En Route to Panama

We spent the remainder of our Christmas making our way to San Jose. There was only one Taxi willing to come pick us up from the resort to take us to the bus terminal and he wanted double the going rate - $60. While debating on what t do from here, the concierge offered us a spot on the employee shuttle which was leaving (so we thought) momentarily. We rushed out to the pick up spot and waited for about 2 hours with a large crowd of Ticos waiting to get home to spend the last hours of Christmas with their loved ones.

The shuttle (a 1970's model school bus) arrived and everyone crammed in, setting off for Limon, and as we later found out with a couple pit stops along the way. After a nerve wrecking ride back to Limon, we finally arrived, and thankfully VERY close to the bus terminal! We made it in time for the final bus for the night by about 20 minutes.

We arrived in San Jose at about 11:30 and headed to a hostel that we had noticed on our last stop over in the city, the Malino Red Hostel. Since we had spotted the hostel on the bus, we decided to hike the 3k to from the terminal to the hostel, checked in and then headed out for some grub. The closest place that was open (it was Christmas and late for Costa Rica) was Soda Tapia, an American style 24hr-diner reminiscent of a Steak 'n' Shake. We had bean sandwiches and fries. Because they were out of apple pie and cheese cake I got Guanabana(Soursop) ice-cream for dessert.

The hostel, a new addition to the slew of hostels in the city, was very calm and right off the main drag. We spent the majority of our time there trying to figure out how to make it to Panama and observing a Tico Tradition- the December 27th Cowboy Parade. The parade consisted of thousands of Ticos lining the streets to grill steak, drinking whiskey, and watch the hundreds of dancing horses and cowboys prance through the city. It was freakish.

While the parade was in full force, Tiffany and I had to run around the city to all the different bus terminals to find buses going to Panama that had space. After a few strikeouts (Tica Bus was booked full for days) we were directed to Panaline. It took a while, but I finally found the new terminal on the opposite side of the city from all the other terminals. The Panaline bus would take us from San Jose to the border, through customs and to David Panama. David is still a long way from the city, but there are buses every hour from David to the city, so we were set. We stayed the night in San Jose then caught the bus for the 10 hour ride at 7am.