Traveling to Costa Rica to help Bill plan his trip to Florida

One thing I have learned to splurge on is arrival transportation as I feel we’ve had enough wandering around in airports, looking for $5 EasyBus rides that only operate from remote terminals and feel that no-signage-whatsoever is a solid business practice.  So for Costa Rica, I chose Morpho Vans to pick us up and take us to La Fortuna.

Our routing was this:  Get up at 2:00 in Seattle so we could leave for the airport at 2:45 (which is a really really fine time to drive north on I-5, if you must commute to Seattle) and board our 5am flight to L.A.  Alaska Airlines felt comfortable giving us a 35 minute layover/connection between flights at LAX, which terrified me, but worked out fine.  Then 5.5 hours to Costa Rica, 30 minutes in an immigration line, and BAM, we were done a mere 12 hours after we pulled away from my house!

We were so happy to meet our driver, Bill, who had his lovely new 16 passenger van waiting just for the two of us.  He was a moderately concerning driver but perhaps I will reassess after we’ve met some of the other Morpho Van drivers. Except for when we were stuck in rush hour gridlock outside of San Jose, his MO was to drive as fast as possible up to the bumper of the next car, veer into the oncoming lane to pass, give a slight “thank you” honk and move on to the next car.  From a coping point of view, I was glad it was dark out and I saw no reason to put on my glasses to increase my ability to assess the situation.

Bill stopped for dinner halfway through our THREE hour drive and I ate some pasta in marinara sauce before getting back in the van only to have Bill tell us that we were about to undertake the really terrible curvy part of the drive and he was sorry about the roads and it seemed that a man who has just purchased a new van would take his charges to dinner after the perilous portion of the drive and not before or at least have us eat something that will match the interior of the van, should it make a second appearance. (An aside here to tell you that my first dinner was supposed to be pasta with marinara sauce and arrived, instead and incomprehensibly, as pasta in a cream sauce with corn in it…what the heck is that?  Corn and cream sauce pasta???)

At any rate, back in the van with our stomachs full of pasta and Pepsi, Bill took charge of the conversation and, despite our efforts to discuss Costa Rican life, veered us continuously back to the subject of the trip he wants to take to Miami and Orlando. He’s working on getting a visa for a one week trip and he has endless questions about the road condition between Miami and Orlando and what kind of car he should rent.  Also, which insurance he should get with the car rental, can he rent a stick shift, should he bring his young son on the trip and should he travel in October or January.

All of this was really getting in the way of our gleaning information about Costa Rica and, if his Florida travel plans were not enough, he is also an enterprising young man and he is working on a business plan to open his own tourist business and he demanded that we provide ideas for names for his website and he would NOT be deterred until we provided one and discussed it at length.  I came up with one that was a true work of genius (sorry I cannot share it in case you find yourself in a van with Bill and he wants you to help name his business) and Ron, bereft of ideas, endorsed mine. I can tell you that Bill was so pleased with mine that he demanded my Shuman Law Office business card should he need any assistance from me while he’s in Florida.  And while I explained what type of law I practice, he was not concerned that I live 3000 miles from Orlando and would likely be of little assistance should he find himself in a car rental legal debacle in Orlando.

We woke up this morning and looked outside and I took the pictures you see above.  We’re at the Arenal Country Inn, a budget property right outside the town of La Fortuna.  There’s nothing like a budget property to make me wish I was not staying at a budget property! But we’re cozy here.  We’ve got a little room, a few hundred ants staying with us in the bathroom and only a few that ventured onto my bed last night.  Ron claims not to have seen any at all.  But Ron is not a man for fine details.  Just yesterday, as we waited in the 30 minute immigration line, I quizzed Ron about what locations/cities within Costa Rica we are seeing and, other than confirming that we are, indeed, in Costa Rica, he could not offer up any information whatsoever.

Today we are doing a tour of the Don Oliver family farm where the Grandpa of the family comes to pick us up in an old red truck and then they tour us around their business – I believe they grow chocolate and pineapple. Tomorrow, we are being picked up by (a different??!!) driver from Morpho Vans and we are being taken to Proyecto Asis, a wildlife rescue organization about an hour from here, where we are doing some sort of “keeper” day, involving preparing food and meeting animals.

Talk to you soon.