Keel Billed Toucan - Costa Rica - Please Read!
Stacy, my son & myself took trip to Costa Rica this spring. Stacy arranged for our rooms and the car. He travels a lot and had about a million hotel points. So, he used 240,000 of them and booked us into the Intercontinental Hotel in San Jose. Beautiful place to stay. Crazy trying to drive there. Stacy said, it was a lot like Paris, but, not nearly as bad as Italy. No, way would I try to drive through San Jose. They all drive like they have a suicide wish. GPS is nearly useless. I probably should have taken Jan Boer up on his invitation to guide me around, but, with Stacy doing the driving I wasn’t sure how that would work. So, I decided to pass. We did have a good time, but, it didn’t live up to my expectations. Might have been the wrong time of year. We did day trips out of San Jose. Flew into Liberia stayed one night and headed for San Jose. At least we thought we were. Stacy programed the GPS to take us to the Intercontinental Hotel and we were off. Several hours later we saw hundreds of semi trucks parked along the side of the road. People were selling food to the truckers. We saw people riding bicycles with diesel pumps. We couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. Then a fellow waved us over and told us to park. I told Stace, “I think we are in Nicaragua”! He said, “No way! The guy asked for our Passports and told Stace to follow him. I started to get out and was told to stay in the car. About 10 minutes later Stace came out and said, “Yes we crossed into Nicaragua and had to pay an "entry fee”. We told the guy it was a simple mistake and we would just turn around and leave. But, no! he had us pull across the road to another big open area and park. Once again he wanted our Passports. About, then I was starting to think of that TV program “Locked Up Abroad”! So, we set there for awhile and when he came back he brought a “big friend" with him. He told us, we had to pay a "departure fee" in order to leave. So, we paid it. Then he wanted a tip! Stace offered him some Costa Rican Colons. But, No! He wanted U.S. dollars! So, after about $80.00 out of our pocket we started backtracking and decided not to trust to GPS implicitly. The GPS led us astray several other times. Finding our way around was quite interesting. We saw a lot of the back streets of San Jose, (some pretty bad areas) till Stace figured that he had it set to avoid toll roads and find the shortest route.
Once, it led us to a dead end road 20 miles out in the middle of no where.
The semi trucks were waiting for the entry into Nicaragua’s border crossing.
So, Jan, we probably should have said Yes! to your offer.
But, live and learn!
Camera Settings: f/4 - 1/320 - 280mm - ISO 320
Please view large.
Keel Billed Toucan - Costa Rica - Please Read!
Stacy, my son & myself took trip to Costa Rica this spring. Stacy arranged for our rooms and the car. He travels a lot and had about a million hotel points. So, he used 240,000 of them and booked us into the Intercontinental Hotel in San Jose. Beautiful place to stay. Crazy trying to drive there. Stacy said, it was a lot like Paris, but, not nearly as bad as Italy. No, way would I try to drive through San Jose. They all drive like they have a suicide wish. GPS is nearly useless. I probably should have taken Jan Boer up on his invitation to guide me around, but, with Stacy doing the driving I wasn’t sure how that would work. So, I decided to pass. We did have a good time, but, it didn’t live up to my expectations. Might have been the wrong time of year. We did day trips out of San Jose. Flew into Liberia stayed one night and headed for San Jose. At least we thought we were. Stacy programed the GPS to take us to the Intercontinental Hotel and we were off. Several hours later we saw hundreds of semi trucks parked along the side of the road. People were selling food to the truckers. We saw people riding bicycles with diesel pumps. We couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. Then a fellow waved us over and told us to park. I told Stace, “I think we are in Nicaragua”! He said, “No way! The guy asked for our Passports and told Stace to follow him. I started to get out and was told to stay in the car. About 10 minutes later Stace came out and said, “Yes we crossed into Nicaragua and had to pay an "entry fee”. We told the guy it was a simple mistake and we would just turn around and leave. But, no! he had us pull across the road to another big open area and park. Once again he wanted our Passports. About, then I was starting to think of that TV program “Locked Up Abroad”! So, we set there for awhile and when he came back he brought a “big friend" with him. He told us, we had to pay a "departure fee" in order to leave. So, we paid it. Then he wanted a tip! Stace offered him some Costa Rican Colons. But, No! He wanted U.S. dollars! So, after about $80.00 out of our pocket we started backtracking and decided not to trust to GPS implicitly. The GPS led us astray several other times. Finding our way around was quite interesting. We saw a lot of the back streets of San Jose, (some pretty bad areas) till Stace figured that he had it set to avoid toll roads and find the shortest route.
Once, it led us to a dead end road 20 miles out in the middle of no where.
The semi trucks were waiting for the entry into Nicaragua’s border crossing.
So, Jan, we probably should have said Yes! to your offer.
But, live and learn!
Camera Settings: f/4 - 1/320 - 280mm - ISO 320
Please view large.