Montezuma

We finally got a bus from Puerto Viejo to San Jose for the night en route to Montezuma. Andrew ate some bad food at our hostel in San Jose and spent a restless night visiting the nearby bathroom...a startling encounter with some naked europeans at 2am woke him up out of a daze though! haha
We got to the bus station just after 5am (so much for sleeping in) in hopes of catching the bus to the beach. The same Europeans were also waiting at the station ordering everyone around trying to form a line up for the bus, but as thëy soon found out, it just made people rush and elbow all the more when the bus finally got there. Ticos don´t like the gringoes telling them what to do in their country!!
Anyway we did manage to get a seat which was fortunate as many had to stand for the 6 hour trip. We crossed on a ferry and found our much sought after sunshine!!!
Montezuma seems to be an over priced hippy town where their charging steep prices for ¨love¨to be added to the food. But so far it´s a nice chill out town. The beaches up the coast are un crowded and beautiful. Andrew got sucked in on the ¨cloudy¨day and got burnt to a crisp, so he´s nursing some tender skin...alas it meant a day of exploring today and we headed up to Mal Pais to check out the surf there. As we were waiting for the bus, we saw the yellow head monkeys playing around and one little guy peeled his banana and had a yummy snack! So cute (and cliche!)
We were sorely disappointed with the beach at Mal Pais..or should I say lack of it. Santa Teresa sported a nicer sandy part with some surfable waves, but we were told Mal Pais was the place to be...hmmm...we think Mal Pais must be the whole region. Nonetheless we had some amazing smoothies and a good 7 km walk in the heat of the day. It´seems to be hottest in the mornings down here with it cooling off with clouds around 1pmish.
Costa Rica is really similar to Panama and I would say Guatemala to an extent too. Very lush and green. Have to say that the Costa Ricans seem much more happy for the Tourism...maybe it´s because they charge an arm and leg, so they´re not worrying about ¨hawking¨as much. It is also much cleaner as a result of Tourism being the main industry here and their dedication to preserving their earth space.
All in all we have found the people to be happy and honest in the general sense, which makes it a dream to travel through.
Anyway we are planning to chill here in Montezuma for a few more days and then make our way over to Manuel Antonio.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Ciao

Panama Bound

Van Halen's "Pan-AH-Ma-ha" has been sung periodically, at the top of Andrew's lungs the last couple of months since we changed our plans from Africa to Panama and Costa Rica over the Christmas Holidays.

With flurries all day today, we're looking forward to some sunshine tomorrow!
We were hoping our newest Ewing nephew would make his appearance before we jetted out, but as luck would have it, he's taking his time making his entrance into this world...alas we will look forward to meeting him when we get back!
Andrew and Brent took their diving recently, so Andrew is pumped about completing his certification with his open water dives on Tuesday in Panama!
We're not sure how often we'll get to update with our travel journal this time around...and this trip is a little more about chilling out, so we likely won't have much to report.

Hope this season finds you all well and enjoying your time wherever you are!
Cheers
The Harrisons...