Costa Rica Trip Day 7 – Drive San Jose, General Costa Rica Observations

January 1, 2016

We are picked up by a van at our hotel at 6:30am.  We start the drive on a gravel road which goes at agonizing 15mph until we hit pavement around 7am and then start making good time.  We weave through the mountains, heading southeast and arrive at the coast where my Dad and I get out to take a quick picture of the dark sand beach.  It was much warmer than the mountains and it almost seemed like a different country. 

From there it is an easy hour to the airport as all of the traffic is going the other direction to the beach for the holiday weekend.  On this beautiful drive I had some time to ponder some observations I had made throughout the trip: 

·       Many farmers cut up trees on their land and planted the branches as fence posts, connected with barbed wire.  You could see some of the older fences made with this method, and those tree branches had grown into trees over the years.

·       I was bitten by a very large ant, about the size of a quarter, or an awkward looking spider, after our hike to the waterfall on the second day.  The good news is that I killed whatever it was.  At the time there was a bit of poison and the wound stayed swollen a week later to a nickel size bump.

·       There are stray dogs everywhere that roam the towns freely.  They sometimes stay in packs but it many are also lonely and look sad – which made me feel bad to see this.

·       They have a very recycle-minded culture.  At most houses and hotels, they have multiple buckets to place plastic, paper, perishables etc. and every week they take these to a central recycling facility. 

So we arrive at 9am, 2 hours earlier than expected due to no traffic.  Please note when arrive at San Jose airport that many airlines do not open their ticket counters until 10:30am, so no point in getting there too early.  So I wait for my Dad’s flight to leave for Baltimore and say goodbye.  I then wait around another hour or so for my flight back to Miami.  I look out the window one last time at the 3 volcanoes staring back at me, smile and say until next time, Pura Vida Costa Rica!