Back to Costa Rica - making our way home
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
75
141
Trip End
Ongoing
San Jose,
Costa Rica
Monday, May 21, 2007
At the bus station we hopped on board, paid the man and headed towards the boarder. At the border we had to take our bags with us to the checkpoint and have them searched. This is the first time someone has actually looked in our bags. It was a very brief check but hey they checked. They were actually more fascinated with our flippers strapped to the outside of the bag. After the bag check we paid the local border town tax, in our opinion a total scam, and started to walk with the others to the Costa Rican immigration. We were not sure where to go because the bus just pulled away and left everyone there so we just started walking in the same direction as the bus.
We found the line and got our stamp. We are now in Costa Rica...time for another bag check. Wow, this is the most thorough border we have been through. The bus driver takes all your passports into an office while we all file into a large fenced in cage with our bags. Then a customs official comes out with all the passports in his hand, calls out names and starts to look through bags. Once he is satisfied with his inspection you get your passport and you can get on the bus. Kay and I are the first two called and now we have to wait for the rest of the people to get back on the bus. The odd thing is there are way more people getting on the bus now than were on it when we got here. The bus continues to fill up and we realize that people have seat assignments. However, we do not. We do not even have tickets because we paid on the bus. A guy gets on the bus and shows me his ticket and says I am in his seat and I need to move. We try to explain to the attendant what happened but still have to move. At this point the bus is almost full and we may not have seats. The bus driver then gives us our money back! What the heck is going on! We figured out that he was going to pocket our fares and not tell the company. That is why he said we could pay on the bus and did not need to go to the ticket office.
Even this late in the trip we are still learning lessons. If there is a ticket office use it and get an assigned seat.
We get shifted around and finally get a seat but some people on the bus have to stand and it is a 7 hour ride to San Jose. The assistant, which just got on at the border, wants us to pay but we say we will at the office so we can explain to management that this driver is a crook. We finally get to a stop that has an office and they tell us they cannot do anything that they are just a reseller even though it says office right above the guys head. Liar! We should have know that complaining does no good and everyone is probably in on the little scam and gets a cut. We buy official tickets and sit back for the rest of the trip.
It was late and raining when we got to San Jose so we took a cab to Tranquilo Hostel and got a room for the night. They have a $15 shuttle to the airport so we are going to spend the day here instead of going to Alehula which is closer to the airport but has nothing to do.
The hostel provides coffee and make your own pancake ingredients in the morning so we had a good breakfast. Kay made a pancake as big as a dinner plate and it took the two of us to finish it.
We decide to follow the lonely planets walking tour of San Jose map and see where it lead us. The tour is pretty lame and not really worth the effort. For lunch we went back to the Colombian place we ate at a couple of weeks ago because it was so good. This is where we learned another lesson, do not try and recreate a good experience. This time around the food was good but not great and we were overcharged for the meal. We ended up at a souvenir warehouse trying to pickup some last minute gifts before we went home. We spent way too much time in this place listening to everyone say "good price for you", "special only for you", "low price only today", etc etc. We were so spent that we needed an ice cream after this to rejuvenate ourselves.
At the hostel we packed, or stuffed, our bags and got ready to go home. At this moment I feel both excited and sad at the same time. However this is just an intermission before our second act!
The next morning, 4:30 am, we are up and waiting for our cab to the airport. In the meantime I had to return our key and get the deposit back. Unfortunately he gave me the deposit back in Colones and not dollars and when he did this he gave us a bad exchange. We asked for dollars but he said he did not have any and that was the rate of exchange they offered. Thanks for nothing. We get in the can and arrive at the airport in about 25 minutes. We pay the cab with a mixture of Colones and dollars and he took tries to screw us on the exchange and says we owe him more money. We argue back an forth for a while until he gives up and leaves.
We finally enter the airport and get in the long line at check in only to find out 10 minutes late we have to get in a different line to pay the $26 per person exit tax. This $52 bucks feels like one last kick in the crotch from Costa Rica. The petty and not so petty crime in this country will drive you nuts. For all the traveling we have done over the past 5 months and 8 countries this is the only place we have been robbed! We pay the fee and get back in line and find out our plane is 1.5 hours delayed in leaving due to bad weather from the night before. The crew got in late and has to wait 8 hours before they can fly again.
In line we met a nice lady and her son from Las Vegas, Jackie and Nica. We chatted with them the entire time in line. Her mother has lived in Costa Rica for 3 years and she has been coming down on a regular basis during that time period. She told as that the crime has been getting worse and worse every year and that last time leaving the airport she caught a security guard trying to take $20 bucks out of her purse while checking it. Unbelievable. We ended up hanging out with Jackie and Nica until we boarded. She let us act like we were with her so we could go to the front of security because she is traveling with a small child and she let us use her phone card to call home and let our family know our flight would be late.
Nica is 5 years old and a very smart little boy. He and I sat around talking about superhero movies for an hour while waiting to board the plane. I was suprised to hear him say that he had seen all the spiderman movies, the batman movies, fantastic four, X-men, and the new superman. He knew more about these movies than I did and I am a movie buff. It was pretty cool. He even wanted me to come over to his house to play video games. If we lived close to him I probably would.
We finally boarded the plane and said goodbye to Costa Rica forever! Our next stop in Houston TX USA and then Washington DC to stay at Casa Volz B&B.
