I’m finally sitting in the warm sunshine on the upper deck of our hostel in San Jose trying to get used to the Spanish keyboard as I type. We made it here about 9:30 last night after getting a shuttle from the airport. Ryan’s spanish has proved very valuable already we tried to figure out a place to stay and how to get there. Although the phone system proved challenging at first, I think we finally have that worked out. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful so far. Really, very little stress.

After all the worry about getting kayaks on American airlines, turns out it wasn’t a problem. Although there was a little hesitation at the check-in, we only ended up paying $75 extra. Not bad considering American technically doesn’t even allow kayaks. We were able to catch glimpses of the boats getting loaded and unloading at each of our two layovers so that eased some of the worry.

It is a gorgeous day this morning with partly sunny skies and WARM. Our big task today after breakfast is to traverse the crowded downtown San Jose and catch a bus to Turriallba. Bus ride is about 2 hours. From that point we should settle down for a while and get some boating in. I think it has been raining off and on so it seems like we might have some good water levels. I have no idea how to check that, though, but at this point it doesn’t really make a whole lot of difference. There are a bunch of Americans staying at this hostel and I expect we’ll meet up with other boaters in Turriallba very easily.

The computers here don’t take my card reader so no pictures yet. Hopefully there will be one in Turriallba were I can transfer some pics to here.

 Pura Vida!

Written by Paul B - Visit Website

My brother and I decided to take advantage of a nice weekend in October to get in some late season backpacking.  After some discussion we decided to go to Pamelia Lake on the southwest side of Mt. Jefferson.  The hike in is relatively short, which allowed us to get a late start and still reach camp around 1:00.  This gave us plenty of time to explore the lake and surrounding area.

Peter at Pamelia Lake

The campsites at Pamelia do not offer a view of the mountain, but by hiking to the far side of the lake we were rewarded with a beautiful view.  It had snowed at high elevations a few days before we were there so the mountain had a dusting of white.

Mt. Jefferson from Pamelia Lake

As night fell the wind picked up and did not die down until a couple hours before sunrise.  It was one of the windiest nights I’ve spent in the outdoors.  However, the wind helped keep the sky cloudfree giving us incredible display of stars inlcuding a shooting star.

The next morning we ate breakfast by the lake, then decided to follow the trail that eventually leads to a few alpine lakes near tree line.  The trail follows the creek that feeds Pamelia Lake.  We did not hike all the way to the other lakes, but we did get plenty of views of Mt. Jefferson and the creek.  After the hike we decided to get the most out of the nice day by eating lunch in the sun on the lakeshore before packing up and heading back to the car.

A stream along the trail

View from the trail as we left Pameila Lake