Title translation: Home, our home (maybe)
Pokey and Gumby are comfortably snuggled into a backpack pocket, suitcases are locked, passports in hand…time to go!
Tom Delaney arrives to take us to DIA (Denver International Airport) and we’re off; we arrive at the airport in plenty of time. Tom is going on vacation tomorrow and is going to have to make this same hour long drive again in the morning. Thank you, Tom, for doing this for us!
DIA is undergoing some massive remodeling (who knew?) and will be for about 2 years. For a few minutes, Jeff and I are discombobulated. We want to go to the north security gate because it has the shortest wait time, but we can’t figure out how to get there. The airport is well prepared as there are information people everywhere. We learn that we can’t get there from here. We need to go down the escalators to baggage claim, walk as far north as we can and turn left. Ta-dah! Since we are both TSA pre-approved security is a breeze. Part of the security area is being remodeled and some of the changes look very modern.
Our first flight is into Houston where we will have about an hour layover before leaving for San Jose, Costa Rica.
This trip, in addition to what we hope will be a relaxing vacation, has an agenda. First, we will be looking for a place to live. WHAT?? While some of you know, most do not. Jeff and I are going to relocate to Costa Rica for at least a year. He turns 65 in January, retires February 1st and we plan to move sometime mid-to-late February 2019. During this trip we will be looking for potential long-term rental opportunities.
The second purpose is to attend a seminar in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. This seminar is conducted by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR); an association we’ve belonged to for the past 3 years. The seminar will cover the legal, medical, banking (etc.) ins and outs of being an ex-pat in Costa Rica. Jeff calls it “ex-pat 101”; I’ll let you know how that goes.
Oh, we are so lucky! For both of our flights we have a row to ourselves. We have flown into the San Jose airport several times and in past blogs I’ve listed our itinerary for getting out of the airport: baggage claim, ATM, liquor store, customs/immigration (not necessarily in that order!). Then we always walk out of the airport, across the drive, and catch the shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express where we spend the night. This arrival is going to be different for two reasons. First, in addition to the usual ATM, liquor store, etc., I am going to stop at the “Kolbi” kiosk and buy a Costa Rican SIM card for my phone. I’ve brought my old IPhone 4 to use here. We’ve never done this before and are curious as to how it will work. The second difference is that instead of going to the hotel, we are being picked up at the airport. Pedro manages Casa Mostaza (Mustard house) and he and his wife have driven into the airport to pick us up. And, Pedro is renting us one of his 4-wheel drive cars for only $25/day. That’s a HUGE bargain!
Getting the SIM card is not difficult; for about $10 US, I got 2 gigs of data and I’m not sure how much “talk” time. The staff tells me that their system is down, and I’ll have to activate it tomorrow. Okay, the instructions for doing that are clear. I’m good.
We are pretty much the last people out of the baggage area, so it isn’t difficult for Pedro to find us. We climb into his car and we’re off to San Ramon.
I hope you enjoy this trip with us…