Shannon in Wanderland: A Listicle of Costa Rica!

I'm in Panama! But first, a list of things about Costa Rica.

1. Not including bus station transfers, I went to Tamarindo, Montezuma, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, and Puerto Viejo. Puerto Viejo was the only place on the Caribbean coast, and the culture was super different so I'm glad I made the stop.

2. The Caribbean coast is very reggae, and as it turns out, I very much enjoy reggae. Though probably not all the time.

3. When I got off the bus in Tamarindo, two lovely girls told me they liked the color of my backpack. I asked them if they were staying in a cool hostel, and we hung out and traveled together for the next week.

4. Our hostel in Tamarindo was full of Venezuelan surfers living in Tamarindo. One of them was studying to be a lawyer, but left Venezuela because "there is no law" (no, I'm not planning on going to Venezuela).

5. The friendly hostel pup hopped into my bed at 6am, so that was a bizarre wake up call.

6. On the drive between Tamarindo and Montezuma, our driver made a sign of the cross before entering a very sketchy, gravely, and pothole filled road. We survived. I hope he made it back to Tamarindo.

7. There's a pre-sunset light that I have discovered and fallen in love with in Central America. I'm sure there's science behind it, but it's been dubbed "magic light hour". It probably only lasts about two minutes but it makes me really happy.

8. Dropping of my dirty laundry then picking it up as clean made me feel like a new and refreshed human.

9. Montezuma was my adventure town - we did some ziplining and snorkeling and drinking on the beach and hiking to a waterfall. I haven't seen any fuentes on this trip, but I've seen quite a few of nature's fuentes, and I appreciate those.

10. There are a lot of bugs in Costa Rica, and they bite.

11. The towns that we stopped at were generally so small that they only had one ATM. And sometimes those banks are so small that they don't accept all ATM cards! So we had an adventure busing to the next baby town over, and with our fingers crossed, successfully withdrew some dolla dolla billz.

12. Showers and sinks here do not have temperature taps, they simply turn on.

13. In Manuel Antonio we saw SLOTHS and MONKEYS just living their lives, and that was awesome. The park also had the most wonderful beaches that we saw in Costa Rica (from my non-surfer perspective) - soft sand, small to nonexistent waves, and surrounded by jungle.

14. I have been complimented by multiple backpackers at how small my backpack is, and each time I swell with pride.

15. Most of the "towns" that I went to were actually a single street next to a beach. Dominical was no exception, we stayed in the only hostel and watched the dozens of surfers in the big waves.

16. Puerto Viejo had a few streets, but only one main one. I only spent one night here so I didn't get a full experience, but I sang "No Scrubs" at karaoke and killed it, then we moved onto the reggae clubs which were super fun clubs.

17. I have now seen crabs move for the first time in their real habitat, and even though I've seen so many that they are probably considered pests, their little scuttle crab walk still cracks me up.

18. There's now a crew of random people that I run into every few days in new cities without planning on it (and some that I plan). One just sauntered into the hostel to check in as I type this.