Costa Rica: Travel Day

April 04, 2014

Costa Rica: Travel Day

Today was the big day. We left the house at 8am and pulled into the dirt driveway of the house we are renting at 11:40pm. The kids did awesome! Lots of lines, waiting, sitting, flying and driving but they never complained and more importantly, they never fought! Hallelujah!

We got to the San Jose airport a little before 8pm. It was already dark and by the time we got through immigration and customs (our first official stamps in our passports! Canada and Mexico didn’t stamp.) and rented our car in was 9pm. We were warned by every local along the way from the passport stamper to the local at baggage claim to the rental car agent that we shouldn’t make the drive to La Fortuna. They told us it would take 3 to 4 hours along windy, steep roads shrouded in thick fog. Everyone said to just get a hotel by the airport and make the drive in the morning. I didn’t want to be stubborn or unsafe but it bugged me not to make the drive. We’d already been traveling all day, I didn’t want to have to waste a half a day tomorrow and we’d already paid for the night in La Fortuna. So against all local advice, we headed out to La Fortuna.

The drive was adventurous but I only doubted the decision once or twice. First when we couldn’t see more than 10 feet in the fog and it was windy and steep but the fog was intermittent so we were okay in a few minutes. And then when we took a corner a little too fast for the bald tires and started sliding off the road. But Jeff handled it like a pro and we quickly laughed it off. The little boys slept and we chatted and laughed with the older 3. It was so fun!

The GPS in the car made all the difference in the world and 2 ½ hours later we were home!

People are nice. The roads so far are way nicer than I expected- (no potholes, nicely paved, mostly have lines painted on them). The humidity feels great. We haven’t felt the heat of the day yet but the evenings and mornings feel awesome outside! It smells like Ecuador to Jeff.