taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 63

Week 10

QUEPOS (Puntarenas, CRI) to SAN JOSÉ (San José, CRI)

Friday May 17^th, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 103 miles / 166 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 21,867 miles / 35,192 kilometres

With a scheduled 1PM departure for the nation’s capital - San José, I packed up all my gear in preparation for the 11AM hotel checkout, completed my online check-in for tomorrows early morning flight and then hit the streets of Quepos for one last time. This time I spent several hours exploring the suburbs adjacent to the town centre as well as the area around the natural inlet that harbours the local fishing fleet.

Breakfast was a local affair at the Soda Sanchez, where for a measly 4850 Colóns ($8.41 USD) I thoroughly enjoyed an awesome Empanadas de Pollo (Chicken Empanada), a breakfast beef burrito and some great coffee - figuring the big breakfast would tide me over until dinner tonight. I have to say, the empanadas was the best I’ve had – period!

With it spitting rain and the heavens threatening to open up, I headed back to the Hotel Le Priss Inn, where I met up with Lila and promptly engaged ourselves with the 'Guess What' quiz with the opening statement of “Guess what I got for you that you were wanting?”

With me not having a clue, Lila says c’mon and I’ll show you and leads me a couple of blocks to a locals house, which looks like a Steptoe & Sons yard, and what appears to be the owner seated in the middle of what could only be termed as a shit ton of junk. This where Lila had procured a Costa Rican licence plate for me.

As mentioned previously, I don’t do souvenir/trinket shopping as to me – it’s a complete waste of time and money with the transaction often taking longer than the product lasts. A memento for me is to garner a licence plate of a vehicle I’ve driven or travelled in for a long period of time in that country. Sometimes an incorrectly secured plate falls off the vehicle in which I place it in my backpack for safe keeping and unfortunately forget about it, only to find it when I return home. Sometimes simply asking a local procures a plate or quite often I find them simply lying on the side of the road.

I’d asked the Budget Rent-A-Car agency yesterday if they had any plates lying around, which they didn’t, so I simply forgot all about it. Thankfully Lila didn’t. While she was out walking this morning, she asked several workshops and car deals if they had any plates – nope, no can do. Lila had actually given up and was headed back to the hotel when she came across the aforementioned house and, on a whim, simply asked the question. Ol’ mate says yes he has one from his written off vehicle, heads off and comes back – mangled bumper in hand, with the plate still attached – and voilà ….. a great souvenir with a couple of great stories attached.

We set off at 1PM in drizzling rain to drive the 5 hours into San José. A couple of hours in, we stopped at El Jardín Souvenir and Restaurant, which for want of a better term is a huge souvenir shop with an ice cream shop, takeaway and toilets attached.

The closer we got to San José, the thicker the traffic and the darker the rain clouds got. At one point our driver got off the freeway just before Santa Ana, drove the back streets for a bit before finding the freeway again. I come to find out later that he was avoiding a accident which had turned the freeway into a parking lot.

We actually made good time by arriving at or our accommodations at the Auténtico Hotel - Sabana Norte bang on 5 o'clock, which thankfully for us, was an hour and a half shorter trip than the group who left our hotel in Quepos a ½ hour earlier than us.

At 6 PM, the group gathered at the hotel bar in which we all spoke of our two best trip experiences and Siona presented all of us with a small gift. From there it was a couple of blocks over to the Cuban restaurant - La Bodeguita del Medio, where we held the tour group farewell dinner.

As part of the dinners festivities, Sonia was introduced as the 6^th CEO/Tour Guide and only current female member of the “Aussie Rugby Tequila” crew and was such a great sport about it.

After a quick nightcap back at the hotel, I was in bed by 11 o'clock for my 3:15 AM transfer to the airport.