San Jose, Costa Rica

Tuesday, 11/30/10-Wednesday, 12/1/10. I spent the night in a lovely, updated hotel in Panama City on Tuesday. My landlord/driver into the city got stopped at a checkpoint and they took him to the police station for an unpaid ticket. His brother came to pick me up and delivered me to the hotel. Once settled in, I caught a private hotel taxi and he drove me to the English book store. On the way back, I asked him if he wanted to pick me up at 6:00 am on Wednesday and take me to the airport. He said he would. Later on my landlord/driver/criminal showed up at the hotel. He just said he had to pay the fine and they let him go. He told me the hotel I was staying in used to be a whorehouse. Interesting!

It was a wonderful flight into San Jose, CR. This was the ticket I was ticked off about having to buy in order to fly into Panama. They sold me a reasonable business class ticket and with that I was able to go into the Presidents Club for a free breakfast before the flight. Then they fed me again on the plane, a nice chicken salad.

I arrived at the airport in San Jose, gathered my luggage and headed to the Hertz counter to retrieve my rental car. The car that I thought I had booked for $15 now came to $50 with all the taxes and etc.; then they wanted a $1200 security deposit put on my credit card. I said no and they called me a taxi. The taxi driver took me to my hotel and I asked him to come back and pick me up tomorrow to take me to the airport. I have had pretty good luck with taxi drivers.

I got to Hotel Luisiana about 11:00 am and when I checked in, I was told there would be a $200 room deposit. I have never heard of such a thing. Then it started raining really hard. I was told there was a tropical depression. So I went up to my room, got settled in, and took a nap. Hey, I was up at 5:00 am! Just lazing around reading and listening to the wind and rain. I guess I wouldn’t want to drive around in this weather anyway.

From what I have seen of Costa Rica, I am not impressed and glad I’m not staying. Everything is so expensive. Dinner at the restaurant in the hotel was outrageously high and this place isn’t even in a good neighborhood. No other eateries around so I was stuck paying the price. I shouldn’t complain, I got a free breakfast and a free lunch.

Excited about Belize tomorrow!