R&R Part 1

Our weekend for Rest & Recreation was a lot of fun! 

Friday evening we walked up to the mall, engaged in a little people watching and then movie watching. We saw The Hobbit. Yes, it was in English, with Spanish Sub-titles for the natives. That was an experience. We enjoyed the movie, despite not being Hobbit/Lord-of-the-Ring fans. After the movie we walked up to a brand new restaurant, an Applebee's that had just opened in Cariari. (the town where our hotel was located) It was nice to enjoy some American food after the steady diet of rice and beans! We caught a taxi back the hotel and survived the ride. Bruce laughingly asked our driver if he was related to Mario Andretti.... to which the driver responded "Que? Noooooo?"

Saturday Morning armed with maps and directions from our hotel desk clerks, we trekked up to the bus stop and caught the bus into San Jose, the capitol. We enjoyed the ride and were deposited near the center of town. An easy walk to the market streets, which are closed to auto's. Foot traffic only. We winded our way through the THRONG of people... I guess it's the same everywhere you go-- people waiting till the last minute to do their Christmas Shopping!!

We snapped pictures, we sat and people watched. We had lunch at a Chicken place similar to KFC. We ambled through parks and discovered historical buildings rich with Spanish history. We were content to just observe without exploring each spot. We finally found a store with the purchases we'd set out for: coffee to bring home to share with family and friends. I heard a rumor that while coffee is one of the Number #1 exports of Costa Rica, they export the bad  stuff and keep the best coffee beans for themselves. Now, I don't know if that's true or not but I do know that the coffee we had each day while there was the best smoothest coffee I've ever enjoyed!

We returned by a different bus.. and unfortunately we didn't see the sign in the bus window that said 'directo' meaning, it made no stops between San Jose and Alajuela, the city just past Cariari. We watched in silent panic as we zoomed past our stop.... and then when we finally got off in Alajuela we wandered around, me clinging tightly to Bruce's arm as he gamely tried to make sense of directions. I was scared. He was not. We finally hailed a taxi and paid the extra money to get back to our hotel safely.It was dark and I just wanted to be inside!!

We had dinner at the hotel that night... which by the way, the meals offered there were really good and not horribly overpriced. We ate dinner there most nights. A couple of times we snacked in our room, and one night we walked down to a little Mexican Cafe. Breakfast was always at the hotel-- part of the room fee. We enjoyed the swimming pool a few times and the hot tub as well. Our accommodations were top notch and we felt both spoiled and blessed.

The Adventure Inn specializes in catering to Americans and arranging all kinds of exciting tours. More about OUR tour in my next post!