Nomadic Narrative

All I can say is that I’m glad I made it through the weekend with my new friendship intact. Except for meeting two, cute professional snowboarders at the Dollar rental agency in the San José airport, everything else related to the car was not off to a shining start.

When the car rental agents finally showed up, we were shuttled to a nearby location with a family of Germans carrying about ten bags, a stroller and a child’s car seat—I admired their pluck traveling around with kids in tow, even though they took up all of the room on the shuttle. Chit chatting with the hottie snowboarders quickly took my mind off of that.

I signed the paperwork, and as far as I’m concerned, my life away with an additional $27 a day in insurance plus a whopping $1,000 deductible. We opened the doors to our Suzuki Jimny only to encounter the most indescribable smell—something between an industrial chemical and the horrible stench it was attempting to conceal.

Our indefatigable positive attitudes took over (read our previous adventure). We jumped in and labeled it an acquired smell. We were off. Well, not exactly, after years of driving a stick-shift, for some reason it took me a while to remember that I needed to step on the clutch to shift gears. After a couple of lurches, we were officially off. I heard my travel buddy, Diane, mumble. I caught something that sounded like “oly snit.”

At this point, I have to congratulate myself for making it into and out of the very center of San José, with only one minor wrong turn. Once again, I heard Diane mumble. I’m not sure, but I think she said something that sounded like “scared.” I think that had more to do with what is the very rough, inner-city feel of San José, than my driving.

Driving in the city as in most of Costa Rica is very difficult because streets are maze-like and rarely have names or numbers. When you ask for directions, it’s hard to understand if you don’t know something about the area. “Turn left at the old Banco Anglo.” Banco Anglo went under years ago taking many people’s savings with it. It’s no longer there, but people still refer to it when giving directions.

Diane told me not to worry because she had an excellent sense of direction. “When in doubt, go straight,” Diane said. I have to say that this advice worked for the entire trip.

I’m a big fan of public transportation, and the bus in particular—what I refer to as my environmentally friendly mode of transportation. I usually don’t mind giving up a little time and freedom to achieve what is for me peace of mind in return. Though, renting a car to explore the Arenal area was a great idea. We got to see so much on and off the beaten track. Plus, zipping around in “Lily” (Lily being the good luck moniker we bestowed upon our Suzuki.) was just fun.

While I don’t see myself renting a car again anytime soon, I loved getting an entirely different perspective of travel in Costa Rica—different from fast and furious taxis, different from pounding the pavement and different from environmentally friendly modes of transportation. I can only hope my travel buddy feels the same!