we woke up early, packed and headed to the bus station, which was more like a bus stand where we bought tickets (6 dollars) for a seat on the bus to san jose. we were hoping that we would get the same fantastic bus we rode in on. but when the hunk of junk pulled up, our hopes were shot. dee even went over to ask if that was the bus. it was. i should have taken a photo of it, but i didn’t. the camera would not appear for the rest of the trip, as you can tell from the photo gallery.

the seats didn’t recline, no a/c, barely any padding on the seats, and the whole thing was dusty and we had to wipe the seats off. i’m not a snob, but a five hour bus ride in this jalopy was not something i looked forward to. my back was not looking forward it either.

the only half exciting thing that happened to us was that we were searched by a patrol check point for drugs. they didn’t check the bags underneath though. dee asked if we should get them. i said, i’m not offering anything they don’t ask for. we could be there for a while if they searched everyone’s luggage as well.

it was hot and humid, the bus was bumpy, wasps were flying in, the dust was kicking up, did i say it was hot, and the seats were really uncomfortable. BUT at least we could have the windows open. it was my only saving grace. the driver had the door open as well. with the wind cooling my body and beating against my face, i was somewhat comfortable. i love wind and the feeling against my face. dee, not so much cause it makes her cold but not this time. she was moving all over the place trying to fall asleep.

during our fantastic voyage, the bus driver stopped abruptly to pick up some fruit, which he later, stopping abruptly again, delivered to his friend. he then picked up several people along the road. they did have tickets but i thought this was a non-stop bus to san jose. he drove so slow. i don’t think by preference, but just cause the bus couldn’t do above 45 mph. we got behind a garbage truck for about a mile that made us wanna puke. i was not so happy about the windows being open.

so, despite the crap ride, we made it back to san jose surprisingly on time. i thought the driver was going to be late cause of being a delivery person and picking up more people.

when we got off, many taxi drivers rushed to us asking taxi, taxi! dee pushed through and said no. she said, we will choose the taxi, they will not choose it for us. this was a smart thing cause a crazy person could take us to his ride and it would not be a taxi at all. so, we flagged down a taxi and he took us to la amistad.

the people that work at la amistad are so nice. they greet you will a friendly smile and are over the top on helping you find things to do in san jose, which is a challenge. they recognized us immediately and were genuinely happy to see us. the room was comfy and dee laid down to take a nap, which meant internet time for mr. roberto.

we wanted to go to the atm to get money out before the banks closed around 4pm. so, we headed out to go to the central avenue to find an atm. the atm we found was a legitimate atm but for some unknown reason, it canceled our transaction. i was thinking citibank had put a hold on our accounts due to abnormal activity. so, we talked to someone who pointed us in the direction of the servicio verspartino. when we talked to the teller, he asked for passports. oh shit. i had only brought the card thinking it would be fine. crap. we had to go back to la amistad to get the money wallet with our passports. to make matters worse, it started pouring rain and my umbrella was leaking.

we grabbed a taxi, made it back to la amistad, got the money wallet, got in another taxi, and headed back down to the bank. this whole process was such a pain and we were wet and nervous that we had bigger problems than just passports. however, with the passport and credit card, we were able to withdraw money. costa rica charges every foreigner leaving a 26 dollar departure tax. john told us via email that they accepted credit cards so we didn’t need money. thank god dee decided to withdraw the extra cash for the departure tax anyways. they only accept visa. all my cards are mastercard. whew!! with money in hand, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
we had our last dinner in san jose at the same restaurant we had on our first night where we met hector, the fabulous waiter. turned out that he was leaving the restaurant cause he was tired of working there. so, both of us were on some kind of departure.
we were so anxious to get home that we couldn’t stand it. we contemplated taking a sleeping pill to make the morning come quicker. san jose is so boring and it was raining. we had a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel. our flight was at 12:30PM so we had plenty of time to get ready in the morning. so, we watched some tv and fell asleep quickly.