Do you know the way to San Jose (or at least around it)

Monday,  Feb 6

I did a quick post yesterday to let everyone (Mom) know that we had arrived safely but I didn't really tell you about San Jose.  We stayed at Posado Trianon which is on the east side.  The city is in a grid,  avenidas run east west and the calles (streets) run north south.  There is a main intersection of Avenida 0 and Calle 0.  The Calles are even numbers in the west and odd in the east, ditto for the Avenidas in north/south.  You would think this would be easy to navigate.  Not so much.  We spent a lot of today backtracking.  I am going to blame the lack of street signs.

Anyway, here are some photos from the city.

China Town

Why is she on a propeller?

The artisan market 

Yesterday, once we got our room, we wandered around a bit.  We found an artisan market with some pretty cool stuff.  I bought nothing.  But I know some things I would like on our way back through before we leave.  We bought some water and some tea at the grocery store near the hotel.  And, then we crashed.  We slept for 12 hours despite the constant traffic, honking, car alarms and train whistles.  It sounds worse than it was but we were so tired, maybe it was that bad and we slept through it anyway.

We had already decided to stay one more night in San Jose while we got ourselves organized.  The guide book is not enthusiastic about the city but we figured it can't be that bad.  Despite the noise, we would have stayed at the same place. However, the Trianon didn't have a room for the next day.  So, to Booking.com we went.  The cheapest place with a double room with bathroom was called Picos Bills.  We booked.  Our cab driver mentioned that Pico Bill is a cartoon rat.  Oh dear.  We got there and the hourly rates were posted.  And condoms for sale in the lobby.  We got our room and paid for it.  It was two beds shoved in a room with a toilet.  The toilet had a shower curtain separating it from the beds.

I suppose it saves time?

The worst part is they charged us more than the
posted 'nightly' rate.

Ok, this was a hooker hotel.  We aren't that bright.  All of a sudden we really appreciated the 'no prostitutes' rule at Trianon. We had already paid and it was pretty cheap so we decided to stick it out.

We left to find lunch and right across the street was Elvis Family Hotel.  We stopped in.  A double room with shared bathroom was $5 less, with bathroom $5 more that Chez Hooker.  So, we went back and demanded our money back.  We are two innocent young foreigners who didn't feel safe and we demand our money back.  Sure, no problem.  We just had to cancel though Booking.com so they could rent it out again (probably make more on the hourly rate) and we were free to see if Elvis is still alive and living in San Jose at the Elvis Hotel.

Our room, with bathroom door.

Nano the cat enjoys a patch of sun

Elvis is on the west side and is very nice.  Wifi is iffy so we are sitting in the 'sala' with Nano the cat and a very loud guest who is trying to get reception on his phone.  Val is researching our next stop, Cahuita, on the south east coast.

We spent the day walking around San Jose.  The guide book was right, this is not a tourist town.  Even the main drags (no cars) don't really have any nice restaurants or fancy stores or coffee shops.  We went to another market but the stuff wasn't as nice as the first market on the east side.  Again we bought nothing but this time I wasn't even tempted.

We had a very nice lunch at a Soda (hole in the wall eatery.  I had Bistec and Val had chicken.  And a crazy delicious 'Cas water' which is watered down Cas juice.  Val made them bring out a sample of the cas fruit because we had never heard of it or tasted it before.

Our dinner was not so nice.  We should have known, it was in a strip mall of Sodas across from a bus station.  We really should have stopped ourselves when the words 'let's just go to the cheapest one' were said.  It turned out to be 'Japanese'.  Those quote don't nealy express enough how not Japanese it was.  We got rice (with prawns!) with fatty meat bits in brownish sauce.  Val got pasta salad and green salad but for some reason I got some weird tempura.  I don't know what was inside that batter but it was better than everything else on the plate.  As we are eating, Val just started talking about how to deal with diarrhea for no particular reason. If we get diarrhea at any point on this trip, I am blaming that 'Japanese' meal.

Here's some more scenes from San Jose

t

near Calle/Avenida Zero.
There are lots of car-free streets here

Also lots of street art

post office (I bought some stamps)

By the way, I just read that it is snowing in Victoria and flights are even worse now.  I feel terrible for you all.  😏

We made it but it was close.

(I haven't slept in almost 36 hours so forgive any typos or irrational ideas or crazy turns of phrase)

I woke up on time yesterday, the first time in three trips that I didn't sleep in.  That boded well. I did some stuff around the house, eat some breakfast, final pack and then I braced myself of another round of online check-in roulette.  Amazingly, I was able to snag the last two seats together for the Houston to San Jose.  Again, good omens.

I picked  up Alisma at  9:15.  She was going to drive the car back from the ferry and keep it while I am away.  Then we picked up Val.  She had packed the tiniest backpack ever.  It is basically a book bag for a middle schooler.   She had mentioned that she couldn't figure out why everything didn't fit this time (as compared to Ecuador).  Umm, this was a completely different bag, about half the size of the last time.  She also had/has a small MEC daypack.

We made it to the ferry by 10am.  11 o'clock ferry, on time. Lots of room on the Bus on the ferry, no traffic problems despite the snowy slushy conditions we discovered as we left the ferry.   We got to the airport and made it through security no problem.  We were happy to discover that we could do American customs in Vancouver.   We had a satisfactory lunch at the Canucks Grill. We found our gate and killed a few hours.

Canuck Grill

Val's wee backpack

Then the flight next to ours was delayed by two hours.  hmm,  ours still showed on time so we didn't worry too much.  But the snow was really coming down, and sticking.  We watched convoys of snow plows clearing the runways.  Then our flight crew arrived and started with the good news, the plane is at the airport.  But as everyone knows, good news is always followed by bad.  There was a very short, super short, so short it will only be like a 10 minutes, delay to get the plane towed to our gate.  That 10 minutes stretched to 50 minutes.

Buddy at the microphone just kept making it sound like we were the luckiest people in the airport to even get to leave.  He didn't say that but his chipper enthusiasm in the face of each delay was somehow heartening.  We finally made it onto the plane.  Mr. Chipper then let us know that we were God's chosen people because we were going to get to go through the de-icer.  It would only take a few minutes to drive there.  Then 30 minutes to de-ice.  Then the joyous wait in line to take off.

Cold

The view from my airplane seat

All told, we left over two hours late.  And we only had a 2.5 hour layover in San Francisco.  I was trying to stay zen about the whole thing but we were a bit worried.  We got to San Fran a bit early and Val and I jumped in with some people who had close connections so we could all scurry off the plane ahead of the crowd.  What we didn't know was that our flight had been moved from 12:05 to 12:30 and that one we cleared Canadian security and American customs in Vancouver, we never had to go through any check again.

After that it was pretty smooth sailing.  No issues with Super Bowl Sunday or protesters at either American airport, at least none that we saw.   Air Canada gave us free movies but not United.  That made for a long overnight haul.

We arrived.  No problems with immigration or customs.  We hopped on the $1 city bus to town, found out hotel, the Posada Trianon.  This place is definitely on the 'dive' side of the michellin star system.  Shared bathroom.  This sign:

our room

The sketchy outside at night

you know it is classy when they
 don't allow prostitutes.  Doubly so if that is
announced in a handwritten note on the door

Edwin the dog who lives in our hotel.

It is 7:45.  We vowed to stay awake until 8 so we don't mess up our sleep cycles to bad.  Val is researching how to best get to Tortuguera.  I'll keep you posted.

Remember when all we had to worry about was the Super Bowl and airport protesters?

Seriously?

Anyway, still working on the assumption that all will be fine in the long run.  Today, I went and bought a few snacks for our flights.  Cheap tickets and crappy airlines means we don't get fed once over our 20 hours travelling time.  I bought some sausage rolls, pepperoni sticks and some cookies/candy.  Val has some granola bars etc as well so we probably won't die of starvation 😏.

my home ec project - D + grade

This morning I cut the cuffs off of some old socks and sewed them onto the bottom of my pajamas pants.  I will be super hot but I am hoping it helps keep the mosquitoes off at least the bottom half of me while I am sleeping.

Now I need to stop messing around and get to the final pack before 6:45 when I have to online check in for our flight which is totally going to leave Vancouver without a hitch.

Here is how things looks right now (3:14pm Feb 3)



Ok, many hours later.  I am packed and that went well.  But before I packed I had another sewing project.  I cut up an old jacket that had two zip up pockets and I stitched those pockets so they are hidden into the two pairs of pants I am taking.

Then I packed.  

First, everything into its proper cube

Then smaller cubes into bigger cubes

Then cubes into the backpack

Zip it up to make sure it all fits.  It does!

Then divide everything into my 'carry on bag'
and  my 'personal bag' so it fits the
dimension limits.  Voila!

That was done by 6:45.  I have been trying and only partially succeeding in checking in online since then.  First I tried to check in with Air Canada.  Nope.  Over and over.  Nope and nope.  Then I tried to call Air Canada.  Nope.  Then I tried to call Flight Centre.  Nope.  So, I put on my shoes and drove to the Flight Centre at the mall again.  Sarah was there again.  She couldn't get into the check in either until all of a sudden she could.  But then I didn't have Val's passport which apparently you need to check in.  Val wasn't answering her phone.  So, I checked in and went home.  Called Val who was back from the laundry room. Checked her in and all seemed well.

Except it was less than well.  When I checked in and then when I checked Val in, our seats got moved even though we had assigned seats.  Moved from our original seats and not together.  Checked back in and it says I can change seats.  Eventuallllllly, it let me change the San Franscisco to Houston seats but not the Houston to San Jose.  I am pretty much hating the whole online check in process right now so it and I are taking a break for a bit while I eat dinner (@9pm).  I will try again later or we can change it at the airport if there are any seats still available.

Sarah did confirm that YVR is a total mess of cancelled and delayed flights.  Let's hope that gets cleared up by tomorrow.  I spoke to the BC Connector people (the bus from the ferry to the airport) and they said they didn't have any trouble today.  Let's hope that is true and stays true.  It was pretty slushy when I drove to the mall but it was already starting to melt by the time I headed home and that was only 30 or so minutes later.

Ok, I am off to do a few last minute things, change the kitty litter, take out the garbage, sleep.  Hopefully the next time I write will be from Costa Rica (barring any delays in airports, cross your fingers).

Remember those innocent days of yore when all we had to worry about was the Super Bowl?

Last post, I was worried about the SuperBowl crowds.  Now I have to also worry about protests again the immigration policies of el diablo naranja.

Here's San Francisco

Notice the 'to International Terminal' sign

I guess no Starbucks while we are in Texas

Here's Houston:

Here's my least favourite headline:
More Anti-Trump protests slated for Super Bowl week

Why do I suddenly care about the Super Bowl?

Houston, we have a problem.  So, recently, Val noticed that the Super Bowl is being played in Houston this year, on February 5th.  And she said 'hey wait, that date and place seem familiar' and realized that is the date we are transferring through Houston on our way to Costa Rica.  We land around 8:50am and the game is that afternoon.  Hmmm, I ponder this and come up with the conclusion that George Bush Airport is going to be a 'fill in your own swear word' GONG SHOW!

 But more worrisome than the airport is the flight from San Francisco to Houston.  It is a red eye so game goers may very well be booked onto that plane.  And, if United's reputation is anything to go on, that plane will probably be oversold.  And who is going to get bumped, the girls who show up an hour before their flight using the cheapest tickets in the world.

So, first I tried to call Air Canada because I love a good 'how AC is awful' story for my blog.  But all I got was a message that due to terrible weather and cancelled flights all over North America, the queue to talk to an agent is even longer than usual (who knew it was possible).  So, I decided to go for the face to face.  We bought our tickets through Flight Centre.  There is a Flight Centre at the mall so I popped by on my way home form work.

Sarah was my agent de jour.  I told my super bowl tale of woe.  She had the decency to look aghast at our situation.  Her advise, make sure we had seats reserved.  All of our United flights allowed us to pre-book seats so we already had them so that is good.  And we have to make sure we check in online 24 hours in advance.  We can do that.  She also noticed we didn't have seats booked on the Air Canada legs of our trip (Vancouver to San Francisco and return).  They were going to charge us for seat selection.  She called them up and got us seats.  Clearly Sarah was my new hero so I decided to push my luck.  I told her after scouring the tickets and the United website, I still couldn't actually say how much our bag allowance is.  It took her a few minutes but she found it, one checked bag, one carry on bag, one personal bag.  Yeah!.  And she gave me the weights and dimensions.

We plan to only take carry on bags on the way down.  I have been prepacking my new cubes all week and tonight I shoved them all in my backpack.  They fit!  With bits of room to spare, not much, but better than bursting at the seams.  Plus, that is just the backpack, the zip-on day pack is empty.  So, that gives room for random purchases (which of course, are highly unlikely - I need that sarcasm emoji, I'll make one up, here it is :}.  Wait, I just discovered that blogger has emojis, 😏 They call this smirking face, but for the purposes of this blog, it is now sarcastic face.  Has this parenthetic side discussion gotten away from me?  😕 - yes says confused face).  I am going to pre-apologize because I am likely to use those emoji faces way to much now that I know they exist.  For example, how could I have gotten along without this:  🏤 - European post office!.  Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a Central American Post office.  But let's hope there are lots of 🐦and 🌮 and 🍺.  Ok, I'll stop. Nope, one more🍹.

I think I was talking about my bag so long ago, pre-emoji awareness.  These colourless black squiggles/letters seem so pointless now, but to finish up, my packed bag is just within the carry on limit for dimensions (9' x 14' x 22') and well below the weight limit of 50 lbs (my bag is a scant 25 lbs).

 👂ear 👃 nose 🗻mt Fuji 📑page tab 🍘rice cake 🐩poodle.  Please stop says 😧 anguished face.  I CAN'T!  Oh no, there are so many cat faces 🐱😾🙀.  Definitely time for bed.  I'll see if I can disable the emoji function in the morning, for all of our sakes.  🎏carp steamer just in case you need one.

Season ten, I think we've seen this plot before.

(You know when a show runs for too long and the episodes seem like episodes from the first few seasons - I'm looking at you Law & Order.  I feel like my blogs are kind of the same.  Planning, shopping, packing...  sorry, feel free to turn the channel.  I had a special request for a packing post though so ya gotta give the people what they want)

After last vacation's debacle with my horrible packing (too many distractions with bathroom renos and house guests and sleeping in), I am trying to be better prepared this time.  And to take the right bag.  I have two backpacks. They both have zip-on day packs.  This is awesome for checking bags because two-for-one.  They are almost the same but one is a bit bigger (good) but the smaller one has a cool feature which allows the day pack to hook onto the straps of the bigger pack.  So, I can carry the little pack on my front while in transit.  I forgot about that when packing for Europe and had to carry my little pack in my hand which is awkward when in a hurry. 
 

That bottle with the green cap is a Colgate toothpaste bottle

We are hoping to carry on our bags, at least on the way there.  Which means very limited liquids.  No container can be more than 100 mls.  All liquid containers have to fit into a 1 litre Ziploc baggie. And by all accounts, it isn't easy to get sunscreen or bug spray in Costa Rica.  And ZIKA! Dengue! Malaria! Chikungunya! Other Scary Stuff!  Valerie will attest to the fact that the mosquitos love me.   So, to not die a horrible bone fever/skin cancer death,  I want to take as much of these two as I can.  I have a Ziploc baggie from some unknown airport that I have been saving for years for just such an emergency.  It is just slightly bigger (but enough bigger that everything fits). 



Well organized!


And my hair.  Let's all think back to the time in Thailand I thought I could get away with no conditioner.  No, actually, let's pretend that never happened and just agree that I need to take conditioner. 

I usually use Colgate toothpaste bottles as my travel bottles but I didn't have enough room for everything.  I found some kids shampoo in 73 ml bottles which were just small enough to fit.  I got a hair cut to reduce my hair by 17% so it should work out (just kidding but I did get a hair cut and it is about 17% shorter so...).  Bonus,  I get to look at the Minions and Spiderman every time I wash my hair. 
 
I managed to fit two sunscreens and two bug sprays in.  But the caps for the bug spray won't fit so I am praying that saran wrap is going to cut it until we get to our final destination.  (again, let's all recall the time my bug spray blew up in my luggage to Cuba and soaked my medication.  Note to self, pack mediation away from liquids).


Two things.  1. I wish my hair looked
this good.  2. there are a disturbing
amount of pictures of Minions with
hair on the internet.  Why?! 

I was loading everything on the guest bed but I had a guest who actually wanted to use the bed.  So, now everything is stacked up on Chris's folding table (that I stole out of her shed).

This weekend I will try to shove it all in the small backpack.  I will let you know.    Definitely no more shopping required. 



Here is Turrialba volcano in action

A couple of things to note. 

Costa Rica has several active volcanos, one of which (Turrialba) has decided to become even more active and closed down the San Jose Airport in September.  Keeping our eye on that situation.  Here is a daily activity update on Turrialba if you want to keep track.  To save you linking in, "Current status: minor activity or eruption warning (3 out of 5)" and " Typical eruption style:  Explosive."  One does not like anything to be 'explosive' while on vacation.  Note to self:  Pepto Bismol  (chewable, not liquid, I don't have room for liquid).  

I ordered some Costa Rican Colones but I haven't gotten them yet. I hear that the Canadian dollar took a dive yesterday so not great timing on that.  On the other hand, I already bought some American cash so I guess it all balances out. 

One Canadian dollar = 378 CR Colones

Note to self:  either learn to multiply and divide by 378 or take a calculator. 

Buying stuff (you know, the usual)

Well, I made it back from Europe.  I made it through Christmas so now it is time to actually think about my next trip which is happing in ONE MONTH!



Merry Christmas Val. 

I gave Val a map of Costa Rica for Christmas (I know, very self serving but it was water proof so that has to count for something?).  We had a "trip meeting" before Christmas break.  Val has some ideas of where to go and in what order so, as per my MO, I said "sure".  Since I wasn't really paying attention except for a general start in the middle, go counter-clockwise back to the middle, I can't remember where we are going.  Somewhere fun I'm sure.  Val and I did very well with our Ecuador trip where we just had some vague notions of what we wanted to see.  That worked out so this should too (except for maybe the dangerous part where we maybe get killed). 

I loved Amy's packing cubes so much on my last trip but Amy is going on her own trip so I have to get my own cubes this time.  I actually went to IKEA when I was in Vancouver because I wanted the cubes.  But then I got so overwhelmed with other exciting IKEA stuff, I forgot to look for the cubes. 

What can go wrong:  They are HIGHEST QUALITY
AFFORDABLE and GAURANTEED (not my typo)
you know by the ALL CAPs, they are 'highly quality'

So, to Amazon!  where I bought these.  
I joke just in case they are crap (they haven't arrived yet) and I have to whine about them my whole trip but I am super stoked to have EIGHT cubes this time instead of a measly three.

I also bought a new travel purse.  I was unhappy with my last 'travel' purse and the awesome purse I bought in France in now my 'daily' purse. 

*Please sign up for my affordable online tutorial on important purse distinctions where you will learn the differences of travel vs daily vs 'dressy' and how colour of each can mean a purse purchase is always a necessity (3 easy payments of $20 - to pay for my new purse). Level 2 will deal with 'what is a bag' and why is it different than a purse.  Level 3 'will it count as checked, carry on or personal baggage'.   Level 4 (Advanced) how to fit little bags and purses into bigger bags and purses and VICE VERSA!

Val and I are going to visit MEC soon.  She needs a new water bottle and I need a new headlamp.  And that is really it for me.  I can't think of anything else I need and I really racked my brain during the boxing day sales.