"Highrock's Costa Rica triplog" February 5-13, 2000
	I've been asked, "why Costa Rica?" and the question is a good one. Lying south of Honduras and Nicaragua and north of Panama, Costa Rica is in close proximity to . . . nothing! In fact, that has become a large portion of my answer. I wanted to get close to nowhere and Costa Rica turned out to be the perfect place to do just that. What I expected to find there, I found not. What I expected to see there, I saw not. What I expected to do there, I did not. However, it was the surprises that I did find, and see, and do that I will have pleasant memories of for the rest of my life. This wasn't technically my trip at all; I am piggybacking off of a friend's vacation. I have always wanted to find the perfect beach, the perfect tropical paradise, etc., but as a single male, I can't ever seem to find anyone willing to split the price of a trip to help me look. A friend from church named Dan, who grew up in California and Florida, has wound up stuck here in the DC area. What Dan misses most about the places he grew up in is the excellent surfing. So, Dan had been toying with the idea of going to Costa Rica in search of the "perfect wave" which he thinks might reside there. At least the cast of the movie, "Endless Summer II" seemed to make him think so (as well as his own research.) Of course, things can get pricey if you go by yourself. That's where I came in. After failing to find anyone willing to go with me to the Cayman Islands (my dream vacation at the moment), I didn't want to go through another season without going somewhere special. Costa Rica seemed perfect. So, we planned it . . . and we went. Flying into Costa Rica (on Taca airlines) involved a brief layover in San Salvador, El Salvador, which suited me just fine. San Salvador is about a five hour flight from Washington DC and only two hours north of San Jose. San Salvador is a beautiful city in a little valley that is overshadowed by huge mountains and rock formations on the city outskirts. There's a quaint little beach near the airport and a host of "small fires" around the city (burning garbage? cooking? Rebel forces engaging in target practice against the government?) Our arrival in Costa Rica couldn't have gone smoother. We rented a car from Prago car rentals and an associate from their office was at our gate holding up a sign with Dan's name on it. The individual took us to get our luggage, helped us through customs, and drove us to our 4X4.
		San Jose
	In many place, San Jose looks much like an average American city the "highway of death"	San Jose was my first voyage through a "third-world" city and one that was quite pleasant. The streets were crowded with hordes of people, yet there wasn't a sense that the city was well developed. Only the most major of streets had signs of any sort and it was very easy to get lost. It wasn't long before we did. There were American influences everywhere (Coke, McDonalds, etc.) We didn't spend too much time in the city as we had a long drive to get to our final destination, the small village of Dominical. Once out of the city, the topography changed dramatically. San Jose is located in a valley, and between this valley and the village of Dominical lie a large mountain range (the Tapanti Mountains) affectionately referred to by the locals as "the mountains of death." The road that travels through these mountains is called, "the highway of death." They both lived up to their names. Highway 1 runs from Alaska, down through Canada, the United States, and Central America, and on into South America. It is not a good road. The section we traveled was a curvy, "two-lane" stretch of road that climbed and fell around mountain cliffs. There were few lines on the road, no guardrails, and few streetlights at night. An error at any time could send one plunging of a mountain, and cars would frequently pass on blind curves. These factors, combined with the dense high-mountain fog and hordes of tractor-trailers, made for an experience I would just assume forget.
		San Isidro de General
	Church meeting in San Isidro de General	After about four hours, we arrived in the city of San Isidro de General. During our brief stint in the city, we managed to encounter a Pentecostal church meeting that resembled CLC and we stopped momentarily to observe and participate. From San Isidro de General, we had about another hour worth of driving through dense mountain fog and drizzle. This time the road got the best of me and I got a bad case of motion sickness, which eventually led to me having to relieve myself of the McDonald's Big Mac that I consumed in Cartago. It was raining for the last hour of our trip, which turned out to be the only rain that would fall all week. When we finally got to the village of Dominical, we didn't tarry for long. We found our hotel, got to bed, and called it a night.
	Costa Rica 2000 The Village of Dominical Cabo Matapalo Playa Uvita Playa Hermosa/Dominicalito Roca Verde Playa Matapalo/Quepos/Manuel Antonio Animal Life Sunsets What I learned on this trip

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