This has been a most interesting few days. I am currently sitting outside on the little deck in front of our hotel room that overlooks the mountains. We are in the middle of a thunderstorm, and the lightshow is spectacular. An almost ethereal way to end the day.

Since I am trying to summarize quite a few days, I am going to break this up into shorter posts...

Wednesday morning I left Playas del Coco at around 8:00 a.m. to drive across to San Jose. Rob, Lincoln and Deanna were flying in at 1:40, so I had plenty of time to make the drive, even allowing for a couple of stops. The majority of the drive was wonderful. I elected to take the "back road" down the peninsula and across the puente that crosses the gulf of Nicoya when it is still really a river mouth. It is a fascinating view, and seemingly one place where you could get both a sunrise and a sunset over the water. Rejoining the highway of the Americas after about an hour and a half slowed my pace somewhat - but the scenery is unbelievable and the weather was perfect.

Turning in from the coastal highway to go east into San Jose I ran into a bit of a snag. At this stage the highway crosses the first half of the continental divide, so the roads are winding and steep. The highway about halfway up had been narrowed to one lane for construction, so it took me about an hour and a half to cover the 42km between Esparza and San Ramon.

Just past the contstruction I was pulled over for speeding. Wow. To pay a speeding ticket in Costa Rica, you must first take the ticket the next day to the Banco de Costa Rica in the capital city of the province that charges you - in my case Puntarenas. Then, the kind officer said, you must take the ticket, stamped by the bank, and drive the 120km to San JOse, to have it validated by the Court of Justice. All of this, of course, was explained in Spanish.

"No,no,no" says I, "No puedo ir a San Jose la manana mismo, voy a Guanacaste!" (I am unable to go to San Josa the day after tomorrow, I'm going to Guanacaste). After a few minutes of confusion, I asked if I could just give the money to him, and have him look after it.

"Of course!" says he. "If we do it that way, I can give you a discount!" Quite the bargain, I think. I paid half as much for the ticket, he took care of the red tape by not ever taking it off the spool , and he gets some extra cash to feed the family. Possibly as much as he would normally make in three days. I like this system. The purpose of the ticket, which ostensibly at least is to get everyone to slow down, is fulfilled, I don't have to waste the rest of my trip running after a ticket, and the officer gets a well deserved bonus. Everyone's happy!

The rest of the trip went without incident. I made it to the airport one minute before their plane landed. The heavens opened and produced a wonderful thunderstorm for my entertainment while they were going through customs and immigration, and all was well.

We ended the night at Michelo's again, where Rob, Lincoln and Deanna got to meet Michel, Ricardo, Carla, and, of course, Max.