Back in San Jose

7-12-11

                Today was our last full day in CR. We woke up early to pack up our things to go back to San Jose, and have a traditional breakfast (gallo pinto, eggs, queso palimito, and tortillas). After breakfast we went into La Forutuna one last time to get lunch for the road and some souvenirs. We returned to the hotel to check out and pack up the car. Rosita (our GPS) was not exactly accommodating on the way out of town, so we got a bit turned around in trying to find a Bank (to pay our exit tax) and a gas station. Banks in CR are very secure. You get wandered by a security guard on your way in and everything is compartmentalized so that you can’t see past the tellers. It’s actually set up kind of like the DMV where you take a ticket and wait for your number to be called. We were able to pay the tax and did not have to wait that long (much easier than at the airport!).  On the way out I attempted to ask the guard where a gas sation was, but I didn’t know the word for gas station, I said Estacion de Petroleo but he didn’t understand. Luckily there was a man who spoke English waiting his turn and he helped us out. By the way the word is Gasolinera.. We successfully found the gas station and were on our way to San Jose by 11:30. It is a three hour drive through beautiful countryside (by Monteverde) to get the city. The roads were windy, but I made it through all right, Devon got a bit nauseous from reading in the car though.  The ride back was on small roads and mostly uneventful, we crossed at least a dozen one way bridges though, and there was a bit of road construction, but overall it was an easy trip. We got into San Jose at 2:30 but didn’t get to our hotel till 3 since we missed the highway exit and the GPS punished us for not complying with her instructions by taking us through the city center. It was raining (almost all day) and Devon, mom, and I waited in the car while dad checked us in. While we were sitting there one of the hotel attendants came out with fresh fruit drinks, this is something that hotels in the US need to start doing, it is soooo good! Once we were settled in we took a taxi into downtown to go back to the artisanal market, the National Cathedral and the flower market (to buy flowers for Mama Tica). Mama Tica had invited us over for dinner so we took a taxi to my house from San Jose. I was really excited to be able to see them one more time before I left, and to eat more of her home cooking! She prepared chicken, patacones, platanos, rice, vegetables, and jello. Everything was delicious as usual. After dinner we talked about how our weeks had gone and watched the finally of America’s Got Talent… It was a nice quiet regular evening and I loved it. It seemed as if we had to leave too soon though, and I didn’t want to leave, but we had a lot of packing and prep to do for our return trip the next day.