[seiji]

I just got back from two weeks in Puerto Viejo. It's a nice area. All the establishments speak English and a few are fully owned by Americans. Half the time it didn't even feel like living in a foreign country. Though, if you walk on the street a few hours after sunset you will get held up at gunpoint. Don't take your phone or more than 5,000 with you in the evenings.

Beds are $8 to $10 per night in a hostel (La Ruka was great. Don't stay at rocking j's or hotel puerto viejo.) I had a reliable 2 Mbps-down wireless signal at La Ruka.

It was a great trip, but I'm enjoying being back in the land of air conditioning and large grocery stores.

[dlf]

Huh. Never had any trouble there and I stayed out every night. Maybe I just looked like a enough of a sloppy backpacker, although I don't think I was traveling with valuables and it's hard to store a laptop in board shorts and a v-neck. I'm pretty big too, so even having lived in rough areas and wandering around in the "bad" parts of cities/the world, I've never had any trouble.