Four hours on a constantly overcrowded bus from Alajuela to La Fortuna. We were the last three to board, me in the front seat but with Julian on my lap, Laurel sitting on a backpack on the floor of the aisle.

The bus traveled slowly on a very windy, two-lane road through the mountains, making very frequent stops.

At one point, about an hour out, I had to stand up because I’d lost all feeling in my legs, which led to my having to stand for an exhausting length of time. Every time we occasionally thinned out, as we’d been dropping off more than we were picking up, I hoped a seat would open up, but we would inevitably make a stop and cram in more people than you can imagine.

The feeling came back to my legs, but I had to periodically shake out my hands as the blood would not reach them, clasped tight to the handrails above.

I won’t even go into the details of my motion sickness.

Heaven: Began Day 2 with a great hike about 45 minutes up the river, to a beautiful set of waterfalls. We walked through lush forest that was reminiscent of back home in terms of the density of the under growth. At the falls we refreshed ourselves, letting the cool water shower over us, a real drenching.

Hell: Coming up next.

Costa Ricans are called “Ticos.” It’s cute.

Ticos singing karaoke, drunk and off-key, at maximum volume, until very, very late in the evening, well, not so cute.

I’ll mostly let the amazing meal speak for itself: First Course – fire roasted prawns in a ginger-lemongrass reduction, sushi rice with a wasabi creme fraise sauce, fresh cilantro leaves and thinly shredded carrots; Second Course – roasted chicken with a seared balsamic reduction glaze, steamed and buttered broccoli, gingered carrots, and curry-baked apple; Third Course – macaroons drizzled with dark chocolate, merlot and berry consomme, and a key lime cheesecake topped with thinly sliced mango.

Santi, short for Santiago, says he burned out on being a chef at a high end restaurant in Palm Beach, and treasures surprising unsuspecting Arilapa guests with amazing cuisine they never thought they’d find at a $50 per night pension.

Downtown Alajuela can be best described as pandemonium. Narrow streets are laid out in an orderly 10×10 grid, but there’s very little else that seems orderly about this bustling city. Shops are interspersed with residences and offices, we took respite from the heat in the shade in Parque Central, where Julian climbed a banyan tree, and we located the bus station where we’ll catch our bus to La Fortuna and Arenal in the morning.

Our pension, Arilapa, for our first two nights, couldn’t be a more perfect landing spot. In the hills on the outskirts of town, rough around all the edges in all the right ways, it feels like authentic Costa Rica.

Ironically, the owners are not. Arnoldo, born in Virginia, graduate of University of Maryland, is a real character, sarcastic without being mean or tiresome, eccentric, and very friendly. He reportedly has four children, and a wife named Ileana, whom we actually corresponded with via email prior to the trip, but we have not seen them anywhere.

Arnoldo’s brother Santi, on the other hand, we met, and he’s the icing on the Arilapa cake. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he first treated us with an incredible breakfast of eggs, sausage, fried plantains, cheese and bread, YUM!!!, and for our first dinner in Costa Rica he’s preparing a three course meal, for which all the ingredients were hand-picked by him at the Saturday Farmers Market.