Day 1: Travel/First Taste of San Jose

After an early morning and a couple of sleepy flights, we have arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica! While landing, we had a great view of the countryside, getting a great look at some mountains. The first thing we did after landing was exchange American dollars for Costa Rican colones. After trading in $100, I got over 43,000 colones. It feels strange to have that much money, even though the purchasing power here seems to be weaker than back home. Then we got on the bus and headed into the city. As I looked around, I noticed many differences and many similarities to home. It's apparent that I am in a foreign country, based on the people, language, homes, buildings, and landscape. However, it is still dominated by billboards and other forms of marketing, including many American products, such as McDonalds and other fast food. Our tour guide isn't a huge fan of it, and I'm sure many Costa Ricans share his mindset.

We checked into our hotel and then went to grab lunch. Everyone had their phones out calculating the exchange rates while looking at the menu. I was used to this, as I just took a final exam with these calculations less than a week ago. Then we checked out a convenience store. The first thing I saw was bananas. I had never seen fruit in a convenience store. The healthy lifestyle of Costa Rica I have been hearing about didn't take long to show itself. It makes me wonder which is more true: Costa Ricans are very healthy, or Americans are abnormally unhealthy.

Walking around the streets was also very interesting. The downtown area was mostly one-way streets with no lane markings, and slightly more reckless drivers than I'm used to. Reminded me of New Orleans a bit. The last activity was a short orientation with the rest of our tour guides, and a preview of tomorrow's white water rafting and chocolate factory tour. I am excited to get a good night's sleep, and even more excited for tomorrow. It's been great so far, and we've barely started.