Current gas prices.
Border fumigation.
Welcome to Costa Rica.
Lawn tanning.
2nd Hotel.
Me and Jess at dinner.
View from the lawn.
Last week, I attempted to cross the border into Costa Rica with Jessica. She had a car that needed to be taken out of Panama per visa requirements, and we also needed to renew our personal visas. We planned on going to Dominical to have a nice quiet little vacation. After passing the Panama border with ease thanks to Jess and her expertise from living here so long, we drove through the fumigation tent which isn't the coolest experience in an open-air jeep. When we got to the Costa Rican border, our hearts sank when they told us we could not enter the country with the vehicle because the visa renewal date wasn't for a few more days. It is beyond me why the border was refusing to renew the visa...there is no logic to it and it seems like border guards intentionally make things hard on foreigners. So, since we had passed the Panama border already and would have to wait 3 days to re-enter, we had two options: 1) Haul the contents of the jeep onto two different buses for 6 hours, or 2) Hole up for a few days in no-man's land. We opted for the much more cost/stress-free option number 2. We found a motel (no-tell for sure) for $12, ate, and watched TV. We woke at 3:30am to chickens, and again at 6am to a diesel truck idling for an hour and blowing exhaust under our door. That didn't sit well, so we switched hotels.
We spent the next day sunning ourselves on the Hotel lawn, eating, and walking around laughing at various hazards in the street. I have a great pic of a car driving right over an uncovered man-hole in the middle of the street. There were so many uncovered holes, some large and deep enough to lose a person in (haha, not that anyone would know if someone fell in). I think it is so hilarious how many hazards are all over the place compared to what I'm used to. Talking about this difference with others brought up the story of the U.S. woman who sued McDonald's years ago because her coffee was too hot. Yeah, that just doesn't happen here; the government/companies will not take responsibility for personal safety, especially when he hazards are obvious.
After our time was up, we made our way back to the Panama border, and spent about two hours taking care of paperwork for the jeep, getting visas renewed, going through vehicle and bag searches, and getting re-fumigated. We did not end up going to the beach, but we made the best of the situation and ended up having a pretty good time.
After we got back, Jess was dog/house-sitting for a neighbor. They go through 5 lbs of sugar per day to feed hummingbirds of which 19 species have been identified, and up to 11 species have been seen feeding simultaneously on these feeders.
I count 15 Humming birds...click to enlarge picture to see if you can find them.
Yesterday was Jessica's birthday, so we rode horses, cut grass with machetes, and ate home-made pizza and ice cream cake, yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment