Nilesh's Posterous

San Jose, Costa Rica

San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica was main transit point to go between the different places in Costa Rica. I would be back to San Jose every few days and chill out a day before heading to my other destinations in Costa Rica. The city is pretty chaotic and big and not the most easy to access by public transportation. One of the worst parts of the city though - most streets don't have name signs.. So you never know where you are. Even to Taxi Drivers, you can't give an exact address.. it has to be something like 400 metres east of a certain known spot. Pretty challenging for non-local to navigate the city. I enjoyed myself though and managed to explore the not so touristy places of the city as well. Fortunately I am brown and look local.. in so many places, you could smell danger in the air. 

Food of Costa Rica

Usually, I finish a country's travelogue by the food of that country. I was conflicted whether I should have named this entry 'Food of Central America' rather than Food of Costa Rica, because give or take a few exceptions, most of the basic food in Central America was the same - beans and rice and plantains being the major thing at most meals. Food was hearthy, cheap and good in most of central america. I would probably not be posting pictures from the other countries as it'd be basically a replica of this one.

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

After spending a few days at the very americanized Tamarindo, I decided to head off to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. They have a few Caribbean cities, but after talking to other travelers, I decided that Puerto Viejo would be the best place to chill out there. I left Tamarindo very early - the local buses leave 5:30a.m to go to San Jose and I had 1 hour or so break before taking the next bus to go to Puerto Viejo.

I did not have time to book any hostel accommodation for that first night and I was hoping when I get off the bus, somebody will try to come and sell me some cheap hostel.. as sometimes it's hard when you get to a new city to walk around with a big backpack looking for accommodation. Indeed when I got off the bus, somebody came and was trying to pimp out the accommodations where he's get a commission at. I checked out two places and liked the second place he brought me. For $10 a night, I had my own private wooden cabin(with shared showers) and it was only 1 1/2 blocks from the beach and all the main bars/restaurants of Puerto Viejo. I can't remember the name of the place.

Anyways, I stayed in Puerto Viejo for 3 days. Not much to do in Puerto Viejo, but it has a nice Caribbean beach and very chill out and mellow town. I rented bicycles for a couple of day to go and bike around and just doing nothing in particular. I really enjoyed the chill out time and the not so-much americanized touristy feel that I had in the pacific coast.

Sunsets are so colorful and vivid as compared to the ones on the Pacific Coast which were gorgeous as well. The sunset pictures in this gallery are real colors.. not enhanced colors... It's really that gorgeous !!

Shells of Costa Rica

Walking on the beaches of Costa Rica, you find all kinds of beautiful shells washed out on the shores by the strong waves. I really enjoyed examining the tiny details that make each shell so unique. I took some close ups of some of them. These close ups came out pretty good considering that it's from a point and shoot camera rather than an SLR. These shells were from a combination of the beaches of Tamarindo and Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica.

Tamarindo Sunsets, Beaches etc.. Costa Rica

Sunsets on the Pacific Coast of about anywhere are always nice and spectacular and I particular loved the beautiful ones at Tamarindo Beach in Costa Rica

These pictures were taken more than 2 months ago, but I have been procastinating posting them up. Coming very soon are the remaining of the pics from my backpacking trip - Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador !

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Tamarindo is a a beach on the pacific side of Costa Rica and one of the most americanized places I've been to during this trip. I think there were actually more americans in Tamarindo than actual local costa ricans. It's packed with American fast food chains and american food. There's only one single place in the whole town that serves local costa rican food and caters to the local. All other businesses are mostly for the american tourists and dollars are accepted everywhere.

As most of the pacific coast, the surf there is excellent and many people come there for the good surfing. I thought about taking some surf classes, but then got lazy and decided to just bum around the beach.

One good thing about Tamarindo or mostly anywhere in Costa Rica is the abundance of wildlife all over the country. In the hostel I stayed, every morning, we could see/hear howling monkeys on the trees just by the hostel, see huge iguanas roaming around in the yard to catch some sun and by the beach I saw a sea turtle and some great colorful crabs and numerous species of birds !

A Tanner Browner me...

Even brown people can get browner with the extreme sun (when it's not raining) on the Carribean coast of Costa Rica. This is me, even though I had sun cream SPF 50...

Best way to spend a Sunday Afternoon

This picture summarizes how I spent most of my Sunday today !! I am in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca in Costa Rica, a small carribean beach town with plenty of gorgeous and empty beaches, but as it's rainy season, it rained for a big chunk of the day today. I am glad that my hostel had hammocks (most hostels that I've stayed in Costa Rica also have them). The hostel I am at - well rather a hotel.. as it don't have dormitory beds.. mostly cabins and it's only 1/2 block from the beach !! I got my own cabin for $10, but no AC.. only fan and shared bathroom.. but you can't get it all for $10 a night :)

Backpack and Bellypack...

I chanched a look at myself in an elevator mirror this past week and this is how I have been travelling for these past few months.. one big 75L backpack on my back and another smaller backpack with my documents and laptop etc.. in front (I guess that's not a "back"pack anymore.. more of a belly pack :)

I remember having bought that 75L "North Face" brand backpack in Saigon Vietnam for about $22... Even though it's not the real thing, the bag has beared lots of wear and tear, but still holding very strong and travelling the world with me.. The front bag is my one souvenir from Yahoo. it's the Yahoo backpack, every one gets when they first join Yahoo!...