Notice no railings or anything. Presumably the kids around there are quick learners. Even though the crocs are well fed, I think they view everything that comes off the porch as food, so don't fall off!
We also saw a croc over on the bank next to the porch (probably 10 m away) with its jaw hanging straight down. One of the people that lived there tried to explain to us that his jaw was broken, probably in a fight with another croc (our driver helpfully interpreted for us). Nothing kept the crocs from coming up the bank and onto the concrete porch from the side, either. Again, don't think I would really want to live there...
We had a good show, so we gave the owners $5 when we left, and headed on our merry way to the airport, glad to have had a very interesting experience!
Palmar Sur
We got to the "airport" in plenty of time and were just waiting for the flight to get there. We were supposed to be there by 10:00 in case of an on-time 10:30 departure. I think we got there about 9:40.
While we were waiting, I noticed a starfruit tree between the covered waiting area and the runway (it was just to the right and a little behind the 2 boys in the picture). There were a lot of fruits on the ground and on the tree, so it was clear to me that noone was harvesting them regularly, so I went over and picked a ripe fruit and starting munching on it. Did I mention I love Costa Rica?!
Patrick (from the developer's office) was on our flight (the only one to San Jose each day), and told us after he got there that the plane had left San Jose around 10:00 and should be there around 10:40, which was closer to on-time then usual, apparently.
After a while, the ticket lady was explaining a situation to me in Spanish. What I got out of her explanation was that the flight had been cancelled because of something.
After talking to Patrick, we learned that a plane had crashed at the end of the runway. (The pilot was fine - he walked away - it looked like the plane had just tipped over on the side of the runway, I am guessing on takeoff.) The airport would therefore be closed to all flights for the rest of the day as the civil aviation authority came down to investigate.
"So what do we do?" we asked Patrick. Patrick advised that he was trying to charter a plane at a nearby gravel airstrip because he had a 1:30 flight to catch out of San Jose to Canada for meetings. He said that we could hitch a ride with him, and he didn't want any money.
Well, after about 15 minutes, it was clear that he was not going to be able to get a plane. So he was going to head home to try and rearrange his flight schedule. Since our flight was the next day, Patrick said we could take a taxi - it would take about 4 hours. He asked a local taxi driver how much it would cost to go to San Jose and Patrick translated $200. Since the airfare was $172 (which should be refunded), that was not too bad.
To San Jose via Taxi
So Patrick hitched a ride with us back to the guest house, and we headed off down the road at about 10:45 to San Jose. Patrick had advised us that we had essentially rented the taxi driver for the day, so we should feel free to stop for a restroom or restaurant break as frequently as we needed to. Once we got on the road, we decided that we just wanted to get there, then we could have an early dinner there.
Although the speed limit on the coastal highway was typically 80 km/h (50 mph, though people would often go 100 km/h), on the roads through the mountains - the vast majority of the trip - the speed limit is usually 50 km/h.
Our driver would regularly exceed the speed limits, and in his high-centered Toyota Hilux 4x4 crew cab, we moved around a lot. We learned that our abs were somewhat sore from our zip line adventure yesterday, and the bracing was giving them an additional workout.
We were making decent time until Cartago (about 20 km from San Jose). Traffic was stuck there, and I don't think our driver knew the area very well. He made a couple of calls, got out of the traffic, drove around for a bit, then ended up in the same line of traffic except like a mile farther back.
He stopped to ask a pedestrian, and it sounded like traffic was not moving AT ALL, nor did it look like it was going to. Then he talked to another driver, and followed him out of traffic and into neighborhoods. Eventually we made if to where a bunch of people were gathered and as we drove across the bridge, we saw A LOT of muddy water flowing very rapidly (picture isn't great, but hopefully you get the idea).
I think the flooding was why traffic was not moving and would probably not be moving anytime soon.
After stopping to ask several more drivers, we ended up on backroads through industrial areas and back out into the country, then got to a small town up in the hills. We took a right, and all of the sudden we were on this really nice paved road.
This wound through the hills around the back side of San Jose. To make a long story short - after stopping to ask around 20 people total, we finally made it back into San Jose and back to our hotel. We got there at 4:45, so it ended up being about a 6 hour trip (apparently the detour took about 2 hours).
People were very helpful in providing directions - not one person that he tried to stop refused to help (try stopping random people in the US for directions). It may have helped that the taxi "badge" on the truck had the Osa province on there, so people may have noticed that he was a long ways from home.
When we got there, he told us how much it was - I thought $210, but when he wrote it out (good idea he had there!), it was $220. Well, since we had not planned on paying for our return trip with cash, we were not absolutely positive we had enough. (We could have always had him take us to an ATM if necessary.)
ASIDE: This is a good place to mention that you really don't need to change your US dollars to Costa Rican colones if you visit Costa Rica. I believe everyplace will accept US dollars. Maybe sometimes you don't get the best exchange rate, but at worst you take a 3-4% hit - most credit cards charge 3% now for foreign currency conversion. We did take a lot of smaller bills, though (Pat - thanks for that advice), because you get your change back in colones. If you give them a $20 for something that costs $5, you get $15 back in colones, which can be inconvenient.
We had a lot of $1 bills left (that explains why), so picture us standing at the back of his truck counting out all of these ones (in piles of 10) to pay this $220 bill. I think we paid about $60 or $70 in ones, the rest were larger bills, thankfully. And we ended up with $22 left over!
We felt really bad for our taxi driver because he still had a 4-6 hour trip ahead of him, mostly in the dark since it would be dark around 6. I would NOT want to do that drive in the dark (not really in the daylight either, but definitely not at night). I guess he made some pretty good money for the day, though.
We got settled in our hotel and walked down to Antonio's Italian Restaurant, which was highly recommended by the hotel clerk (Fernando) as a nice place to eat. It was VERY good food, although it was a little funny to have the Costa Rican staff serving Italian food. Very good and authentic, though. Then we came home and went into a food induced coma in order to get up for our early flight in the morning (the cab is coming at 4:30 am).
Costa Rica - Day 6
Not much to report here. I liked this sign in one of the shops. Apparently ED knows no borders.
We wanted to get some duty free stuff at the airport - coffee for family and us, and at least some sort of Costa Rican liquor (my idea). The Cafe Britt stuff that they had at the airport was really good. They had lots of different varieties - it wasn't all that cheap as far as coffee goes (they had a 8 12-oz bags for $39 special), but it is EXCELLENT.
As far as I can tell, Costa Rica only exports two types of liquor - rum and coffee liqueur. So I got some of each for good measure. (On the US side of customs where we were packing the liquor into our checked bags, we ran into a guy that brings an extra cooler with him going down in order to pack everything in coming back. He recommended using the coffee as padding for the liquor. He seemed to be pretty good at this...)
Rebecca was thrilled to be back in Kansas City, as you can tell by this photo.
