This post is dedicated to Jeanette.
Costa Rica Hmmmm.... Why is it such a popular travel destination? Well, every 40 minutes the geography changes. You can be in San Jose in the morning, visit the cloud forest in the afternoon and the next day see one of the many volcanoes. The Pacific is 3 hours drive from San Jose, the Atlantic is only 5 hours drive in the other direction.
If you do not particularly like (or do not have the time) taking the public bus, guess what? There are air conditioned tourist busses that pick you up at your hotel (no, I'm not kidding) and drop you off at the next hotel.
Since respecting local culture is very important to me I try very hard to read up before I go. I took a lot of taxis in San Jose (they are inexpensive). Once I saw a sign on a taxi dashboard "No tire la puerta". I asked what does the verb tirar mean. "Eslam" was the reply. "Todos los gringos tiran la puerta". I had not realized that for 2 months I had been slamming the door too hard! The driver and I laughed.
