We have arrived in San Jose

Do you know the way to San Jose? Apparently it is via Charlotte North Carolina these days. We got up at an ungodly hour this morning and have fallen back not once but twice. I thought we were going to be dead south of home but apparently not. We adjusted our timepieces when we arrived at the airport in Syracuse at 5.30 this morning (to find out that the checking in I did on line meant we didn't actually have to be there until 7 am) and again when we landed in Costa Rica.



It took us a while to get out of the airport. Alan will know what happened since he has been through it with me several times before on a couple of different contintents. I really object to paying a taxi 10 times what it really costs to get downtown from the airport, so I had to figure out how to catch the local bus. My spanish is worse than my french so it does cause a wrinkle. The local bus costs 75 cents each and a taxi was around $20 although I had them down to about $15 when they saw me trying to manouver around their system. Charles had to power smoke multiple cigarettes after having been deprived since Syracuse many, many hours earlier. He was being chatted up by a taxi driver while I made forays around. I circled a few times before I found local people with no vested interest in getting me into a cab. I had to buy a coffee to break the large bill from the ATM so we could take the bus but we managed to save $12. I'm back in the travelling swing now! It's not really the money it's the challenge of bucking the system.

We are in a backpacker hostel that really could be anywhere in the world, but it is not... it is in Costa Rica and the city we walked through between the bus and finding the hostel was interesting, quite clean and with some old charm. I haven't really had much exposure, we landed at 3 and it is now 6.30 and we are off to seek sustenance. Tomorrow we forge on to Managua....