Arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica, 1992

      After walking out of the airport, our bags were picked up by a kid, when we asked him about getting a taxi.  We followed him to the open trunk of a waiting minibus.  We climbed in, sat down, then were thrown against the back of our seats, as the minibus roared 110 km/hr toward San Jose.  The ride cost us $10 US, plus tips for the baggage boy, the driver, and then the doorman of the hotel.  The hemorrhaging of money, didn’t seem to stop.

    We had made reservations at the Hotel Ambassador at the price of $55 US, but it actually cost us $85 US for a fairly crumby room.  Feeling ripped off, we decided to check out first thing the next day.  That ripped off feeling continued after our $7.50 US charge for breakfast, (6 pieces of toast, butter, jam, and 1 orange juice.)

    Laden down with all of our bags, we trudged toward the center of town, with my back still aching.  As we went, I discovered that I had lost my red nylon wool lined jacket.   With added discouragement, we went looking for a cheaper hotel.

    We ended up at the Pension Costa Rica Inn and another crumby room, but this one only cost us $30 US.  There was a toilet in the room with a sign telling us not to flush the paper.  After dropping off our bags, we wasted a couple of hours trying to find a chiropractor.   Eventually, we came to the conclusion that they didn’t exist in Costa Rica.

    We began to have a more positive feeling about our trip after wandering around all day in San Jose.   However, we found that everything was just too expensive, without offering anything that we wanted to see.  We were eager to get out of the city and into Nature and decided to travel to Manuel Antonio Park the next day for beach time and Nature.

    We bought an umbrella from a street vendor.  We didn’t really want such a big one, because it would be awkward as we traveled around, but the vendor kept lowering the price every time we started to walk away, so finally we relented and paid $13 CAN for it.  I was glad we did, because I discovered that I could use it as a cane, which helped alleviate my back pain.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca