19 October, 2009| You Don’t Need Your Luggage to Have a Good Time

I arrived in San Jose on time with the sun beaming at 12:20 pm, and proceeded to customs where I met the passengers from the other four planes that also decided 12:20 was a good time to land. Fortunately the stampede of foreigners seemed to make the process easier, as the customs agents rushed us through as fast as possible. It went kind of like this:

Custom’s Agent: “Hola, welcome to Costa Rica, how long will you be staying?”

Exchange of documents…

Me: “About two weeks until crossing the border to Nicaragua. Then returning sometime in December and I fly out of San Jose the 17th.”

STAMP

Custom’s Agent: “Gracias”

Me: “Hey wait, don’t you need these [declarations and heath forms]”

Custom’s Agent: “No, Next (Ding)”

Okay then…so Pure Vida (Costa Rican Motto) means… Live Pure and… bring whatever you want into the country we don’t care!

Anyways, onto baggage claim where I find out it actually means bring whatever you want into the country… except you… your bags aren’t allowed; we’ll leave them in Atlanta!!!

To make matters even better “wink” the sun was chased away by a torrential downpour, and the shuttle that was supposed to be waiting to take me to my hotel was nowhere to be found. As I searched luggage-less for the shuttle I was hounded by many a friend taxi drivers who each promised me the cheapest rate (thinking back now, it seems that I probably could have gotten a taxi for free, I just needed to start an auction… “I need a taxi to Hotel Pangea, going to the lowest bidder!”... “Treinta…” “Veinte…” minutes later… “Sold to Victor for, yup, for free.”) I quickly realized the shuttle was a no go and got a good deal (not free, but good) from Victor who confidently proceeded to scare the shit out of me as we weaved in and out of speeding traffic through the pouring rain with the windows completely fogged over (defrost out of service?)

As we made over way about 10 miles to downtown San Jose, the sun began to shine rays of hope through the broken clouds above. “Were here,” Said Victor, as we pulled up to a steel orange door amidst tall cement walls and razor wire. I must have looked puzzled, for Victor quickly assured me this was the right place and I would have a great stay. I paid Victor and kindly thanked him for the ride and conversation. As I hesitantly approached the threatening facade, the door swung open, and I was kindly greeted and welcome inside. As I checked in, I heard a familiar voice call out my name. I turned to see Hayley smiling, and happily received a much needed hug. We spent the rest of the day exploring San Jose (where we found it is quite difficult to accomplish much of anything at a bank), picking up the necessities to get by until my luggage arrived, relaxing at the hostel, catching up, and reminiscing of old times.

Before bed, I took full advantage of the Hostel free WI-FI to quickly chat with friends and family, and read the comments and messages left for me (which by the way are awesome and you should write more).

Yes, I know my first day didn’t go as planned, but I found that you don’t need your luggage to have a good time.



have faith, be happy