Greetings from Costa Rica, land of hills and good beer

Welcome to my country now go uphill!

May be it's just me but it seems that everytime I cross a border as soon as I get to the other side I start climbing. Is there some reason for this? Do countries purposely have their borders in valleys to make it easier you know the mountains on that side are yours the ones on this side are mine kind of thing. Who knows who cares tune in next week for the continuation of this exciting saga. Well I've been in Costa Rica a few days now and so far I really like it. There seems to be a pattern here that the further south I go the nicer and prettier the countries become. Nicaragua was really beautiful and now Costa Rica even more so. One difference between Costa Rica and other countries is that here there is a feeling of prosperity that pervades everything. This is something that is definitely missing in all the other countries I have been in. Costa Rica is very hilly especially compared to delightfully flat Nicaragua. There is an awful lot of ascending and descending here a bit more than I would like. The roads are really nice and smooth. But they are narrow with nada, zero, zip for a shoulder. It is also the busiest road I have seen since the libre in Mexico. The Pan American highway is not only the highway through Costa Rica it is also the route through San Jose the capitol. So yeah doesn't that suck. So there are a lot of trucks on the road and no shoulder and they don't usually give you much room. Note to the Costa Rican gov't. PUT SHOULDERS ON THE DAMN ROADS! There, got that off my chest.

Liberia, giraffes, zebras and warthogs

My first day in Costa Rica I spent in Liberia. It's about 50 miles inside the country from Nicaragua. I thought I was in heaven. There were real stores and in front of every store were little decals telling which credit cards they accepted. Imagine they not only accepted cards but a whole bunch of them. There was a huge grocery that sells all sorts of beer and other stuff. In Nicaragua there is a choice of maybe 2. They even have a dark beer here yayyyyyy! My first day in the country and I got rained on not just rain a serious downpour. I stopped at the first motel in Liberia and asked how much and he said $36 which was more than I wanted to spend but it was raining like hell and I was soaked so I said "Why not" of course the minute I got settled in the rain stopped and the sun came out. For dinner that night I ate at the Taqueria Mazatlan. I mean I had to right? It was good, expensive considering, but good. I mean 1 fish taco with beans rice and a salad for $7.00 as I said expensive. The next day I went down the road and came to a place called Africa Mia it is an animal preserve and pretty damn pricey. Basically they take you on a tour and you get to get up close and personal with the animals in the park. You get to feed the giraffes and get close to the zebras and all that good stuff. It was nice, it was fun but it was pricey. That night I ended up in the town of Las Canas nothing special about it but it seems like a nice quiet little burg. From there I went to Puntas Arenas. Basically a sand bar in the ocean. Nice enough place but nothing to really recommend it. It has black sand beaches. I guess I've been spoiled by Mazatlan because I haven't seen anyplace that I would trade for it so far. Well that's all for now, I feel like I'm becoming boring so
HASTA LA VISTA BABY!