Our bus arrived in San Jose, and we jumped in the nearest taxi to another bus station. We hadn’t heard anything good about Costa Rica’s capital, and we didn’t want to waste a night in the place. Our next trip was a tour ride into the green coffee covered hills to the east, where volcanoes, ancient ruins and white-water rafting on the famed Rio Pacuare lay.
We stayed in a great little hostel called the Casa de Lis, run by a very friendly Dutch host called Lis. It was the most immaculate place I’d seen on the whole trip, and we had a 4 bed dorm to ourselves. In the morning there was free coffee, which was just about the best I’d ever had (and led me to buy 3 packs of the stuff to take home).
In the hallway of the hostel Lis had set up some suggested walks and trips for the local area. We took a trek up into the coffee plantations to a waterfall (see the pictures below) and took a dip in the cool plungepool. An unexpected start to our two weeks in Costa Rica, and the perfect preparation for the next days rafting!
To South America 