This is a GLBT Focused Trip Report. I will make mention of gay bars, gay hotels, and gay clubs. I had posted part I and finally got around to finishing it.

5/25/04 PHL-CLT-SJO Tuesday

6 o’clock already and I was just in the middle of a dream…I was kissing a hot Latino by a crystal blue Italian stream…but alas 6am was when my Delaware express shuttle picked me up and took me to the airport. After a 30 minute $30 ride I arrived at Philadelphia International Airport and was able to use the kiosk to check in for my flight to Charlotte, with continuing service to San Jose, Costa Rica. I walked up to the club and spoke with the women there pointing out it was an international flight and they gave me club access. I downed some coffee and a yogurt in the US Airways club until it got closer to boarding time. The flight boarded quickly and I settled into my first class seat 2F aboard this Airbus 320 EOW. The EOW means extended over water and it carries additional life saving equipment in the event it must ditch in the ocean.

The flight time to Charlotte was pretty short, about an hour and a half and I remember that this gruff businessman was sitting next to me, he obviously had a meeting, I had future dates with Tico’s in my future. We arrived at Charlotte Douglas international airport, and after running to the rest room I sat and read my tour guide next to this fascinating national georgraphicesque woman named Pamela (I learned this on my flight home which she was on).
I boarded the plane again, and settled in for what the pilot said would be 3 ½ hours to San Jose. After eating a lunch of “fajita chicken and beef”, salad, and small chocolate bar, I napped the rest of the way there. I caught about 45 minutes of the movie “Mooseport” which wasn’t all that great at all.

I arrived about 12:30 in the afternoon to the busy San Jose Juan Santa Maria Airport. I was missing a customs form so I had to go back and fill one out, and after getting that figured out was outside. I was able to pay for me cab in dollars ($12) and you prepay so you don’t get ripped off. Definitely remember in San Jose to only pay at a booth and get a receipt. They will then give you a driver. My cab driver rushed me through the busy gas fume filled roads into downtown San Jose. He was very nice and I chatted in my limited Spanish with him all the way to the city. We found my hotel after circling around Barrio Amon for a little bit and I arrived at Joluva Guest House. http://www.joluva.com The guest house is a small gay guest house that’s still pretty good walking distance to everything. I had mailed my deposit for one night $25 before so I all had to pay for was $1 to use the safe. After settling in I went and walked around town the rest of the afternoon.

After walking around I stopped in the gay Internet café called one in ten. http://www.1en10.com/ I went on MSN messenger and found that Giovanni who I had talked to earlier in the week was on and he offered to take a bus in and show me around. After meeting him he took me to a large mall in San Pedro (one of the suburbs) and I had some local tican food, a huge plate of various meats/salads, and a fruit juice drink, all for 1600 colones, or roughly $375. (430 colones equals one dollar). We spent the rest of the evening walking around and I was in bed by 10pm.

Day 2 5-26-05 San Jose to Quepos Wednesday

I awoke about 5:30am, got dressed and then tried to figure out how I was going to give my key back to the hotel, well as it got closer to 6:30 for my taxi to the airport I heard the man shuffling about and he came out and got it. (Then went back to sleep!). I guess he lives in the guesthouse. After a $15 cab ride to the airport I was dropped off at the SANSA terminal. Now the SANSA terminal is basically one desk in an old hanger that’s been converted to office use I think. There is no security, just a dozen men lingering around to help weigh and handle your luggage and check you in. I chit chatted with these two fellows that were on their way to Tamarindo and looking forward to visiting another area of the country, they told me they would end up in Quepos later on in the week. I also identified them as being “family” by their prominent HRC logo on their bags and was able to borrow one of their guides to write down the phone number of my hotel, which I forgot to do.

I boarded the plane for a 20-minute flight and soon landed in the middle of a field. Picture something not longer then a driveway in the middle of a field that is the landing area. A warehouse type thing is where everyone waits for the flights, but after getting the luggage SANSA will drive you to whatever hotel you are staying at for 1600 colones or $4 (better in colones). After a brief stop in Quepos which is actually the small town, they dropped me off at my hotel http://www.villaroca.com. I was greeted by Charles and checked in to my room, room # 4 which consisted of one queen bed and a small balcony that overlooks the ocean. I also set up a rainforest tour with “Gama” who is a gay guide that my friend Nick had used before with his friends.

The hotel itself is situated high on a hill and has a gorgeous view. I got settled in a bit (this was around 10am by now) and then got my beach stuff and headed down the hill to the beach. The walk to the beach is about a 20-minute walk down a fairly steep hill, but at various points it levels out and you can get a good view of the water. I spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. I walked back to the end of the beach and stopped to get food, it had started to rain at this point. I had a “casado plate” which included chicken, rice, beans, plantains, and salad, and two pineapple shakes, all for 1800 colones, or about $5. Very tasty, and the fun part was I had no watch and had no care in the world what time it was.

I took a local bus back to the hotel (100 colones, less then 25cents) and it dropped me off at the hotel. A few of the guys at the hotel invited me to go to dinner with them later on in the evening when they found out I was traveling alone. I napped while it rained and met up with them about 7pm to go to dinner.

We walked to Gato Negro (black cat) and were seated; there were 7 of us, including a very friendly French fellow with multiple tattoos and piercings who was there with his partner who was decidedly staid. The dinner was all right, but here is the real story. At the beginning of the meal the waiter brought by wine and said “this is our house wine”. So we had two bottles of the red wine and two bottles of white wine for the table. We got the bill and they charged $100 per bottle for the “house red”. One of the guys got pretty upset about it (as did I) and long story shorted ended up charging the whole meal and said he’d dispute it with amex and returned everyone’s money (so my dinner was free.) . It was pretty much a scam, who expects to pay $100 a bottle, in Costa Rica even more, for a bottle of the house red. The wine wasn’t even that good, but the white was fine, and only $15 per bottle.

We went to the “TuTu Bar” after dinner to calm down and chill and then I probably went to bed about 11pm or 12. It was pouring again by the time I went to bed. The funny thing about my room is that it’s a screened in wall that faces the ocean (high on a balcony thing) and the curtains cover the wall, so you can really hear the rain when it is coming down.

Day 3. 5-27-04 Thursday

I woke up REALLY early, it was sunny and the birds were making all sorts of chirping noises. After eating breakfast at the hotel (in front of the pool which overlooks the ocean) I met up with Gama who was running a bit late at the hotel. One of his friends drove us to the park and he told me I’d be the only one going on his hike today since it’s off-season. So for $40 I got a private guide for about 3 ½ hours. We saw waterfalls, Halloween crabs, 2 toed sloth’s, 3 toed sloth’s, deer, ape faced monkeys, all sorts of birds, leaf cutter ants, and all sorts of other stuff. He carried a large telescope with him, he would plop down and say “look” and I’d see some various thing, like a family of fruit bats nesting in a tree, or the face of a sloth.

Also fun was a dip in a big waterfall; much to the amusement of a Dutch couple I put my whole body under the forceful water. When I was done, not only was I dripping wet of course, but the water had majorly cleared out every sinus in my body, I was so congested it was amazing, and that lasted all day. It had like beat my neck senseless. I must do that again. After the hike I went to the beach for the afternoon, it started to rain again and I headed back to the hotel. Much to my amazement at the hotel a new couple was checking in, and they were from Wilmington! I had seen the guy in passing, we work in the same building, and I was pretty hilarious. He and his partner of some years had picked the same hotel I was staying at, and the same time, unknowingly as I had. It was pretty funny really, the staff couldn’t believe we worked in the same building but really didn’t know each other.

At this point they were hungry and I tagged with them to get sandwiches and a coffee drink called a “Quepochinno”. Very tasty along with a sandwich, after lunch I napped and they invited me to dinner later that evening. We ate at “La Colina” (I think that was the name”. I had Sea Bass with pesto, which was really not a good combination, but I had Ceviche for an appetizer, that was delicious. Ceviche is described here:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CevicheNotes.htm
But it is basically fish marinated in lime. I had it with chips like they have in the picture in that link. The owner after dinner came over to ask for what we thought, and I explained that pesto and fish shouldn’t be offered. He then proceeded to sit right down and flirt with me, but he spoke so slowly since he was totally drunk on wine. It was amusing really. We went back to the hotel briefly after and then met up at “TuTu’s Bar” again for some drinks. I think I was in bed by one, I know they left before.

Day 4.-Friday 5-28-04

So at this point i got up and I think I tracked down my work friends to go to the beach again. I remember spending the whole day at the beach and taking some pictures at the waterfall behind the beach. There were actually a few escorts sorta hanging around the beach soliciting business, but obviously had done poorly they just sorta switched from hustling to getting a tan. Who knows what the deal was there. After getting a lot of sun, i walked back and napped until around 7pm for dinner. We went to a restaruant that serves tapas for dinner called Cantina Salsipuedes and had lots of margaritas, it was very fun and i think i had 5 drinks and dinner and it was $20. After dinner we ended up going back to Tutu's for drinks, and introduced my friends to Gama, and they set up a tour with him

Day 5 Saturday 5-29-04

So I woke up to a fairly overcast sky and got some breakfast at the hotel, which is like $3 or something for them to whip up some eggs and sit overlooking the pool. I said good-bye to my friends who were leaving with Gama for their tour. I walked down to the beach, read for awhile (I was reading Into Thin Air). The tide was coming back in and the weather wasn't that great. I layed out on the beach alone, which was pretty cool. I came back to the hotel and layed out at the pool and paid $5 to have my laundry done. I flirted with a tall canadian that was staying at the hotel. Unfortanately i was leaving as he was arriving. I also ran into the guys from the airport to Quepos that were just arriving at the hotel. What was also funny was that the bus to take me back to the Sansa flight came and i wasn't ready! Normally I am always ready, but my clothes weren't dry yet, so he told me he'd go get the other people and come back for me. About 20 minutes later he came back and i sat on the shuttle and started talking to this massage therapist (straight actually, but gay friendly) from Wisconsin and we literally talked from leaving my hotel until we arrived back in San Jose, we actually split the cab which was nice. I arrived back in San Jose and met up with Ron for a late lunch (I think it was somewhere on Avenida central) and then I napped before we met the guy from Wisconsin who wanted to go clubbing with us. Ron had been in San Jose already for a few days and we were staying at Kekoldi HOtel again http://www.kekoldi.com Our first stop was La Pueblo or someting , which is a area with a lot of straight bars and restauarants. We went into one bar, had a drink to try to allow the two straight guys (ron's friend came with him ) to try to meet chicks. It was boooring. We cabbed over to the gay club sorta area, and we hit up bochinche for some drinks and snacky type food, which was pretty cool. I think we ordered like everything on the menu and the total was like $20 or something it was crazy. We also tried Guaro drinks, which is like their local alcohol. Not to bad. We then headed to LA Avispa for the rest of the night. La Avispa was PACKED with people it was their 25th anniversary party. It was funny because i lost track of the straight massage therapist, but i think i saw him leaving the club with a girl..lol . We cabbed back to the hotel around 3am I think.

Day 6. - Sunday 5-29-04

I don't think we did much on Sunday. I know we slept in, and i know we went to Spoon with David for lunch, but that's about it. Spoon is on Avenida Central and had lots of ice cream and sweets. I remember going on some sort of expedition to get shot glasses as well. We went out to L'avispa again (i had to ask Ron about this..he pointed out we went both nights!) .Crazy..we got back about 1am, because we were getting up at 7am for our tour the next day.