San Vito, a quaint little coffee town up in the mountains.  It took three hours to get up here by bus, a $5 ticket.  There was some walking, some going back and forth, a little bit of waiting, and then jumping a bus, which we just made…

You’d think that might sound easy, but by the time we both got here, we were tired, it was 5 PM (our time — Costa Rica is an hour ahead), and all we wanted was a room.  We found….

The Noisiest Hotel Ever. 

As you can see, the design of the hotel begins the echo chamber.  What you don’t see is the awning (you can just see the very edge) which funnels in all the noise from the street, and the roof over top of the drive through area which completes it.  I must say, it’s a very effective system.

This would be a design waste without the cattle trucks, semis, quads, and hundreds of dirt bikes, which supply the noise.   As an added bonus, the hotel is on a hill, with two speed bumps right in front.  Vehicles slow for the bumps, and then punch it right after.

Up in the mountains here, every paved road looks like this, so the bikes are everywhere around you.  Up in the hills, right in front, all over, everywhere.  Thank God for earplugs.

In the morning, we had ONE thing on our minds.  After a coffee down the street, we found this place up on the other side of town, and moved.  We aren’t going to get away from the bikes, but at least it’s not an echo chamber, and has this funky eating area in the middle where they serve their breakfast – which is included.  Nice.

With that out of the way, we went wandering about, looking for ways to fill our time for the next day and a bit.  There aren’t a whole lot of roads to explore in this town, so it didn’t take long.

We found a few scenic spots.

It’s not really hard to do that way up here in the mountains.

There is no question at all we are in Costa Rica, where paved roads are a luxury.  Unless things have changed in the 6 years since I’ve been here, these are the worst roads in Central America.  That remains to be seen, so I’ll try to keep an open mind, but now you can see why I wanted to do the remaining work on my car before I came across the border with it.

We captured a few unusual shots.

Took in some modern art… which is funny because I was having a discussion just before leaving Panama, and the comment made was that one should always visit current modern art museums with a sick bag in hand.  Use it if you need, and if you wish to contribute…  don’t.

There is the usual Central American creativity which became worth a shot as we passed the 5th or 6th bike covered up like this.

We had covered almost every paved road in town by the time we settled in for a treat.

On that note, I’ll say, without reserve, that Costa Rican food is far and above what you find in Panama.  They aren’t afraid of flavor, which is nice.  The coffee here, is on par or slightly better than what is grown on Volcan Baru, but both coffees are well known internationally.  Here, they are a dollar a cup.

The exchange rate, both at the bank and on the street, is 530 Colones/ US dollar, and every till has a stack of both.   Up here, there is no necessity to change your money, but I did anyways.  It’s a respect thing.  The bank, Banco National, requires a passport to change your money.  They’re narcs, y’see, but now that I know that the rate is the same, I won’t bother with them, or their “airport security” looking vestibule they wouldn’t let me take a picture of.  They love their customers…..  I’ll get a shot of it later….

So, that’s that for now.  Tomorrow, we go back over to Panama, and deal with what’s waiting over there.