Mal Pais, not that bad.....

Accepting that it would be in our favor to continue our journey south from the little surf town of Playa Gigantes in Nicaragua opened the door once again to the unknown. It was only about an hour drive south until we approached the border. Costa Rica was right there in our sights and it is times like this when you realize once again how far you have really gone. There is usually two stops at every border. The first is where you check out of the country you have just visited. I was excited to see a duty free shop at the first stop. They sell candy, booze, music and usually some random popular kids toy. My eyes lit up when I saw a sign that read, "5 x $32" in front of a huge rack of Nicaraguan rum. The stuff is called Flor De Cana, and it is delicious. Here in Costa Rica it is something like $15 for one bottle, so I stsand by my purchase of 5 for $32. At the border we ran into a friend from Nicaragua and his family. His name is Jayson and he has lived in Costa Rica for the past seven years or so on the carribean side. He said, "Stick with me guys and we will get out of here asap." He was right. We booked it through the border and before we knew it we were driving through the tropical countryside of Costa Rica. We had a little caravan, two suburbans making their way towards Liberia, Costa Rica. It is hard for me to put into the words the excitement I felt when I gazed out onto the horizon of the road and could clearly make out the magnificent image of what appeared to be two, golden arches. I think a single tear ran from my sunburnt eye, McDonalds was here. Though I was forced to swallow my infatuation when Jayson said that there was a Pizza Hut around the corner and he thought it would be nice if we all sat down and had dinner together. The man I am, I agreed and put my foolish California cravings behind me. That night we shacked up at the Best Western and cracked a bottle of rum with our new friends. We got up the next morning and had a great hotel breakfast and then jumped on the road. As we made our way in the general direction of south on highway 21 through the Nicoya Peninsula the Manburban was flying high, happy and free. Until I got pulled over for apparently speeding. Turns out the speed limit is pretty lame driving through the peninsula. At times it is 60km then it will jump to either 80km or 40km. The cop showed me his radar gun where my speed was marked at 86km/hr. Now that's not very fast where I'm from, but I'm not exactly home right now. We talked and I attempted to bribe him with cigarettes or special magazines (they were given to us by our friends who said that if you get pulled over just lay them out on the dashboard and the cops will take heavy interest). So he didn't smoke and his cheeks got a little rosy when he saw the mags. It turns out he was just a nice, honest cop and he told me to just watch the signs and keep the speed down. The rest of the road to Mal Pais was a lot of fun. Partially paved and most of it not with steep inclines and tight corners the road was definitely fit for the Man. We arrived to a scene of what can be described as a tight knit surfers get-away. There are low rate places for the backpacker and nicer, isolated hotels for the big spenders. There is a village with shops and restaurants which is connected entirely by one main road running north and south along the ocean. The surf scene is slightly more crowded due to it's popularity and just the fact that it is Costa Rica. It is mainly beachbreaks that line the shores and right now there is good swell so the waves are pretty fun. What I like the most is looking back onto shore from the water. The thick forest runs right up to the sand. Somewhere in the trees and palm there are hotels and restaurants but you cannot see them when you are surfing. I'm looking forward to meeting up with my friend Lacy here. She works at a nicer hotel further up the road in Santa Theresa. We used to work at the Islands restaurant in Mission Valley together back in the day. While we continue to explore and wander down new paths there is business to be attended to at the same time. It is time to start putting the Manburban up for sale. The town here is littered with surfers and land owners so our hopes are to attrack someone with the need of a strong rig like the Man. So as I return to the vehicle that has done so well and gotten us here all the way from Pacific Beach, San Diego, I'm going to wipe off the dust from the windows and in big, bold lettering write, "SE VENDE." I think I will be able to hold it together but there are some memorable moments that connect you to something and that cannot be entirely described because it is you that experienced them. Tim carved his name into the steering wheel, that better not bring down the value. Just kidding, we are going to do the same. Well all right, time to get going.

-what will i learn today?