Jonathan in Costa Rica

Leaving soon. Free internet access will soon be a thing of the past. Also the remoteness of the new base may mean I don't get to use the net too often but hopefully I'll be able to post every now and then!
Looking forward to the journey - it should be very scenic!!

Spent the day wandering around the nearby area of San Jose. Its not an unpleasant city, but neither is it particularly interesting. We found an ATM, had a Subway in which I managed to order a sandwich without any meat, and had a walk in a nearby park. There were a few exotic birds to see and a nice view of the mountains surrounding the city.
More GVI'ers arrived throughout the day - from France, UK, USA and Norway - quite a mix. We all seem to get on and have been chatting for most of the afternoon and having a laugh. Two of the current GVI interns have arrived to brief us and escort us to our base camp tomorrow. It all sounds very exciting and we're all raring to go!

Well I made it! I wasn't sure that I would until we finally fled Heathrow in the snow leaving Britain to plunge into an Ice Age.
U.S. Customs did their best to make me miss my connecting flight but I made it onto the plane with about 10 minutes to spare - needless to say I was a sweaty mess. I felt sorry for the Canadian lady sat next to me - though we did have a bit of a chat so I can't have smelt that bad!
It was a long journey made all the more weird by the fact that it felt like I was travelling back in time through the time zones. I arrived in Costa Rica around 7:40pm. I had started at 5:45am, yet I had been travelling for close to 20 hours.
On arrival in San Jose, I was picked up at the airport by the owner of the hostel I was staying in, along with a Australian girl named Emily who was studying in Vancouver. She is here for 5 weeks and we were obviously both quite excited and chatted away through our taxi to the hostel. Unfortunately, it was dark so we were unable to see much of San Jose as we drove.
On arrived at the hostel, we checked in and headed to our dorm only to bump into another member of our expedition. Andrew is doing the 6 month intern position as well as me, and he is from Cheltenham!!!!! What are the odds? We had a bit of a chat but I must admit I was starting to feel the lack of food and sleep and so passed out fairly early.
Woke feeling very refreshed at around 6:00am and started hearing my first exotic bird calls from outside. They are serving pancakes at 7:00 - I can't wait!!