Hasta luego Costa Rica
Alajuela,
Costa Rica
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Boat trip from Jinetes went without hitch and we were back in Sierpe just after the 8:30 bus. Doh! Sat and waited for the next bus at 10 and lo and behold some guy turns up who is heading to Palmar Norte and wants petrol money - what luck! Only 2000 Colones ($4) this time, so even better. We booked tickets for the Palmar Norte - San Jose bus when we were in Palmar Norte last week, but at 1pm. We were in Palmar by 10, but there were no seats left on that bus, so we had to wait anyway. Shame, but still - at least we had tickets for our bus!
Trip took absolutely ages - 6 hours, including almost an hour in two passport checks. Bunch of police standing by the side of the road waved us down twice. First time went quickly but for some reason they checked extra carefully the second time so it took 45 minutes or so.
Dead tired by the time we arrived in San Jose and just wanted to get to our prebooked hostel (Arilapa Bed & Breakfast) in Alajuela (nearby city, right next to the airport). Security guy at the bus station yelled for a taxi driver for us, and we explained where we wanted to go. He didn't know it and tried calling the two numbers that we had, but neither of them worked. We decided to go to Alajuela anyway and ask someone there. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the address for the place is in a small town 5km up the mountains past Alajuela and no one there has ever heard of it. An hour later and dead tired we got the guy to just give up and take us back down to Alajuela and find someone there. He called a hostel there (Hostal Internacional) and they had a room available for only $35 (cheap for Alajuela) so we crashed there for the night. Up early this morning and off to the airport.
Part one over, stand by for part two...
