driving is a risk.

San Jose last night 5.27 Fri.

Friday 5.27th written in San Jose, Costa Rica 3km from the airport. Tired and beaten up from travel. Where do I start the ending? Im flying home in the morning. Its been a lovely – very lovely adventure. Yesterday I didn’t get to write as the car did need a new battery. Imagine my ‘joy’ to discover after working on it all day wednesday and sitting sweating like a pig all afternoon guarding the charger to awake Thursday and hear the car barely even make a noise. (wed. it did nothing) so the Thursdays minor growl was an improvement but it didn’t instill me with confidence that the car was ready to drive cross country today. Thursday - At breakfast I met up with Larry (from NY) and April (from California) to discover they wanted to go into Cobano to cash travelers checks. (8km) perfect! I needed a new battery. April turned out to be a Godsend. She is from a family of mechanics and speaks Spanish fluently. We drove straight through to Cobano and found the battery store. The local distributor was there in his truck delivering at that moment and had my exact one, so all the stars were aligned. April jumped in and started the project while the local Costa Ricans 'helped' in small spurts. It took about an hour total. (cost: 20,000centavos - $42us)

Then after the new battery and April’s getting cash we drove over to the coast @ Malpais and Playa Santa Teresa for lunch. Delicious tuna steak. But the show stopper was when larry and april laid down in the tide pool deck. They wanted to get closer to the water. Larry was swept out to sea and covered by two separate waves before he was able to get back out. No permanent damage suffered. Very funny to see his head bobbing around, he laughing, then another wave crashing over him.

Today, Friday - I left about 10:30am from playa Montezuma for the ferry boat in Paquera– going to Puntarenas. Then drove to san jose. (at one point I got lost and stopped to get directions.) let’s call him renaldo since I never did get his name right. Renaldo was at a bus station just north of punteranes. Waiting for a bus to san jose. I gave him a ride and he directed me on where to go. He was traveling the 3 hours by bus to visit his wife in the hospital. I ‘understood’ him to say he was a new father. ("me papa") But, I ‘could’ have misunderstood. He was a talker and spoke only Spanish so our conversations were a little one sided. I managed to find the hospital and a hotel before it got too dark.

Now my eyes are closing on me while I type. Had a fun time. Ill write more later from home. I got lots of great photos and enjoyed everything. The coolest thing was definitely the volcano. I had several killer meals; lobster, marlin (3times), sea bass. No bad meals. The funniest thing was when larry was swept away into the ocean to drown. We laughed about that all day. Well, ive bent your ear enough. Im dying to sleep.

Xo skip

foods of Costa Rica