Arrival and the first day

After a long wait, we finally set off! After spending a night at the airport, our flight departed early in the morning from Frankfurt via Madrid to San José, the capital of Costa Rica. Except for the last 15 minutes, during which Janina had to concentrate pretty hard not to vomit due to a storm, everything went smoothly, and we both managed to get some sleep (Janina more than Patrick, as expected).

In the end, we arrived safely despite everything, the immigration process was also relaxed, and we quickly got our backpacks. So, we are officially in Costa Rica now!

After asking around a bit with the taxi drivers (who initially tried to sell us a direct ride to our destination for only $150, obviously assuming we were clueless tourists), we also found the bus stop. The first impression of San José wasn't great, so we were glad that we managed to get to La Fortuna pretty quickly, the city right at our first workaway station. La Fortuna is a small town with 15,000 inhabitants, but very touristy, so finding a cozy hostel for the first night was not a problem. Besides the many hostels, there are also plenty of bars with evening live music here. We felt comfortable right away and will definitely visit again in the coming weeks :)

First impressions of Costa Rica: The people are incredibly nice and helpful, we were approached several times if we needed any help (with a small exception: the taxi drivers who, of course, try to make the biggest deal possible with tourists, but even they were helpful after we declined their offers). The bus connections are good, but the rides are quite fast (due to driving style, road conditions, and the age of the buses), and even in the urban hostel, we've already seen the impressive diversity of animals and plants. We especially enjoyed the colorful hummingbirds and butterflies :)