Getting to Costa Rica – The Adventure Begins
Hello and welcome to my blog. I am already two and a half months into my travels, and am finally able to write to you. So here it goes…
After leaving my job on January 1st of 2016, we had just a few short days to finish packing and gathering all the equipment that we needed for our trip to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Those days went by quickly and the next thing I knew we were leaving Mexico and soon after Belize and Guatemala. Before traveling, six weeks seemed like a long time. However, it was soon very clear to me that it wasn’t near enough time to see and do everything we wanted, nonetheless write about what we were experiencing.
Today I find myself four days into my eight week trip to Costa Rica and finally feel relaxed and refreshed enough to sit down
and write by the river with a cool breeze and the sun soaking into my skin. I am going to pick up the story where I am now and fill in the pieces of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala as I go.
Thus far, this trip has started off on an interesting foot. It all goes back to when we first purchased our flight. In
Belize, we were rushed to buy our tickets to Costa Rica, as we had seen the prices slowly rising. Casey and I are traveling on $30 US dollars a day each, with more on airport days. This is not inclusive of the tickets, so getting them at the best price is extremely important in extending our travel time. After scouring the internet we finally found tickets on Spirit that started at somewhere around $300 US dollars less than the other airlines. However, after seat and bag fees, the tickets
ended up being just about $100 US dollars less. While that isn’t a huge gap, when you are budget traveling, all money savings are a big deal. It is important to always try to take the cheapest route.
Why am I telling you about this? It is because I recently learned something that is very important: Spirit airlines is the worst. On the day of our flight we started our trip at nine in the morning for our three o’clock flight. We arrived at the airport with about an hour and a half to kill, and since a good IPA was one of the things that I missed most on our first trip, we decided to go have a beer. Yes, it was spendy! This is why we plan for more like $100 US dollars on airport day.
As we finished our first beer we got an email from Spirit: our flight was delayed. Now if this had only happened once, I could understand. However, over the next two hours our flight was delayed five more time and we would not be making our connection. They only had one option: move to the midnight flight to Fort Lauderdale with a five our delay and then make the trek to Costa Rica. While we waited we took a free airport shuttle to a nearby hotel, walked to subway for dinner to kill time and eat a less costly dinner, and then watched a movie on our computer in the lobby until it was time to head back.
When we got there we confirmed that the bag we had previously checked would be on the plane with
us. “Of course it will be” is what they said. Flash forward to five in the morning and we landed in Florida. We bought some coffee for our five
hour layover and went outside to at least enjoy the fresh air. On our way back into the airport to check in, we asked once again, “Is our luggage going to be on the plane and in Costa Rica when we land?” You can guess the response.
Sure enough, we landed,went through immigration, and our bag was not there. To no surprise, Spirit did not have someone to help us at the missing luggage counter. We finally spoke to a human and filled out the information. After a few days of not receiving a call, and staying put so we could make sure we got it, we tried to call Spirit. Let me just tell you now that doing this is a waste of your time. I called their number and all they have are completely automated responses that get nothing resolved for you. I called the San Jose airport and someone from Spirits reservation team gave me numbers for Spirits Fort Lauderdale and San Jose baggage team. Both of which no longer exist. So we waited. Finally we received our stuff another day later, so all is well, but I am not sure if the $100 in savings was worth it.
Regardless of all those shenanigans ( and sorry to vent :) ), we did in fact eventually make it to Costa Rica.
The bus station outside of the airport is easily navigable, and there is someone there screaming out destinations to let everyone know which bus goes where. I recommend taking the bus instead of a taxi to save up to $15 dollars on the ride. If I recall correctly the bus ticket was around three to four US dollars and taxis were quoted anywhere from $20-$30. While the bus is not a luxury ride and is tightly spaced (especially if you have all of your gear), it is a short 30 minute ride and participating with the locals is an easy way to start getting to know the people around you.
We were dropped off at a bus terminal in the middle of downtown, and the city was bustling. The streets were alive with people from all stories of life. It is easy to notice that Costa Rica is a more affluent country than others surrounding it when the city. While there was still a very Latin American (dirty and busy city feel), it is easy to see that the clothes, building construction, technology and vibe of the city was very modern..
Once we got off the bus, we headed to a restaurant to have the famous casados that I heard I would be eating a lot of. Casado translates to “married” or “married person/man” in English. This dish is named after the traditional meal that is served to a man once he is married. It most often consists of rice, beans, some type of salad, a choice of meat and generally another dish that varies depending on the day and the place.
At the restaurant, we ordered the vegetarian casado. It was the cheapest one on the menu and being that we exchanged only a small amount of money at the airport (due to the bad exchange rate), we needed cheap. Our Casado consisted of rice, beans, fried plantains, fried potatoes, a cabbage style salad and a fried egg. It was an interesting mix, but a lot of food for four US dollars. We left happy – and very satisfied.
Since we were now officially out of colones, we asked around and were quickly pointed to the nearest money exchange. Note: if you want to get a good exchange, pay attention to what different stores are giving. We found a place that was exchanging 529 colones for one US dollar. Much higher than the 400 something the airport was giving. Once we had money, we started the search for a place to stay. We had a specific hostel in mind, but after about 45 minutes walking around to no avail, we settled for a nearby hostel called Pangea. This place was a few blocks off main street and relatively easy to find. If you are wandering around the city, just be aware of where you are and how far from main street you have gone. After a long time walking we asked an expat for directions and he warned us, “don’t go walking around too far from here, things start to get wonky”.
Pangea seemed nice enough, though the cost was a little higher than what we wanted. And we noticed that the US dollar rate was lower than what they were requesting in Colones. Interesting, right? You actually save money if you use the US dollar. At this place you will get a private room, no AC or fan, and shared bathrooms for $35 US. While that isn’t bad, it is a little steeper than what we were hoping to find. The hostel had many rooms, was very clean, had a pool and the construction was interesting and different. It felt a little stiff or corporate to me, as I generally prefer smaller hostels that feel a little more intimate.
Regardless, after 34 some hours of travel, we were exhausted. So as soon as we paid, we threw our bags on the bed, had one last beer by the pool, and were in bed by nine.
It was a very full adventure getting to Costa Rica, but definitely worth the effort, and lack of sleep and time. All of the ups and downs, like the ones we experienced, are just a part of the journey. If you don’t learn to love
them, they will ruin your travels and you will miss out on the surprises they can bring you. For example, in Guatemala we ended up in a small village because it was raining, our bags were on top of the bus and of course we didn’t have rain fly for either of them. This turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I had in Guatemala, despite the fact that it led to getting food poisoning. More on that later, but you get the point.
Cheers to finally being in this gorgeous country and to loving every bit of it!
