Adios

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Geo: 10.0333, -84.1833

Today is our last full day in Costa Rica...this visit was much too short. Because it is our last day, I, wanting to make the most of it, get up around 6am, make myself some coffee and sit out on the rancho listening to and watching the birds. A little while later Jeff gets up and we start putzing around: strip the bed, washing the bedding and towels, wash, dry and put away the dishes in the kitchen, we want to leave the casita spotless - who knows, the renters, Kyle and Diane, might need housesitters sometime.

We don't have breakfast because Annie is taking us to the "gringo breakfast" this morning. The Gringo Breakfast is a weekly gathering of ex-pats at a restaurant in San Ramon. This will be a good opportunity for Jeff and I to meet some folks and talk with them about why they relocated to this area of Costa Rica and what their challenges were. We arrive at the restaurant about 10:15 only to discover that it began around 9 instead to 10 as we thought, so pretty much everyone has eaten and many are getting ready to leave. Several folks stay to chat. We meet one couple who have family in Fort Collins and Windsor, Colorado and who lived for years in the tiny Illinois town where Jeff once lived. Unbelievable!
We chat briefly with a woman named Carol who describes where she lives to us. She tells us that her view is spectacular. She lives in ValVerde on the top of a hill, not far outside San Ramon. One one side she can see the lights of Puntarenas and the Nicoye peninsula and on the other side, the lights of San Ramon. Really?? Sounds really nice.
We order breakfast and enjoy it with 3-4 remaning gringos and have a very nice time. This is an enjoyable way to end our trip, and now that we know when and where the breakfast happens we'll take advantage of it in the future.

When we return to the car, we tell Annie about Carol - she offers to drive us up to her house so we can see the view for ourselves! It is an easy drive and there is only one scary part of the driveway but man, oh, man!! The view is INCREDIBLE!! WOW!
We had parked beside a beautiful home next to Carol's. Annie tells us that the house was just recently sold and the renters haven't arrived yet (That is very common in Costa Rica. Someone will buy their house even though they aren't ready to move into it, and they'll do long term rental in the meantime). You know us...the three of us decide to snoop around a little. The house is very, very nice. There are floor to ceiling windows, overlooking the view, and a wonderful back porch. We walk over to the windows to peer in and suddenly Annie's car alarm goes off. Except, she doesn't have a car alarm. Oh, CRAP! We've set off the house alarm! hahahaha! We scurry back to the car, Annie laughing all the way about how we are always getting into trouble, and drive off. She decides we'll go visit an acquaintance of hers. This woman runs a bed and breakfast down the road. As we drive along, the B&B woman comes roaring along towards us. We stop, she stops...and she says "It was you guys, wasn't it?" Our attempts at looking innocence fail as we all burst out laughing. Turns out Kim (the B&B woman) is the person with the keys to the alarmed house. The renters are arriving today and she thought maybe they got mixed up and set the alarm off. We follow her back to the B&B and apologize profusely for making her rush out.
Always an adventure. We visit with Kim, a NYC transplant, for a bit but not long as we need to get home so we can leave.

Back home we arrange for Annie to pick us up at 2:30 to take us to the bus station in San Ramon. We are taking the bus back to Alajuela today. We'll spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express and catch our early flight out to orrow.

Way, way too soon we are saying our goodbyes to our friend. I will miss her.
We, old hands at this now, buy our bus tickets and sit down to wait. Two tickets from San Ramon to Alajuela, about an hour away, are only $5.50 (total). The bus ride is relaxing. As we near Alajuela it begins thundering and lightening. Looking at the list of stops at the front of the bus, we realize that this bus stops at the airport. Hey! We could get off at the airport and take the free hotel shuttle - which would save us about $6.00 in cab fare. The plan works perfectly. Here we are in our room...sorry for this vacation to end - but knowing that we'll be back soon.

I look out the window, it has finally begun to rain.

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