It was a long day today. We got up at 5:30 and after a glass of orange juice we packed over to the bus station. The 6 a.m. bus left promptly at 5:55. Too bad if you were late. It was first gear for the next 15 minutes while we crept through the sleeping village picking up people as we went. Initially there were about 10 on the bus but by the time we reached David an hour later it was full. We bought our tickets to San Juan and left a half an hour later. By 9:30 we reached the border. More chaos. First it was over to get our passports stamped. We then got into another line to turn in our entry permit that we recieved 5 days earlier. Then it was into a room with our packs and a drug sniffing dog did his thing. Next we put our packs on a table for inspection. All this was just to get out of Panama. We then took our packs back to the bus which had disappeared. We found him about a block away and loaded our packs back on the bus, drove a hundred yards and started all over again on the Costa Rica side. This time we gave our passports to the driver who took them somewhere while we waited in a compound. When he returned the customs guy had our passports and called out names to come and pick them up and show him your bags at the same time. He didn't even open ours. Guess they trust Canucks. That's the last border crossing for us until we leave in three weeks yahoo!
The whole process took about an hour and a half which is better than some we've been through. The next stop was at the midway point at the summit of the mountains we'd been climbing. We had a half an hour to grab our first bite of the day so we bought some chicken, rice, and salad with a couple of cokes and some pineapple and watermelon. It was very good and was under $10. We saw some beautiful sites en route. Mostly fields being prepped for pineapple cultivation and in various stages of growth. We were on the opposite side of the bus so the view was different than on our trip down. We followed the Rio Grande for many miles.
Arriving in San Jose at 5 p.m. we were ready for a shower and a beer. First we walked to the bus stop (a different one) and bought our tickets to Liberia for tomorrow. It was about $4.00 each for the 4 1/2 hour ride. We had our room booked at the Classic Hotel B&B for the 4th time and ate some supper and had a beer. Then it was onto their computer to see if we'd rec'd an answer back to our email of last night attempting to book a room in Samara. It was there and we're good to go. It's a cabina a short way out of town and not far from the beach. This will be three weeks of basking and no travelling!
While eating our supper in the lobby of the B&B we overheard a guy from Seattle telling someone he was having all his dental work done here over the next week. The dentist speaks English and has some very modern computerized xray equipment. He was going in to get three caps done and ended up getting 10 done for $50 each! That sure beats the $1,000 each our crooks charge. So I'm going to check it out in Samara to see what I can get done. Hell for $50 he can use a chisel on me.
Our bus doesn't leave until 9 a.m. so we've got time to enjoy the complimentary breakfast that we missed on our last stay. We can even sleep in. It's been a long day with 11 hours on a bus so the shower and sleep are welcome. Hopefully we can find a wireless outlet in Samara. We know we can get money there as we hit the bank there a couple of months ago. Thats our day
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30159&l=b714d&id=680056043
Al & Jo
No comments:
Post a Comment