Costa Rica

I have arrived in Costa Rica to begin my adventures in Central America. I will be traveling, exploring & doing some volunteer work for the next 2 & 1/2 months, returning to the US in time to spend Christmas with my family. I have not made a lot of reservations for this trip and do not plan to join any big group tours. I am being more spontaneous about where I stay & for how long as I am reading a lot as I go & talking to other travelers, but I have a good idea of where I want to go & what I want to see.
I arrived in San Jose in the afternoon on Tuesday, October 5. I was immediately pleased to feel the warm, humid tropical air. I have been most excited for this part of my travels. Central America is a long, thin strip of land with the Pacific on one side & the Caribbean on the other, with rain forests full of wildlife in between as, well as a smattering of volcanoes, cloud forests, lakes, rivers for white water rafting, lots of ancient ruins, islands off the coast with great diving...so much adventure!
I have been to Costa Rica before, but there is so much to do, so I want to see some of the areas I missed on the first trip. I wanted to get out of the city ASAP, so I stayed the first night near the airport in San Jose & took a 6:00 am flight the next day to Tortuguero. I was surprised to walk out of the airport & see the small plane & only 2 other passengers. The pilot walked us out, opened the door & told us to hop in. He started up the plane, took a couple minutes to check his gauges as we watched, then he turned around to say it would be a 20 min flight & a bit cloudy, & we took off. An exciting way to begin the trip!
Upon arrival there was a boat taxi to take us to the town, then a young guy met me to walk me to the hotel I had reserved online. Tortuguero is a very small town, a few sand streets, no motorized vehicles at all. What a great place to relax for a few days.