Wednesday, April 6, 2016
¡Hola!
Welcome to my first Costa Rica Blog. Our flight didn't get in until after midnight, so unless you can't bear to miss a single thing you might want to skip ahead to day 2. You have been warned ...
I am one of those people who like to get to the airport hours in advance. When I don't, I worry, so we always try to leave early. This time though, we are inadvertently pushing things a little, not leaving home until 2,5 hours before our flight. Luckily, the airport is just 20 minutes away!
But did I mention that it is tax season and I still need to mail my taxes? Oops. Also, we need to buy a new SIM card and then download a map of Costa Rica so we can use it later without having to access data. No big deal! Let's get stuck in traffic too while we're at it.
We arrive at the airport parking lot, just in time to watch the shuttle bus drive off without us. By now I am starting to scare my fellow travelers with my nervous energy. After a while, another shuttle crawls across the lot towards us and it's a student driver. But that's okay, because she's an excellent driver, making sure to stay at least 20 mph under the speed limit at all times, and stopping for prolonged periods of time at every stop sign and anything even remotely resembling one. By the time we arrive at the terminal I'm about to have an apoplectic fit, but at least we have made it!
We even have time for a quick bite at Kraze Burger. Not bad for airport food, especially the yummy fries.
Always a relief to see your plane waiting for you at the gate! And yes, we are flying Spirit again. If you know how to play their game you can get a fabulous deal!
So I mentioned that the plane was already there, but we apparently don't have a flight crew. Boarding time comes and goes. I can feel my anxiety creeping back up. Please, don't let us miss our connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale ...
But thanks to some speedy flying we arrive in Florida only 15 minutes late. I could do with something else to eat, but it's late and the only thing still open sells questionable pre-made sandwiches and coffee. Snacks it is.
Loved this art panel near our gate!
Our second flight leaves right on time and I drift in and out of sleep as we make our way across the Caribbean Sea to Juan Santamariá international airport, near San José.
Immigration is quick and painless.
"How long will you stay in Costa Rica?"
"7 Days, sir."
And that's how I ended up with a visa valid for 90 days.
Even though many places in Costa Rica accept USD, we also need some CRC, Costa Rica Colones. I'd read that sometimes the ATMs at the airport run out of money by the end of the day and by now it's after midnight, but we are in luck. It takes a few tries, trying different cards multiple times, but we hit it big when it finally spits out 6-figures worth of colones. Okay, okay, that's only worth $300, but still ...
Our luggage appears right as we walk over to the conveyor belt. Yay! Thankfully customs is a breeze too, because by now we are exhausted. We set outside and immediately we're besieged by a throng of taxi drivers clamoring for our business. My tired brain struggles to process what they are saying, but it's mostly Spanish and even awake I'm mediocre at best. "Hotel Novo," I manage to squeeze in. A moment of silence falls over the crowd as they all look at us in confusion, then they erupt in rapid-fire Spanish. ¿Qué? ¿Dónde está? ¿Cómo se llama?
They start throwing out names of other hotels in the area and asking questions I don't understand. Fortunately, I came prepared and I show them a print-out of the address. The handsome young driver with the friendly eyes who first approached us smiles and nods in understanding.
He beckons us to follow him and we start walking down the road away from all of the official taxi's lined up in front of the airport. All of the warnings about never getting into an unofficial taxi come rushing back to me. Yes, his uniform looks legit, but where is he taking us? Why isn't he parked in front of the airport? Should we go back now and pick someone else?
I am still trying to figure this out when we arrive at what's clearly an official taxi, except it's a minivan big enough to seat twelve! I guess at this hour of night, he'll take what he can get.
It's about a 15 minute ride from the airport in Alajuela to our hotel in downtown San José. It's dark and there isn't much to see, but the time passes quickly as I put my pitiful Spanish to good use chatting with our driver. He tells us the same drive would take 2 hours in morning traffic. Yikes!
We circle the block, but there's no sign of the hotel and he rolls down the window to ask a sketchy looking guy for directions. Everything I'd read said to avoid San José at night and I would say that's pretty solid advice.
Turns out the hotel is just around the block in a nondescript building with only a tiny sign revealing that it is, in fact, a hotel. Our driver gets out and tells us to wait in the car, while he goes to check things out, then quickly shuttles us inside with our bags. We hand him a 20,000 bill for the 15,000 fare because at this point even basic math is beyond us.
The clerk checks us into our room and asks us to fill out a form, even though we booked online and they should already have all of our info. And guess what? It's in Spanish and the clerk speaks no English. We've only been here for about an hour and I am starting to feel really grateful that I spent so much time playing with Duolingo on my phone. If you've never heard of it and would like to learn another language check it out ... it's fun, it's free and you can pick from several languages.
Our room is small, but clean and quiet. By the time we're ready for bed, it is already 1:30am. Yikes, we have to get up in 4,5 hours!
❤
Lunch: Kraze Burger
Dinner: snacks
Hotel: Hotel Novo
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