Georgia from Georgia

Growing up in Georgia with the name Georgia was fun... not. Just kidding, it taught me how to have a good sense of humor. I don't know how many times I've told people "no, I'm not named after the state" or had people who didn't believe my name was actually Georgia. And don't get me started on how many times I've been serenaded with the song "Georgia on my Mind"--- too many!! Things can also get confusing when people talk about football, which is very common in my hometown, because I'll hear "Georgia sucks" or "I hate Georgia" or "We killed Georgia" or my personal fav "We raped Georgia." Needless to say, that can get confusing...

On the bright side, any Georgia Bulldog apparel
can conveniently be changed to Georgia Taylor apparel.

Chillin' in our truck bed... literally. 

My boyfriend, Kyle, and I have set out on a road trip across the country. Hugging the southern part of the United States, going along the coast of Cali, and then around the northern part of the states once it gets a little warmer. We've built a bed in the back of his truck and boy, it's pimpin'. Our first stop was my hometown, Fortson, Georgia. Kyle's sister is living in our house in St. Augustine so we had some stuff to drop off at my home in Georgia to make room for them and it just so happened my mom, who lives in Tennessee now, and her college friends (my beloved Aunt Sandy and Price) came down for the weekend. Plus, I had a project to complete. Kyle's uncle sent me a sewing machine and an entire box of Crown Royal bags in hopes that I would sew him a robe. I'm pretty handy with a needle and thread, but this is definitely the most ambitious project I have ever embarked on. That's another reason I planned to go home, because my mom is an amazing seamstress and I knew she could help. 

My Aunt Sandy, one of my many helper elves.

The first night we all got wine drunk and went out to eat at one my favorite restaurants, Hunter's Pub. This place is ALWAYS packed, but so worth the wait. I ate here once on New Year's Eve and I would say that meal is in my top five favorite meals of all time. It was steak with lump crab meat on top with hollandaise sauce. Not even sure what I got this time, 'cause I was wasted but I know it was good! You've got to order the lobster tails appetizer. YUM! The next morning we started on the project of the Crown Royal robe. Luckily, I had a lot of helpers and everyone was put to work. Kyle was cutting the logos out of the bags, Sandy was ironing, mom was figuring out the pattern, and I was sewing them all together like a quilt. I even got Kyle on the machine! By the end of the weekend, we still hadn't finished the robe, but I decided we'd head to my grandma's next in Dadeville, Alabama so she could help me with the rest. 

This is an old picture of me on the
Pine Mountain Trail.

There isn't too much to do in Fortson and I live at least 20 minutes away from everything, but I live on Lake Harding and grew up with a boat, jet skis, and canoes so there was always plenty of entertainment. If you want to hang out at the lake, your best bet is to go to Blanton Creek Park. You can even camp there! There's another really great camping place called F. D. Roosevelt State Park, but this isn't on Lake Harding. It's in Pine Mountain, which is somewhere you definitely need to go if you're in the area. The state park has campsites for as little as $10 a night/per person. There are many trails to walk on and a huge pool that is fed by a spring called Liberty Bell Pool. It's only open in the warmer months, but it is so cool! We planned to go hiking, but car trouble kept us cooped up at my house in the middle of nowhere. Since my mom doesn't live there anymore, she's sold the boat, the jetskis weren't in the water, and the internet was disconnected, so we were pretty bored. I definitely recommend going to check out some of the trails though. This website is pretty informative about what Pine Mountain offers in the hiking department. Callaway Gardens is another neat place in Pine Mountain. There are bikes trails, tennis courts, golfing, wakeboarding and skiing in the summer, a butterfly house, and a beautiful display of Christmas lights during the holidays. 

We made the best of being cooped up on my little dead-end street that I grew up on by skating to the closest gas station, The Store. They used to have the best brownies and popsicles, but someone new must have bought it because the don't have either anymore. I was PISSED! :( We skated to the church near my house to visit the grave of my next door neighbor, Johnny the Jellyman. Johnny was the nicest guy around and would give his homemade jelly to everyone who lived nearby. When we ran out of jelly, we'd go over and pick some new kinds from his jelly closet. He had rows and rows of jelly, the shelves labeled with "orange marmalade," "strawberry," "blackberry," every kind you could imagine! His hands started to shake as he got older and his family wouldn't let him make the jelly anymore because they were afraid he'd spill the boiling concoction on himself. One year for community service, I helped Johnny make his jelly. I didn't get the recipe though... I guess I never thought of Johnny dying and the jelly being gone forever. He died in 2007 at the age of 91 and we attended his funeral up the street from his house where he was buried next to his wife. I think about Johnny all the time and hope for his sake there's jelly in heaven. :)

In elementary school, I had to make a book about Georgia. One
of the sections was "local heros" so I wrote about Johnny. It
reads "This is Johnny. He's the jelly man. Johnny makes jelly.
He makes all kinds, strawberry, blueberry, almost every kind
you can dream of."

This is the dick shaped bowl at the Jonathan Hatcher Skatepark.
I tried to capture it from a good angle so you could see it's
dick resemblance, but the pictures don't do it justice. 

Columbus, Georgia is where I attended high school and about 20+ minutes from everything I just mentioned. Downtown Columbus, Georgia is quaint. There is a 22 mile path that hugs the Chattahoochee River, known as the Riverwalk. The city has recently spent millions of dollars putting hydraulics into the river to make it fun for whitewater rafting and kayaking. It doesn't look that fun to me, but I have definitely seen people with boats in there so if you're into that kind of thing, it might be worth checking out. There are some good skate spots down by the water too, so bring your board. Also downtown, within skating distance of the Riverwalk, is Jonathan Hatcher Skatepark. There are two big bowls, a dick shaped bowl, and some street areas. It's big and really nice, we enjoyed skating there. If you're board breaks or you need some new hardware, there's a cool skate shop downtown called Cuckoo's Nest Skateshop. Here's a link to their blog. There were some really nice dudes in there and some artwork in the back. Good vibes! If you're hungry after all these activities try a sandwich from Mama Goldberg's Deli and then grab a smoothie from Fountain City Coffee.

This is the cool skate spot down on the Riverwalk.

Here are some of the new rapids in the Chattahooche. 

St. Augustine - The Nation's Oldest City

This is the fort. Rachel Crumbliss took this picture, one of my
dearest friends, old roommates, and one badass photographer!

This is Dave from Nobby's. He's kind of famous. ;) I got this
picture off their facebook, it had been tagged from a
Facebook page called Float Collective. Just trying to give
credit to whoever took it!!

I have had the pleasure of living in the nation's oldest city (founded in 1565) for the past two and a half years. I fell in love with this charming city's Spanish architecture and its bumpy brick roads. I attended Flagler College while I was living there, which was once the Ponce de Leon Hotel. The campus is beautiful: buildings dating back to the 1900s, a swimming pool, and a beautiful palm garden. It is definitely a relaxing spot and is open to everyone to walk through or to take a nap under the palms. Right across the street from the school is a really cool record shop called Tone Vendor. You can also buy online from them here. If you head down King Street towards the water, you'll see the Bridge of Lions and on the left is Castillo de San Marcos, which is a national monument and an impressive fort. We like to hang out on the lawn around it during the day, but it's really fun to visit at night. You can walk around the walls to the point and then make shadow puppets with the giant lights that shine on its walls. Cross over the Bridge of Lions and you'll find my two favorite bars in St. Augustine: Shanghai Nobby and Planet! Sarbez. Shanghai Nobby's has Ladies' Night every Wednesday and ladies drink free from 10:00pm-12:00am. I have been going to this bar ever since I came to St. Augustine and the owners, Jill and Dave, are so sweet. They make you feel so welcome. Planet! Sarbez just opened a little over a year ago now, I think. It's a very hip place opened by a guy named Ryan, who recently graduated from Flagler. Everything in this place was well thought out: the crazy decor, the cool lighting, the gourmet grilled cheese menu, the art... I LOVE IT! They have local music all the time and the bands are always awesome. Planet! Sarbez and another bar that's downtown on the walking part of St. George St. called Mi Casa Cafe have open mic nights on Tuesdays. If you want to share your music or sing some covers, those are the perfect places!

This is Planet! Sarbez's grilled cheese bar. I got this
picture off their facebook.

This is the love tree that's downtown near the parking garage.

The palm garden on Flagler's campus is perfect for
slack-lining or hanging your hammock for a nap!

What I really recommend doing while you're visiting St. Augustine is getting lost in Lincolnville. All the houses are charming and the streets are lined with old oaks with Spanish moss hanging over the streets. If you take a right on Cordova Street off King Street, you will eventually run into Lake Maria Sanchez. Go from there... whatever direction. Left is towards the water, right is deeper into the heart of Lincolnville. There is a public pool back there, a baseball field, a basketball court, and a walking track. In this area, there is a farmers market held every Sunday. Over near the basketball court, is a fantastic tree(s), which we have fondly named the love tree, because a palm has grown up right next to an oak almost as if the two are hugging. We love to climb the branches and hang out there. There is another "love tree" downtown also near the public parking garage where a palm has grown out of a knot in an oak. Both trees are incredibly spectacular. If you're into the trees, you gotta make sure you take a cruise (either by bike or skateboard or by foot, you won't be able to take it in as much in a car) down Magnolia Avenue. The street is completely lined with old oaks and Spanish moss. It's breathtaking. When we go to the beach, we either go to Vilano Beach or regular St. Augustine Beach. On the way to St. Augustine Beach is the Alligator Farm, which I still have never been to. You'll also pass a free skate park that was opened by the Surf Station. I'm not sure what the park is called, but it's right next to the Surf Station. It's not hard to find.

My favorite restaurants in St. Augustine are Flavors, Schmagel's Bagels, and Taco Shop. Flavors uses the best ingredients. My favorite thing on their menu is a toss up between the Red Thai Coconut Curry Wrap or the Chicken Curry Wrap. You've got to order a smoothie with that, the Miami Beach is my fav. Schmagel's makes all their bagels and cream cheeses themselves. If I'm feeling spicy, I'll get the jalapeno bagel with jalapeno cream cheese, but if I'm feeling fruity, I'll get the blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese. It tastes JUST like a smoothie. At Taco Shop, you gotta try the UFO, which is a lot like a crunch wrap supreme from Taco Bell but real and delicious. All my friends work at these restaurants, so you better tip good! :)

Here's a video I made of us skating down Magnolia Avenue, checking out the love tree, and slack-lining on campus. I'm still trying to figure out the whole video making thing and I lost a ton of the quality on this for some reason... It's way prettier in person, trust me!

From the Pacific to the Caribbean

San Jose, Costa Rica

Cool structure in the park in front of the
National Museum of Costa Rica. 

The airport we flew into SJO (Juan Santamaria International Airport) is actually about 15 miles outside of San Jose. Immediately when we landed, we hopped on a public bus to the city. Upon arriving, we set out to find our hostel The Costa Rica Guesthouse. It is SO easy to get turned around in this city. There are no town maps and the police officers can't even give solid directions. Since we traveled so much throughout the country and San Jose was the hub for the buses, after our 3rd visit we finally began to somewhat understand the avenida (avenue) / calle (street) system. I would try and explain but I think I better just say... good luck. The hostel was nice, we got a private room for about $20 a night/per person. You get free breakfast in the morning, but there is no communal kitchen. After we set down our loads, we went exploring in the city. There are abandoned lots with trash heaping within the fences, there are huge holes in the sidewalk just waiting for someone to twist their ankle in, the cars fly down the streets and don't care about pedestrians. It's a big, dirty city. I didn't like it at all. We were starving so we started looking for something to eat... again all I gotta say is good luck. If you don't have a good knowledge of Spanish food words you're going to have a hard time picking something out. There are a few sit down restaurants but everything looks grimy, especially the small eateries with food under glass displays. There are a bunch of museums in the city to check out, but keep in mind most of them cost money. We didn't go to any. There is a cool park in front of the National Museum of Costa Rica (Museo Nacional de Costa Rica) that's worth walking through.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

The watering hole with a rope swing. 

This is the view of the Cerro Chato we were supposed to see. 

This is what Arenal Volcano looks like on a clear day. 

This was one of our favorite stops and our purpose there was to visit hot springs and see the Arenal Volcano. The town has really died down since the volcano stopped erupting 4 years ago. Now it's dormant, but still makes a beautiful view. Our hostel was called Hostel Backpackers La Fortuna .There was a nice courtyard with hammocks, a bar (you get a welcome drink!!), a pool table, and a communal kitchen. We were only spending a couple days in La Fortuna, so we booked an 8 hour guided hike where we would see and swim in the Cerro Chato volcanic lake, see the Arenal Volcano, go to the museum that documents and tracks the volcanic activity, see a waterfall (which I can't remember the name of), and go to a hot spring. You could definitely do the Cerro Chato hike and hike to the observatory by yourself, but we enjoyed this guided hike we took through Red Lava because we learned things we wouldn't have otherwise and got to cram a lot into one day. Of course it was raining the morning we set out on our hike. When we go to the top of our 3,740 ft. climb, we were supposed to be greeted by a breathtaking view of the Cerro Chato... but noooo. It was completely enveloped in fog. So we started to descend in order to swim in the lake. It was so foggy you couldn't see more than 20 ft. in front of you. It was eerie like Nessie might swim through the haze and gobble you up. When we got to the volcano observatory, we were greeted once again by thick white. We weren't too disappointed. The hike was awesome and challenging and we were deep in the rainforest, so we couldn't complain. We crossed a few hanging bridges and saw some Rainbow Eucalyptus on the way to the observatory. Since there was no view to gaze at, we left early via bus to go to the hot spring. There are many springs in La Fortuna that you have to pay to swim in ($30+), but we went to a local spot that was right

Catarata Fortuna

in the parking lot of the Tabacon Hot Springs. The warm water flows under a bridge and is completely free of charge. Another free thing you can do in La Fortuna, is find the swimming hole with a rope swing. You pass the grocery store and cross a yellow bridge with animals painted on the railings, keep going over two more bridges and you will see the spot. It's awesome! The rope swing is probably a 15-20 ft. drop. One day we spent walking to the big waterfall in La Fortuna, Catarata Fortuna (200 ft.). There is a $10 entrance free, but the waterfall is spectacular and there are some cool trails to walk on that crosses over a hanging bridge and to a lookout to see another waterfall.

Junquillal, Costa Rica

Bored, naked photo shoot with giant Elephant Ears. 

The next stop on our journey was to visit my aunt in Junquillal, which is a very small town on the Pacific about an hour from Tamarindo. There isn't much to do here. It's definitely a place where people have come to retire. Your options range from golfing, yoga, and to eating out at the few hotels and restaurants that are near by. We took walks on the beach to collect seashells and swam in a pretty blue cove everyday. One day we filled an entire pitcher of coconut water we harvested all by ourselves. We used a long gaff my aunt's pool boy had made to yank the coconuts off the tree, opened them with a machete, and then transferred the water to the pitcher. It was delicious. There is a turtle conservatory in the town and you can pay $20 to see turtles hatch. We were going to do it one day, but we walked to the conservatory and by the time we walked back to get our money we had missed it. We went exploring at an abandoned hotel, that was once called Antumalal. We went to a horseback event in the town park where the rider galloped towards a rope with a tiny circle attached and tried to get a pencil through. It looked extremely hard. We visited a beach called Playa Blanca, which wasn't far from my aunt's house and a great snorkel spot. My whole family came to spend Christmas, so we had a nice time. On Christmas Eve, we went to a pot luck that a hotel hosted every year. It was delicious with a wide spread of local foods like tamales.  I took a surf lesson on Christmas Day!! It definitely didn't feel like Christmas. For Christmas dinner, we had a three course meal at a new restaurant that was opened recently by my aunt's old maid. One day we met some people from the Czech Republic and had beach bonfire with them. Even though this spot was remote, it was pristine and there was not trash strewn about like at the other beaches we visited. 

Fresh coconuts!!

This is what the horseback riders
 had to get their pencil through.

My aunt's pimp pad.

Nosara, Costa Rica

Janice trying to catch something despite the wind!

This was by far our favorite place that we visited. Our friends, Janice and Klay, are planning on opening a hostel there. Check out their Facebook page and follow them on Instagram @thenomadic to stay up to date with their plans for the hostel. It won't be long till the hostel is up and running and that will definitely be THE place to stay in Nosara and Costa Rica in general. We stayed with them in their apartment for the time being and they showed us around. Lucky for you, they have listed their apartment on Air BnB so you can stay there too if you want. It was so much fun seeing Costa Rica through the eyes of someone who lives there and they are such good hosts. They took us surfing one day at an awesome surf beach called Playa Guiones. It was only my second time really surfing and the paddle out was a bit far for me, but I made it!! Right across the street from the land they bought for their hostel is a skate park/restaurant. You can order food and go skate while you wait, eat a few bites, and go skate some more. On the website, it looks likes it cost money, but we didn't pay anything and we borrowed a board and a helmet... so I don't know whether it cost money or not. We also were there at night, so maybe it's different during the day. The park has lights and stays open till either 10 or 11 pm, which is nice. One morning we went to a tide pool beach, which had crystal clear pools entrapped in the rocks to swim in. It was on the same beach as the surf spot we went to, just further down. We went on a chartered fishing trip that kind of was a flop because it was so darn windy! We didn't catch anything... My brother is a huge fisherman and really want to fly fish, but that's impossible in wind. I feel like our guide wasn't t greatest and I would put his facebook page here, but he was a really nice guy so I don't want to slander his business. Maybe our day was just a fluke. We stopped at this cute shop called Naked Foods and had the most DELICIOUS ginger beer, called Temple of the White Dog. You have got to try it while you're there! Nosara has a really great recycling initiative and if you bring back your bottle from your ginger beer you can get it refilled for like $1 off or something. KEEP NOSARA BEAUTIFUL!

The skatepark in Nosara. 

The tidepools on Playa Guiones.

This is Janice and Klay's pool at their apartment that is now listed
on Air BnB. You could stay here!!

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Complimentary massages at La Palapa.

We were supposed to only spend New Year's Eve here, but because of missing our bus, we had to spend an extra night. My mom booked us a hotel room at La Palapa and the confirmation e-mail we received said check-in was at 2:00pm, so we arrived promptly. However, the sign on the reception desk said check-in wasn't until 3:00pm. The room was $200 a night, so I wasn't going to tolerate a mistake like this. When I pointed out their error and asked to speak to a manager, there was no manager. This is high season, the rooms cost more during this time... they need to have a manager or someone present who can handle these situations. We waited patiently until 3:00pm only for them to tell us our room STILL wasn't ready. I was mad at this point. They were so unprofessional. Finally, after badgering them we got a small discount on the room and free 20 minute massages. :) I was appeased. Don't stay at La Palapa. But seriously, skip Tamarindo in general. Do not go here. It's gross. We didn't get in the water at all because you could see pipes under the roads feeding dirty water straight into the ocean. It even smelled bad in some places. I was appalled. As for spending NYE there... it was a decent spot. We didn't go to any bars though, just drank a lot of beer and two bottles of champagne with a mariachi band on the beach. The beach was crowded, literally thousands of people. It was like a festival: people walking by saying "blow, weed", fire dancers, fireworks! It was a party!! The next day we spent terribly hungover only to find out we missed our bus and had to spend another night in this dirty, overcrowded city. We walked around aimlessly for awhile and found a public park with a playground and a skatepark. The playground equipment was all breaking and looked like no one had used it in 20 years. The skatepark had been started, but then they must have run out of money because there were exposed wires and crumbling concrete. It had one good bowl. Luckily, we found a hostel called Higher Ground to get a few winks of sleep before we caught our 3:30am bus to San Jose. I'm not putting a link, because there are definitely better places to stay. We couldn't find anywhere else though because almost everything was booked!

Bowl at the skatepark in Tamarindo.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We went here to check out the national park, Manuel Antonio National Park . It cost close to $20 to get into. We were expecting trails through the forest, but it was very tourist-y and all the trails were paved. I felt like I was at Animal Kingdom at Disneyland or something. All the paths led to look-out points, which were pretty... just not what we were expecting, I guess. We did see a lot of animals: raccoons, different types of monkeys, lots of lizards, sloths, toucans, and eels. The beach within the national park is BEAUTIFUL. The water is so blue. There is supposed to be a waterfall in the park, but it was puny! I think maybe it would be bigger during the rainy season... but I don't know, we were unimpressed. Unfortunately, the public beach, which is only separated from the park by some rocky cliffs is haggard. The water is grey compared to the blue water of the beach within the national park. There is a small estuary that has signs that say "DO NOT SWIM CONTAMINATED," yet this estuary flows straight into the public beach. We didn't go swimming at all, other then in the park. The public beach was also trashed. All the trash cans were overflowing and trash was strewn everywhere. I wouldn't recommend coming here. The park isn't that spectacular and everywhere outside the park is trashed. The hostel we stayed at, El Faro Beach Hostel, looks like it had its prime 10 years ago before the locals found out about it. There was Costa Rican family of probably about 15 who dominated the entire hostel and were constantly filling up the pool and not cleaning up after themselves in the community kitchen. The place itself wasn't bad and I would recommend it to someone if they really wanted to go to Manuel Antonio for some reason, because it is so close to the gates of the national park. We met some pretty nice travelers here also who told us they had just come from an ayahuasca retreat in Dominical, Costa Rica. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic compound that is used in shamanic rituals to help heal the mind and body. Their stories of this community sounded awesome and would definitely be something to experience if you are into that kind of thing. They did it at a place called Florestral Forest Community.

View from one of the lookouts inside the park.

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

One of the many mosaics at Rocking J's is
the boognish, the demon god of my
favorite band, Ween.

One of our friends lived here for a month and told us it was beautiful, but we had a very different experience. This was one of the most run-down, trashed places we visited. It was very ghetto, even in the town. The beach had trash everywhere. This town is on the Caribbean, so we were expecting blue waters... wrong. The water was grey and choppy, with double overhead waves. My boyfriend was supposed to get dive certified here, but the scuba place wasn't even going to take people out for another month until the storm passed and the water settled. They said they had never seen the water like this. Just our luck, huh? The hostel we were staying at was really cool. It was called Rocking J's Hostel. If you want to visit Puerto Viejo (which I don't recommend), do stay here. The whole place is mosaics and everything is painted. The hostel is an art piece in itself. It was raining almost the entire time we were there, but we did meet a lot of nice people at the hostel. The hostel has a bar with all you can drink Jungle Juice every night for $9, but we got there on the first full moon of the New Year, so they had a special for only $5. So we got really drunk with our new found friends. We slept in an open-air room with dozens of hammocks. It only cost like $7 a night to sleep in a hammock, but they also have other options such as tents, dorm rooms, privates, and bring your own tent/hammock for $1 off. We met a guy named Aaron at the hostel, who had hiked to Volio Waterfall in a nearby town called BriBri and he took us back and showed us the way. He found it on his own, but he spoke very good Spanish. You have to take a public bus to BriBri and then a taxi (tell the driver you are going to Volio) to get as close as possible to the trail, which includes crossing a river in the taxi and then crossing a few more rivers on foot. I could not give good instructions on how to find the trail. Aaron said when he first went he definitely got a little lost, but he found it eventually. Nothing is marked, so if you set out to find it, don't give up! It's there, I promise! It's beautiful and untouched and not tourist-y at all. We saw poisonous dart frogs while we were hiking and I was so excited. They are one of my favorite animals!

Volio Waterfall

I think this is Strawberry Poisonous Dart Frog.

Here's a video I whipped up with the footage from the trip I shot off my GoPro. The music is by Ween and Zach Deputy.

Pura Vida

My first big trip, planned all by myself: one month in Costa Rica. We got a travel book, googled locations, and asked our friends who had visited the country before where we should go. All I heard from people was how beautiful it was... I feel like I had a slightly different experience. Don't get me wrong, there were beautiful places but as a whole the country is very run down and polluted. The infrastructure is crumbling.

Before I get into the details of our trip, I am going to tell you some valuable information. 

1. Costa Rican money is called Colones and works in thousands, except the Spanish word for thousand is "mil" so you may be confused at first... no, that bill you are holding is not a million. We figured out a pretty good system to understand the exchange rate. 500 Colones = $1. So if you have a 1 mil bill (1,000) times the first number by 2 and you've got $2. This system works great. 2 mil is $4, 3 mil is $6, and so forth. 

2. LEARN SPANISH. I think I will refuse to go to a Spanish speaking country again until I learn the language. It is so frustrating to not be able to communicate with people. Don't get in a taxi unless you speak decent Spanish because you will get ripped off and chances are you will not end up where you are trying to go. By learning Spanish, you'd definitely get a more "local" experience, because you'd be able to ask around and find cool, less tourist-y spots. That was my biggest disappointment in the trip, I felt like such a tourist. I know a very little bit of Spanish, but they talk to fast you get lost after the first word. 

3. Don't flush the toilet paper. Sounds like weird advice, but it will save you from clogging up some toilets. Costa Rican plumbing uses very small pipes that are not made to handle wads of toilet paper. Everywhere you go you will see signs on the stalls to put your TP in the trash can and you best listen!

4. Take advantage of the bus system. I found this schedule online. It got us where we needed to go. The buses are SO cheap also. To go across the country, it costs around $20. However, there aren't really any direct routes. You most likely will have to take two buses, stopping in San Jose, to get where you need to go. There are bus stops all over the city in San Jose, instead of one central location, so plan plenty of time to find your next stop (at least one hour). When you get off the buses, there will be taxis trying to get you to take a ride to your next stop... they will tell you it's far but I promise it's not. Just walk.

5. One thing I really wish I had done differently was try and find places to stay via Couchsurfing or found jobs through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ). Don't get me wrong, hostels can be fun. You meet people from all over the world... but after awhile you start to have the same conversations --- "Where are you from? How long have you been traveling? Where are you going next?" Etc. etc. etc. By using Couchsurfing, you could stay with locals who could truly show you around. By volunteering through WWOOF, you would get away from the tourism industry and truly experience Costa Rica while learning farming practices.

6. Make copies of your passport and driver's licenses. Bring locks for your belongings. Another big disappointment I experienced while visiting Costa Rica was the constant warnings to "watch out." While we didn't have any problems with getting robbed, everyone told us it was a problem and we talked to many travelers who had been stolen from. You are a target if you are a traveler, which is really upsetting to me. I didn't like having to constantly watch my back. In my experience, it seems as if some Costa Ricans are very hostile towards travelers or foreigners that move to their country. All the houses have bars on the windows. My aunt, who has been living there for 10+ years, says the locals make it so hard to live there. Upcharging for necessities like car servicing, just because they can and you have no where else to go. This is upsetting to me, especially because I come from the melting pot country where you can't tell a local from a tourist.

Puerto Viejo

7. Avoid tourist destinations. Places that were recommended to us like Manuel Antonio and Puerto Viejo and Tamarindo were really dumps. They don't have a good enough garbage system to clean up after the large amounts of people who visit there so it just piles up. I was shocked by how much trash was everywhere. Many of the beaches have contaminated water flowing right into the ocean!! This was the scene we found in many places we went to unfortunately.

8. Don't just travel inside Costa Rica!! I didn't realize just how small Central America is... you can go to Panama or Nicaragua on a day trip! I really wished we had checked out more countries. I heard from multiple people that Nicaragua in particular is much cheaper and you get a more local experience.

9. Don't visit during the "high season." It is over-crowded everywhere you go. I feel like the more tourist-y sites we visited such as Manuel Antonio and Puerto Viejo would have been so much nicer without all the people there. Even though the low season is characterized with rain, many places experience rain in the afternoons and at night, so it doesn't impact the day that much. This is especially true in the Guanacaste region. Our friends who live in Nosara say the surf is even better during the low season!

10. AVOID SPIRIT AIRLINES! They royally screwed us on our returning flight. We had a connection in Ft. Lauderdale. As we were landing it was getting dangerously close, but the flight attendants literally told us they were going to hold our flights... there were at least 25 people on the plane whose travel plans were messed up. Of course the connecting flights did not wait on us and everyone trying to go to Houston, Orlando, and Baltimore were stuck. They were not helpful at all in trying to get us to our next destination. Their best option was to put us on a bus at 10:00am (it was 6:30am at this point) to get to Orlando. That wasn't our final destination however, we needed to get to St. Augustine. We told them renting us a car would be the best option, but they refused. We rented a car on our own, which cost like $120 and then got a refund of $260 for both our tickets. A bus ride would not have been equivalent to our plane tickets, even a rental car wasn't yet they still refused to help out. It was so ridiculous.

11. Costa Rica is on military time, at least the bus schedules. So watch out for that. We thought there was a bus leaving Tamarindo at 3:00pm, but it turned out to be 3:00am and we had to spend an extra night in Tamarindo.

More posts to come about the specific cities we visited and places/hostels we stayed at. Pura vida!! :)

- Georgia