Costa Rica Day 13: San Jose

Travel day! Today we woke up early to deal with transportation preparation. After that, we again prepared a similar breakfast in our villa. We enjoyed it on our porch with a final glimpse of the beach and appropriately listening to the soothing voices of “Today’s Male Singer-Songwriters” on Songza. We were then off to the ferry terminal en route to San Jose Airport. When we reached the Paquera Ferry Terminal, we realized we only had limited Colones left so we pooled all our resources to get a pop and 2 popsicles with some money left to use the bathroom. We then scavenged through our “food bag” consisting of nuts, bread, water and plantain chips and reminded ourselves that more cash is probably warranted when one travels in Costa Rica. It was then time to wait in the suffocatingly hot terminal to board the ferry while trying not to pass out. As we reminisce about our trip we mentioned that one thing we won’t miss about Costa Rica is the fragile septic system and the fact that we cannot throw toilet paper into the toilet. On the other hand, the moment we realized conversion rate of Colones to USD is roughly to take away 3 zeros and multiply by 2 was a pretty exciting one considering we need to convert money all the time. As we stepped inside the ferry, we all were pleasantly surprised by the blasting air conditioning. We then dozed, read, listened to music for the rest of the ferry ride. We disembarked into the town of Punteneras and it was shocking to be greeted by civilization after the last 13 days. There, we were driving along thin strip of land with water on both sides. we passed by a few fancy places we believed were resorts. the scenery was amazing especially after the rain and with mists lightly covering the green mountains. We felt like we were on the amazing race, wringing dry our wallets for colones and small USD change for the unexpected tolls along the way! The drive was smooth until we reached the airport and arrived at a x-shaped intersection which made no sense whatsoever. After a sigh of relief, we realized we were exhausted and starving. Because of this, Aside from the trip to fill up on gas, we stayed within a 100m radius of our hotel to return our car and to get some food. Also thanks to Sands and Romes for driving and navigating!