We Are In Costa Rica

We finally left Santa Ana around 2:00 p.m. Wednesday. I had hoped to leave a bit earlier, but it is what it is. Crossing the border into Nicaragua was easy. Easy as long as we paid someone to help us. That was ok, it did not cost much and when we saw the line of truck, it was well worth it to not wait in that line.

By the time we got into Nicaragua, it was dark. I just love to see where we are, especially when it is somewhere I have never been. We got to Leon with a problem and stopped at On The Run for a sandwich. We continued to follow the signs to Managua. There was traffic and mileage signs and Holiday Inn signs. And all of a sudden, it was all gone and the "highway" went to pot, literally. Marc said "I think we missed a turn somewhere." I commented that I wished it was daylight so we could see all of this. Marc said you only get to do this road at night, because you don't miss the sign in the day.

We found a nice, clean, inexpensive place to stay that included breakfast. But we left way before breakfast was served. We were just a little excited to get to San Jose. Again, we went to On the Run and ate some breakfast. Marc bought a paper and the headlines were declaring Nicaragua is declaring war against Costa Rica. Lovely.

We kept stopping at gas stations to ask where the road to Costa Rica was. Everyone kept sending us north to go south. They were right and we discovered the road we had come in on, was the road we should have been on. I still find it amazing that major highways are that bad. We enjoyed driving along, visiting and singing. Some things in Nicaragua are vastly different and some are the same.

We had a flat just as we got to the Costa Rican border. We definitely could not have negotiated the system without paying one of the "bringers." We had made sure all of our paperwork was in order before we left Honduras. And it was in order. It was easier for us to enter Costa Rica than our car. We could not have ever negotiated all that. By the time Marc changed a flat, we spent that much time at immigration and customs and then we ate lunch (at some place other than On The Run), we had spent three hours at the border. Not exactly what we had planned.

We saw wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and lot more americanized than Honduras.

As Tindall's law would have it, we arrived in San Jose at 4:50, just in time for evening rush hour. We had directions from the Costa Rican border to Nicole's house. All was well, as long as we were on the highway. Once we exited the highway, we quickly discovered the direction were useless, as, just as in Tegucigalpa, there are no street signs.

We stopped at McDonald's and Marc called Nicole. Nicole said I will get on the computer and try to find better directions. Marc said no you want, you will get in a cab and come here and then we will get to your house. You think Marc was just a bit tired. I never thought I would see the day when Marc would not be bound and determined to find something by himself.

Matt and Nicole and Sweet Haley finally arrived at McDonald's. It even took the cab driver a while to find where we were. I went running to the cab. Nicole and Haley jumped out and I was hugging on them while Matt payed the taxi driver. The drive drove off with Nicole's keys laying on the back seat. Fortunately, Matt had his keys and the only thing that can't be replaced is the key to my storage unit in Mississippi and we can break that lock.

Matt and Nicole are pedestrians . They do not have a car. They know their neighborhood well, but not much else. They did not have a clue how to get back. We saw a whole lot of San Jose last night. And it looks pretty much like any big city in the U.S. When we finally found their neighborhood, we had a great big pizza and then came home. It was close to 8:30 and we were glad to be here. Thank you God for giving us a safe trip and as always, making it an adventure for us.

Terri