Travel Log: Days 0-3 (6/27-6/30), Costa Rica
I plan to keep a short log of the things that happen each day on our year long adventure. Travel logistics got in the way of that, so I’m covering three days at once here.
Day 0 (6/27)
I don’t count this day as part of our gap year. We were cleaning the house, selling the explorer, and managing the repair of our dishwasher and cleaning of our carpet. In the late afternoon everything was complete, at which point we said goodbye to the neighbors and rode our bikes to my mother-in-law’s house to stay the night.
Day 1 (6/28)
Woke up after a really good night’s sleep (9+ hours). It was the first night in a while where I went to bed without any pressing priorities on my mind. We flew to San Jose, Costa Rica this afternoon. The flight was good and I was pleasantly surprised to find that a five hour flight is not a big deal. That gives me hope later for the Guam and Japan legs.
After landing we went through immigration where they didn’t grill me like I had imagined. We only had to tell them when we were leaving, and where we were staying our first night.
I had previously arranged an airport shuttle, and we had no issue finding that and getting to our hotel (Barcelo San Jose). The hotel was really nice. BC was a mess; I think he was a little shell-shocked at the whole experience.
Water became my next immediate concern since I have to have something to worry about. I asked the front desk if we could drink the tap water and he politely said “sure” but I think he was rolling his eyes inside. I filtered the water anyway and it was fine.
We ordered room service and got two pizzas that only AC and I would eat for some reason. I had to demand that BC eat some french fries since he was spiraling from not eating pretty much all day. He became a little less sad after he ate. After that we went to bed.
My feelings during this day were positive, mainly because the travel logistics were working out as planned. I also spoke a few Spanish phrases to our shuttle driver and he knew what I said.
Day 2 (6/29)
We walked around the grounds of Barcelo which were really nice. They had a nice outdoor jungle area with a path. We went to the large pretty pool with lush vegetation all around. After that we caught our shuttle to La Fortuna.
The shuttle service itself (interbus) was really good. Our driver was pleasant and the van was really nice. The driver didn’t speak any english so I had to break out a few Spanish phrases. Most important was when we were on the winding mountain roads and we were all feeling sick, and BC said he had to stop or he would puke. At that point I was 1 for 2 on saying something he understood. I broke out a “nosotros necessitamos el bano”, and he totally knew what I said. In reality we didn’t need a bathroom, but needed to not be moving. We milked that stop for a good 15-20 minutes. In the second half of the drive I started feeling more sick and then the sickness turned to sleepiness. I had to stay awake though because BC fell asleep and I had his arm wedged behind me so he would stay put through the winding roads. If I fell asleep he would wake up, and that might be a puke fest.
We arrived out our airbnb and we were all relieved to be stationary. After putting our things away, we walked to the grocery store and got some essentials. We also got some non-essentials (bombay saphire), and I had to test out my Spanish there as well to ask how much for that. When she couldn’t find the bottle I said “blue” which was a fail, so I only give myself partial credit. The groceries were pretty high at $170, mainly because of one time purchases and alcohol.
After we got back to the house, I pulled a BC and started feeling sad. It was partly due to the difficult shuttle ride, hunger from not eating much all day, and being tired. Those factors along with being in a new more difficult environment was a lot at once.
Day 3 (6/30)
I slept pretty great and got an 88 on my fitbit. I would have scored into the 90s if it hadn’t been for a rooster that sounded like it was being violently raped at 3am. It was really strange almost like it was screaming instead of crowing. After having some coffee combined with that good sleep, my mood went from a 3 last night to a 9 this morning.
We walked around the local area a bit and found many restaurants that we’d like to try just in our little satellite suburb of La Fortuna. There were a few souvenir shops we visited. They were pretty much like any you would see in the US. We also walked almost all the way to La Fortuna but got distracted looking at what the big grocery store over there had to offer.
We are contending with an ant issue now. On day 2 it seemed like roaches would be the issue. JC figured out a fix for the roaches though by wedging a towel under the front door, which was the main point of entry for them. The little bitty ants though are on top of any little spec of food we don’t find. I don’t think the kids have the level of vigilance needed to keep the ants away, so it’s going to leave me and JC to constantly be on top of it.
We made another run to the small local grocery store and spent a much more reasonable $70 after getting the initial one time purchases out of the way in the last run.