightly frantic.
6:45	guy came back, we paid $8 for unknown reason (but got receipt), then crossed bridge back to Honduras where we make a photocopy of passport entrance stamp
6:50	crossing back to El Salvador because window guy didn't know password for El Salvadoran computer but needs to print out bill that we have to pay for car and can only do so in El Salvador because Honduras side doesn't have the right computer.
6:55	bill printed but can't pay in El Salvador, so crossing bridge again to Honduras to go to bank.
7:00	bank is closed, can't pay bill in Honduras either so we go to office to type up note that says we paid cash to window guy who will pay bank tomorrow.
7:09	two-finger typist girl is chugging away at computer, painful to watch. Steve considers offering to type it for her.
7:15	typist girl takes break or goes outside to flirt with boyfriend under guise of needing paper for the printer
7:20	paper jam in printer, Steve fixes it before they can say anything
7:24	paper printed "need photocopy", Steve point out that printer is capable of making another copy, typist girl and window boy are impressed with great idea.
7:28	Typist girl hunts for stamp and inkpad in desk.
7:30	one paragraph legal paper (and copy!) is finished, signed, stamped, countersigned. We pay window guy about $20 which he is supposed to pay to bank tomorrow (according to our little "legal" note).
7:40	We are finally back in car with paperwork in hand to enter Honduras
7:41	guy at gate insists that we need a photocopy of legal note. Bb almost cries, right there in front of him. Startled looking, he says we can go ahead.
9:05	Finally arrive in hotel in Choluteca after following semi-truck for most of horribly potholed road in the dead of night in Honduras. Awfully glad we know of hotel with parking and don't have to hunt.
9:10	car is parked, room is paid for ($14)
9:15	lukewarm shower feels great
9:25	dressed and headed to dinner
9:35	finish first ice-cold beer, ordered food.
9:48	beautiful plate of absolutely delicious fish arrives, drenched in garlic butter, with a crisp salad and a huge pile of bread as well as some beans and rice. We are happy.
10:15	back at hotel
10:30	sleeping in very hot hotel room with fan on full-force directly at us, considering opening front door to let in more of relatively cool night air but worried about security, we decide to just sweat it out.

Up early to get out of Choluteca ASAP. Choluteca isn't bad, per se, but not exactly a vacation, either.
Hit the border and had a not-too-difficult time getting going. Except for the cop who tried to convince Steve that he was going to give us a ticket for not wearing seatbelts (we had driven 20 yards from parking space to the cop to show him papers to cross the border, with no moving cars in sight the whole way). Jerk was just fishing for a bribe. Steve refused… and refused again and again until the cop relented. We were pretty sick of Honduran hassles by then and Steve wasn't about to give them any more time or money if he could avoid it.

Finally got out of there and into Nicaragua after an hour or so at their border. The people were nice enough, the lines were long, but it wasn't really difficult, just tedious. At least they had a photocopy machine right there where you needed it. The worst part of the process was                  watching         the        painstakingly        slow          t     y      p     i      n       g            of      the        guy          behind        the             window. For people raised in the era of instant messaging it is amazing to us that people who actually type for a living are sitting there, hunting and pecking with two (sometimes just one!) fingers. At least we didn't have anyone in front of us in line, watching it twice would have just been unbearable. Of course he erred a few times too, so we had to have him retype some of it.

Pretty little barbed wire fence cum-clothesline in Nicaragua

While at the border we realized that one of the sidewalls was bulging- probably the result of too much time on Central American roads and under a heavy Landcruiser. We stopped at the first town and had the spare put on. Normally Steve would insist on doing it himself (he doesn't much like to have other people fix anything on Sandy) but it was hot and dirty. Two guys did the work in about 10 minutes while we drank a coke. Total cost was under two dollars. Much better than doing it ourselves!!

The road southward from the border was simply AWFUL. A graded dirt road would have been infinitely better. An un-graded dirt road would probably have been an improvement as at least the ruts and potholes wouldn't be as hard.

The roads were so bad that in one town our spare tire carrier actually broke off. Yup. Broke. Just plain fell right off of the bumper! We were lucky in that we stopped for gas and a taxi told us that it had fallen off. We went back about 100 yards and found the guys who had saved our tire from the dread fate of just laying around in the sun. They helped us rearrange the roofrack (mostly they watched, we rearranged) and load the tire and carrier up onto the rack (there they really did help). When all was said and done and we were ready to roll again they had their hands out asking for some money. Steve laughed a little as they hadn't done anything much and mostly they were just in the way, but gave them about $1.50 to buy a coke or two. They pretended to be disgruntled, but took the money anyway.

Note lack of tire carrier	Umbrella biker guys who help people to border from bus stop	Supervising the spare tire swap

So with our spare on the roof we were on our way again. We made great time through beautiful volcanic countryside and ended up at the southern end of Managua where we had to decide where to go next. The plan had been to spend the night in Granada, because we like Granada, but we were feeling like we would really just like to get to Costa Rica and be done with this drive. It has been a long one. After some debate, we pointed south towards the border and stepped on it. Ok, kinda stepped on it. Mostly we were stuck behind trucks poking along the mountainous road, belching diesel fumes. As we neared the town of Rivas we realized that we were almost early enough to make it to CR before dark, but probably wouldn't. And we didn't know where we were headed in CR yet, and we were sick of driving, and another border gone wrong might have just snapped our tenuous grip on sanity.

So we decided to go to San Juan Del Sur. We had been there before and liked it well, and our pals Ted and Jess raved about it to us when they were there just a few weeks ago.

Turned out to be a great decision. We found a place to stay fairly easily, and shortly after pulling in, we met Sandy and Bill from Florida who had been staying there for a couple of weeks. They had just gotten back from Managua to drop off a rental car, get some food and get mugged (the mugging was unplanned) so they were as ready as we were to relax and chat with someone else about travel. After a good rant session that quickly changed into singing the praises of Central America we all headed down to watch the sunset. Since Bb was ravenously hungry we ordered a delicious plate of clams- came out as about four huge handfuls of clams the size of a US quarter (or a 100 colon coin, or a Mexican 10 peso coin, more or less) just drenched in garlic. The waiter says it was about 120-150 clams. We believe him. Yummy!!!

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to chat the night away with our new friends. It turned out to be just the perfect stop for us, as when we got up in the morning we felt recharged and ready to finally get to Costa Rica.

Got up around sunrise and got moving quickly. The Nicaraguan border was just as easy as pie, the only hitch was spending an extra $2 each to get paperwork covered because it was before 8 a.m. Go figure.

The Costa Rica border was nearly as easy: we paid to get our vehicle sprayed down with some sort of poison, then got our passports stamped (had to wait for the guy to brush his teeth, but that only took a minute) then proceeded to pay our mandatory vehicle insurance. In a welcome contrast to other countries, here in CR when they needed a photocopy they merely turned around and [Gasp!] copied the papers. Right there in the office!! What a novel concept!! After the insurance we passed through customs (had to wait 20 minutes while the guy disappeared to.... somewhere). Then it was off to finish paperwork for the car (another 10 minutes or less) and we were outta there. Don't know if it was the coffee that Bb bought while we were waiting in line (another great idea: a Cafe where you have to wait!! Heavens, is there no stopping the Costa Rican entrepreneur??) or the simply joy of being back in our chosen destination, but as we rolled down the road in the growing daylight Steve couldn't help but shout and cheer a few times.

After a quick breakfast and gas stop in Liberia we headed straight for Tamarindo, where we arrived at about 11:00 a.m. and immediately started looking for lodging. Not an easy task here on what is just about the busiest day of the year (the Saturday before New Year's eve). Our first stop was to visit the Re/Max office where we ran into Jim. After warm greetings and catching up on what is going on in our respective lives we picked his brain some for lodging. He didn't have any firm leads, but gave us some ideas and off we went to pursue them.

We headed straight for the Shark Bite sandwich shop to say hello to Willie and Janet as we had enjoyed chatting with them before. They are in the process of moving to a new location, so it was a little disjointed, but they also had some suggestions on where to go and who to talk too.

Over the next four or five hours we scoured Tamarindo looking for long-term lodging. There was absolutely nothing to be found for today, neither short nor long term. The two places we did find were apparently aware of the current drought of available rooms and were asking embarrassingly high prices (10x their normal rates). Funny, really, but not funny enough to make us laugh.

Fortunately for our sanity and calmness, we were lucky enough to meet a new friend right off the bat. Roger has a house with a casita that they rent sometimes, but the casita was currently occupied. He was understanding enough to realize that we were up the proverbial creek on lodging, and kind enough to offer us the use of his guest room for a night or two if we got desperate. Not long after, we hunted down Bret and Amy (former managers of the Mono Loco, the hotel that we considering buying) and they also offered to let us camp in their front yard. Not long after THAT we met the Doshacks who also rent out a studio (full right now) and offered us the use of their yard for pitching a tent if it came to that.

Knowing that we had a room and two places to pitch a tent made it possible for us to pass by some of the crazy overpriced places in favor of looking for something sane. We can't imagine how stressful the hunt would have been if we hadn't had something to fall back on.

After looking everywhere (literally, every single place we or anyone else could think of) we only managed to find a small handful of places that were even expecting a vacancy in early January and nothing at all for tonight. Finally we headed on back to the home of Roger and his wife Monica and half-sheepishly asked if the guest room offer still stood. It is important to emphasize that the only form of introduction we had to them was ringing their bell and telling them that someone (we didn't recall which of our friends) had recommended we might find a place there to rent. That not withstanding, they took us in and made up the guest room. We all sat for a bit and chatted, then they headed off for the evening and we crashed- exhausted from meeting a few dozen new people and discovering parts of Tamarindo that we didn't even know existed.

The results of our search weren't too encouraging: we found one really cute place that was large enough for us and only $400/month, but the first words out of our friends' mouths were "Oh, the Crack House?"- apparently that is where the local drug dealers hang out. Not our idea of a charming neighborhood. We found another place that was slightly larger than two closets and had been freshly built last week. They wanted $600 and the place smelled so strongly of varnish that we weren't sure we could actually sleep there (at least it should keep the mosquitos away). A third place was a mere $780 and was a mile off the beach. Nope. The best contenders were a theoretical 1 bedroom house up on the hill that we weren't sure would be available and a (small!) two-bedroom apartment in town that was requesting the first 3 months up front at the current high-season price of $450, but wouldn't be available until the second week of January. Not terribly encouraging results, but not terrible either. Hey, at least we had somewhere to lay our heads tonight, which is more than we can say about some of the backpackers we say getting off of the late bus from San Jose.

The other result of our search is that in one day we have managed to meet and greet what seems to be the better part of the local population of the town. We are encouraged by how nice and helpful everyone seems and have already made enough tentative dinner/lunch dates to last us the next several weeks. We are really looking forward to settling into the community here.