TCC Territory #10
January 19 – February 2, 2026
San José, Part 1. Jan 19-20, 2026
Got to Costa Rica on the 19th. Arranged ahead of time for a transfer to my AirBnB. One cannot take Uber from the airport as it operates in a legal/illegal gray zone, and the local taxi drivers won’t let Uber drivers anywhere near the arrival area. I don’t like getting taxis from the airport in foreign countries though as I hate negotiating for a price, and it is too easy to get scammed.
Lovely AirBnB, a room in someone’s beautiful home. Ate at a touristy restaurant which was a big mistake because the food cost twice as much as other places and the waiter hustled me for a tip even though it was already included in the bill. I knew when I walked in that it was a touristy restaurant, but I was really hungry and stopped at the first place I saw. Impatience costs money. Lesson learned.
Experienced a 4.3 earthquake with the epicenter within a kilometer! Everything shook. Not used to that. Had just enough time to realize what it was and get under a doorway, then it stopped. Freaked me out.
Went on a free walking tour and saw the outside of many sites, including the National Theater, National Museum, and Legislative Assembly. I will revisit on my return to San José later this month to explore further. My knee bothered me while walking. I guess my airport connection dash a few days ago tweaked something more than I’d realized..? My knee never hurt in San Salvador, though. Mysterious.
Walked about a mile to buy a bus ticket for heading south the next day. Tracopa bus station agents do not speak English, but I did well with my Spanish.
My knee gave out on the way back to my Airbnb. I was walking along and bam! Like someone from afar had a voodoo doll of me and used it. Considering some of the poor life choices I made back in the day, that is not an impossibility. Slowly made it to a farmacia with great difficulty and pain and bought a knee brace. The kind pharmacist threw in some Cinnadol, which is like Icy Hot mixed with hemp CBD. My AirBnB host gave me an Ace bandage. Between the Ace bandage, the knee brace, the Cinnadol, and Tylenol, I can walk, but not without difficulty.
From San José to Corcovado Nat’l Park
Jan 21-24, 2026
Jan 21: I take an Uber back to the bus station the next morning and thankfully have no conflict with the taxi drivers hovering around the terminal.
Leg room on the Tracopa bus is worse than economy on Avianca. I literally do not fit in my assigned seat. Thankfully the driver allows me to move to the back so I can stretch out my leg on an empty row. Fingers crossed I can do the same on my return ride.
My six hour bus ride takes seven, but I make it to Sierpe and slowly walk the three blocks to my little $20 hotel. No hot water, no ac, but a friendly owner and a strong and strategically positioned fan.
Jan 22: Hobble to the boat dock after first hobbling to a little store to buy some staples for my many-days stay at the secluded Poor Man’s Paradise. I found this place on AirBnB, where it is called “Cabin in Playa San Josecito.” This property is owned by the local Amaya de Osa family and is managed by Susana and Carlos, two exceptionally helpful people. I will write and show more about Poor Man’s Paradise below.
Susana has arranged my boat ride from Sierpe, and I board along with people who are going to touristy Drake Bay. After an hour-long ride on first the Rio Sierpe and then the Pacific Coast, we arrive at Playa Colorado where everyone but me disembarks in the shallow water (no dock, these are beach landings). The boat continues on afterwards for another twenty minutes and takes me south of Playa San Josecito to the border of Corcovado National Park. I disembark in shallow water, finally putting my ten-year-old water shoes to use.
Carlos meets me and helps me limp my way up many steep and rustic stairs to my beautiful cabin. I am staying in the jungle with the ocean visible from my balcony. There is a little restaurant down below where I can buy meals. After I settle in, Carlos comes by with two wooden sticks I can use to help me get around while my knee muscles heal.
I fall asleep before dusk to the sounds of nearby critters calling to one another. The overhead fan keeps me cool, and I wake up twelve hours later.
Jan 23: – getting down to the restaurant and back up again is all I think my knee should manage at the moment. I happily spend the day on my balcony listening to the loud sound of the ocean waves hitting the sand and watching for wildlife amongst the tree branches.
Jan 24: Corcovado National Park! The “most biologically intense place on Earth” according to National Geographic. It hosts hundreds of tree, mammal, bird, and reptile species.
My knee is much better but still somewhat weak, and I am glad I paid extra for a private guide. Would hate to be “that tourist” who slows down the rest of the group.
The water comes up to my knees when I board the boat, which is full of French tourists from Drake Bay. We ride very bumpy waves along the coast for an hour until we reach the park. Dramamine for the win.
Getting out of the boat is fun. Waist deep with waves threatening to knock everyone down. Glad my Ace bandage stays on.
There are a bunch of other boats landing with a ton of other tourists. We line up to have our backpacks searched (no single use plastic bottles, tobacco, pocketknives, or food). Then we each sign in and change out of our water shoes/sandals. Elizabeth, my guide, then leads me into the forest.
We spend four hours observing spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, sloths, peccaries, caimans, and various birds. Wonderful!! Then we make our way to a ranger/research housing area where we have a giant lunch. After that, it’s slowly back to the boat.
Getting on is difficult as the water is once again waist deep with big waves.
Boat ride back to my beach/jungle accommodations and I retire for the evening. I was able to walk everywhere with a slight limp and without much pain, but I am tired and am asleep by 6pm.
January 25-28, 2026. Rincón de San Josecito
Jan 25: Snorkeling day! A boat picks me up (another wet boarding/landing) and we ride an hour to Cano Island. Two rounds of snorkeling. I see a ton of surgeonfish, a couple of pufferfish, a stingray, and a big sea turtle that comes to the surface right in the middle of our group in order to take a breath. It looks at us for a while before plunging back down to the bottom. I wish I could take photos, but I do not have an underwater camera.
We take a half hour break on the island. Lots of tourists, and lots and lots of little hermit crabs. The crabs crawl quickly over the sand until they feel your footsteps getting close, then they stop and hide within their shells. Cute.
My knee did well in the water but I was once again exhausted upon the return to my abode. In bed before 6:30pm.
Jan 26: Woke up to no internet because “a monkey jumped on the cable and broke it.” That’s a new one. Have yet to see the white capuchins that frequent my area (and bust my internet).
I spend most of my day in the shade on a hammock by the ocean.
Beaches are not usually my thing. THIS beach though – this secluded, empty, gorgeous beach with deep blue waves and shaded hammocks underneath tropical trees – THIS beach is A-OK. I know the water is warm from my previous day’s wet landings. Will spend tomorrow swimming about. Knee is getting stronger.
Jan 27: I go to the empty beach and swim in the ocean for a while. I haven’t played in waves since I was a kid. Good times.
Jan 28: More beach lounging. I discover the yummy taste of Coco López, which is mixed into the nonalcoholic smoothie I procure at the bar.
Info on my lodging: Poor Man’s Paradise
https://www.poormansparadisecr.com
My specific cabin through AirBnB:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/54111833
This is a secluded area with no access to food or nightlife. Meals – a set menu centered around basic rice and beans with regular portions – can be purchased at the one restaurant, and alcohol, smoothies, and chips can be purchased at the bar (open at 4pm). If you want to be somewhere with shops, nightlife, and a variety of food options, this is not the place. If you want to get away from most of the tourists and have a massive stretch of pristine, sandy, clean, and swimmable beach which abuts Corcovado National Park almost all to yourself, then stay here.
San José Part 2
January 29-February 1, 2026
Jan 29: Made my way back to San José and once again lucked out with a spacious back seat to myself on the Tracopa bus. Walked over a mile to my city lodging. My knee is now at 90%.
Jan 30: Had a nature tour on U of Costa Rica’s campus and saw a few of the resident sloths. Most were curled up sleeping, but one stuck her head out to say hello. Next visited the National Museum and observed the numerous exhibits. Just included a few photos here.
Spoke to some locals and learned that though polite tourists are welcome and appreciated, expats are becoming a general problem. The expat influx resulted in a much higher cost of living for the locals and a deterioration of traditional culture. So said the folks I spoke with, anyway.
Around 5pm, I discovered the newly released and extensive Epstein files. Did a few specific searches and found what I had long suspected. Stayed up all night combing through hundreds of files and connecting dots. https://www.justice.gov/epstein
Jan 31: National holiday due to the election, and everything was closed. Spent most of the day doing more specific searches in the Epstein files and reading through over a thousand files. Found myself in a funk realizing that certain people and institutions will never truly be held accountable. No one cares about the victims of pedophiles and rapists, not when there is money to be made and comfort/security to be had. Predators lie, and people who don’t want to be bothered with uncomfortable facts happily become complicit and blame/disbelieve the victims. I have lost all my faith in certain people and institutions.
I will leave this funk in Costa Rica. All I can do is vote, donate appropriately, and live my life with as much integrity as I can, learning from my many mistakes and associating only with people who refuse to enable rapists.
Moving on now.
