Meeting my buddy, Shawn and his girlfriend

I was going to go to Montezuema but I ended up buying a ticket to San Jose as the route that looked good on the map wasn´t going to work. Right after I bought the ticked, I checked my email and Shaun said that it was a good time to see him in San Jose so things really fell into place. We have to stay in a hotel as Shaun´s girlfriend, Laurieanna is having trouble evicting her tenants in her house she wants to move back too. She has commercial tenants renting a couple of bars she owns that she wants to get out as well which is difficult even thought they don´t pay their rent.

It´s fun going around the city with Laurieanna. She seems to know everyone from the bar owners to the beggers prostitutes and even a transvestite prostitute was excited to see her. She really is a charactor.

Anyway, we are staying in a hotel in the most dangerous part of town. I got in at 11pm and Shaun wasn´t expecting me yet so he was at the casino. The first thing I had to do was hit an ATM. I knew it was dangerous at night but I had to eat. The first bank didn´t work. I hated having to go to another but it all went ok. I tried to make myself look tough and like I knew what I was doing. Had I known just how dangerous these streets are at night, I would have gone hungry until morning.

When Shaun got backl, he introduced me to his girlfriend who is a really fun loca latina. She´s had quite the life with a couple of bullet wounds but lots of energy. Their room has a balcony and we just sat up there and watched people get mugged in the streets. The crackheads work togther, making whistle sounds to alert others that a drunk moron is coming so they have help to make the robbery. They take everything, jacket, hat, shoes. Then they go buy crack. Sometimes the police come by and take some away. The one thing that can be said for them is that they seem to share everything. If some one manages to beg or hustle 25 cents, they give it to one person who takes it all until there is enough to buy a rock and then they all get high together. It´s a sad scene but I sure don´t have an answer to their problems. Often they can be seen walking around with a new umbrella or pair of pants that they stole from someone. Our hotel really is at the corner of death and hell. Lucky for me, Shaun knows how to stay safe. If we come back at night, we take a taxi and run 10ft to the door of our hotel and the security guy promtly lets us in.

Today, we are going to Motezuma which is supposed to be the nicest beach in Costa Rica. Loreena owns a bar there and some property and they are going to talk to some lawyers about evicting the people running it so that her and Shawn can. Shawn says that it is the nicest bar I will ever see.

San Jose is the only dangerous place in Costa Rica. Most of the country is very safe, the tap water is treated many people own cars and property here and enviornmental conservation is a top priority here. The thing that really makes me want to love this country more than any other is that they have no armed forces. Police are even pretty rare which is a stark contrast to other countries down here. Things are a little more expensive here though still a fraction of what I would pay back home. Lots of people speak English here do to all of the tourism.

Anyway, I´m seeing things I never thought I´d see here in San Jose but I´m looking forward to going back to the beach. I don´t need to be around any more crackheads.