Capital: San Jose

Language: Spanish

Currency: Costa Rican colón

Do Indians need visa pre-arrival: Yes but substituted with a valid permit issued by the US.

Places I Visited:
• Puerto Viejo de Talamanca- Excellent beaches, Visiting Banana Farms, Visiting Chocolate farms.
• San Jose- Capital city with good nightlife and visiting few Museums.
• La Fortuna- Active volcano, La Fortuna waterfalls, Hot Springs.
• Cuided Queseda- alley city, excellent place to enjoy culture.

After a smooth emigration in Panama and immigration in Costa Rica, I went to a bus stand in Sixola, Costa Rica to catch a bus to San José (Capital of Costa Rica) and after a long delay at the station, I finally boarded a bus.

On our way, I witnessed few fantastic views en route to San José. We had a pit stop in Puerto Viejo where I eventually requested from the driver if I could get a little refund if I get down there but he said no since I am yet to arrive at my destination.

After few minutes of thinking, I told him I would like to alight and ask him not to worry about refunding me. That was what led to my unexpected stay in Puerto Viejo.

I like a lot in Puerto Viejo; the beaches were amazing as it was unexpected on my itinerary. I didn’t know anything about the city since my stay was impromptu; I didn’t even have Wi-Fi to search for a hostel.

While I was walking to find a place to stay, I got into a restaurant with a tag "we will offer you a Wi-Fi if you buy something." Finally, I found a good hostel 1 km away from where I was. I walked to the hostel and reserved a camping tent to stay in. The hostel was a lovely and pleasant place to hang out, they had enough banana too HAHA (Bananas are exported to the USA from this area). I met a quite number of people from different nationalities. I met a crazy 70 years old man from USA who came for a week vacation 30 years back and never left. Puerto Viejo was fun after a few talks with people who I met there. We went to the beach, put up a bonfire camp and we were even entertained by someone who was playing a guitar.

The next day, I didn’t know what to do, so I rented a bike in the hostel and biked around the beautiful city.

On the third day, I went to San-Jose those were 2 worthwhile nights in the Puerto Viejo. As I got down form the bus in San Jose, the hostel I booked was 3kms from the bus station, I hired a taxi to my hostel and it came out to be the most expensive cab I ever boarded within a short distance (30 $ for 3 km? Wow!). On getting there, the hostel guys told me my booking was cancelled due to unknown reasons then I requested for a night stay so that I can move the next day but unfortunately the hostel was fully booked but they did let me to use their Wi-Fi.

I found another hostel 2 km away. I was scared to call a taxi because they charge a lot of money; it made me walk 2kms with a 12kg backpack on me.

Finally checked into my hostel then went on for a window shopping in the shopping street (Sanjose is a right place for shopping). I stayed in San José for 2 days doing nothing.

One beautiful morning I took a bus to La Fortuna. My first day in La Fortuna, I went to have dinner and book a tour to experience my first volcano mountain view; I was really excited about my first volcano visit.

The next day, I went to a restaurant the bearer in the restaurant is from India, I was amazed seeing an Indian bearer in Costa Rica (he is married to a Costa Rican he met online then decided to move over to the country).

The following day, I went for my volcano tour. This was my first trekking in this travel. I trekked for 4 hours to see volcano but unfortunately the volcano was covered by fog. That made me pretty sad but I had a chance to take a dip in the hot springs in the evening after the trek.

From Costa Rica, I was en-route to Nicaragua border the next day, but there was a pit stop in Cuidad Quesada this made me stay over for a night. I was supposed to receive an important mail from the US that very day. I had to travel as early as 4 am and got to San José by 7 in the morning, headed for the mailing office around 7.30 am but realized that office opens at 8.30 am.

I was so tired that I took a nap on the sidewalk where a cop approached me and woke me up and started interrogating me. He collected my passport and took it; this was a terrifying situation for me. He came back after 10 minutes and returned my passport to me and cleared me to leave.

As the office opened up, I went inside and asked about my mail but my mail was in the warehouse which was 1 hour away from the office. From there, I took a bus and got my mail around 12, had my lunch and started my journey to Costa Rica border after proper emigration now it’s time to enter Nicaragua.