San Jose - Welcome to Costa Rica Baby!

Out Clubbing in San Jose -long live reggaeton!
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So we left Ometepe Island at 4am to catch the first ferry (it was so early they were still cleaning it on our journey across) and picked up our nice first class bus which was taking us to the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.

All was going swimmingly until we got to the Costa Rican border which is usually the easiest to cross and were standing in line for over an hour.  We eventually found out that there was a power cut and they could only process the passports manually and this took us another hour of waiting and trying to fend off people trying to cut-in the line.  To top off the experience they then made us take all our luggage off the bus to be vaguely glanced at by an official (in jeans and a t-shirt!).  I guess I can't expect to be travelling this long without at least one bad border crossing!

The Group
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As soon as we crossed the border it was immediately obviously how wealthy Costa Rica was in comparison to Nicaragua - the cars, the shops, the houses - everything was more expensive looking.  Even the countryside was more lush and green.  We finally arrived in San Jose in the dark and discovered why the countryside is so green - it was absolutely falling down with rain.  It was fun trying to get all our bags and us into taxis without getting too soaked.

That evening we celebrated John's birthday by making him do a blindfolded treasure hunt through the hotel.

Who broke my shoe?
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The next day was shopping day and we all went pretty crazy - I have no idea how I am going to carry it all around with me considering I can hardly pick up my bag now.  We had lots of fun with the market guys trying out stuff (Andy in the Bob Marley wig) and haggling.  We had a group dinner to say goodbye to a few people who were leaving us and then checked out a local reggaeton club which was fun until Andy hit me on the nose while he was dancing and then he broke Sudha's shoe so we decided it was time to head back and managed to wake up a German guest in the hotel who came stomping out in her silky nightdress to complain!  Oh and I found a Mustang to pose next to....