Day 3 - July 10, 2008

Okay....today didn't go quite as planned. You see this building pictured above? Well, that's were my boxes are and customs doesn't want me to have them. I will start from the beginning. We got up early because we needed to meet David at 7:30am to leave to retrieve the boxes and then we were off to a volcano and to swim in the hot springs. We packed our bags and left them in the room because we had to change rooms today. Today we are in the main house (not even as many bugs!) The hotel moved our luggage for us while we were gone. That was really nice. We ate breakfast and then left with David armed with a backpack full of swimsuits, towels and sandals. We arrived at the place above and went in (me & David, Albert waited in the car with the kids). We were told we need to get something from the airport. Albert and David found a nice guy who changed the paperwork so Albert was the recipient but now he (meaning Albert) needed to register as an importer at the airport. So, we went and did that and ended up back at the place above. Albert and David went in and I stayed with the kids in the car. About 40 minutes later, they came out with nothing. Apparently, they had to open the boxes for inspection and the inspector didn't like that everything was knew and didn't like that I had body cream (Vaseline Intensive Care). He said we need a permit to bring in cream! Then, David knew someone who worked in importing (had an agency). We went to meet with him and they are trying to get my bags. Hopefully we will get them tomorrow. This took all morning so we finally went and got lunch.

We went to a nice place in the city where the airport is located. It starts with an A but I don't remember what it's called. Kasondra and I had a carne asade open faced taco with cheese. Albert had a tamale and something else (I don't remember). Abbey and Quinten had chicken and Jenna had BBQ ribs. Everything here comes with bananas. I think this trip will be called 101 ways to cook with banana. They are called plantains and I am not too fond of them.

After lunch we went to the bank so I could cash some travelers checks. This took forever and the teller counted the cash at least 5 times! I cashed $500 dollars and received about $223,000 colones. It looks like a lot of money anyway. We parked and walked around the downtown area as there were shops, not really tourist shops but normal everyday shops. We bought a few souvenirs and as you can see from the picture, Albert bought some interesting bottle of alcohol. Quinten bought a fanta. 1 small fanta and 1 regular sized coca cola costs $750 colones.

Finally, it was 4pm and we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a day. David is going to keep checking with his friend to see if we are going to be able to get my boxes. By this time, I am just determined to get those stupid things hell or high water. We got back to the hotel a little before 5pm, made dinner reservations for 6pm and let the kids wander around.

We met a couple from Wisconsin that are staying next to us and they are going down south next to the real rain forest (Yuck!). We wished them luck. Dinner was great and the staff as usual is very friendly and helpful.

Tomorrow we are going on the Cafe Britt tour at 11am. David will drive us to the tour and then pick us up. The tour includes lunch and coffee tasting. Jenna and Kasondra are very excited to taste the different types of coffee. From there, we will go back and pick up our luggage and then drive into Turrialba. Maybe we will get my boxes sometime during the day or maybe David's friend will need to deliver them to me in Turrialba. Tomorrow night we will be staying in a little hotel called Turrialtico. I hope it's not too bad because I won't hear the end of it if it is. I don't know how much access I will have to a computer in Turrialba so it may be a while before my next post. Hope you guys are all doing well!