San Jose, Costa Rica

Tue Nov 30, 2004

Interesting and very crowded trip from Playa Tamarindo. Both Mark and I contracted some sort of stomache thing after eating at a place called Pedros, owned by an American, with awful service and evidently even worse food. San Jose is clean, the people are friendly, and it is a lot cooler than the oceanside. But there are still mosquitos. On the way here, we observed that on one long stretch of winding mountain road a bus had broken down. Instead of moving it off the road, the police blocked traffic in both directions and let someone try to fix it. From the looks of things, they had been trying to fix it for some time. Travelling by bike is very practical in a place like this, because we are able to go past all the cars and save an hour and a half over what the guidebook says it takes in the backpacker bus. The Panamerica Highway through Costa Rica is very rough, the potholes are occasionally repaired, and we have both wondered why the richest country here has the worst roads. Another 5 liter bottle of water fell off the back of my Quota. Hopefully it didn't hit anyone.

Watching the turtle lay eggs was a bit of a letdown. And it was Mark's idea. 

Mark and I met a couple of extremely attractive Scottish nurses, and were getting along with them nicely, while plying them with beers and describing our trip in heroic detail. About 11 PM we had to leave to watch the turtles lay their eggs. After a short boat ride across a creek, a tour guide took us down to the beach and made about thirty of us wait for about two hours, then dragged us all out to where there was one turtle, a big leatherback, over a hole with about six eggs in it.

The tour guide wouldn't shine his flashlight on the turtles head so we could see it,  and kept telling me to get back and stop bothering it when I was just trying to get a better look.  I told him I paid to see the f&$king turtle, and I was going to see the f$#king turtle or they were going to give me a refund.  As the turtle laid eggs, a young American woman was collecting them and putting them in a container. After about twenty minutes of this we were led back to the boat and taken back. I jumped off the boat before it docked and went wading ashore. But alas, the Scottish girls were nowhere to be found. Mark owes me. 

When we stopped for lunch there were turtle eggs on the menu. They are served raw in a jellied tomato sauce, and are quite good.