The drive to Costa Rica took 12 hours. This was partially because when I left Granada I drove in a giant triangle back to Granada. Coming back into the city I thought, “I thought there was only one big colonial city in Nicaragua…” And then I turned onto the street I had left on previously and my mind made an audible snapping sound of cognitive dissonance. I left again uncertain of where I had made my mistake but stopped at a ciber in a town called Niquinohomo and looked up where I was on a map. From there I was able to see where I had gone wrong and found the Pan-American Highway again. When I got to the border customs was very quick and I didn’t have to pay much money. The police at the border used BMW bikes and I parked mine next to one. I paid an old toothless man to watch after my bike even though I could see it from where I was waiting in line.

An aside: I thought up a brilliant plan for not getting lost. I’ll just take screenshots of Google maps and put them on my camera; that way I can have a highway map I can zoom in on and be able to actually navigate with.

It eventually got dark but I pressed on for San Jóse. Going was slow, I drove for three hours at 30mph. I couldn’t go faster because it was raining and I had to keep my visor up to watch for potholes in the road. Any faster and the rain stung my eyes too much. I also got stuck behind countless numbers of trucks in the mountain passes on the way there.

When I got to San Jóse I spent a while looking for a hostel I’d read about and when I finally found it it was too much of a hassle to get all my things inside (lots and lots of stairs) so I looked elsewhere. I finally ended up at the Gran Central Costa Rica, a fancy hotel. I had a nice dinner and talked to some girls who were part of a tour group from Little Rock, Arkansas.

The next morning I got everything packed up and drove to a small hotel and guest house called Kap’s Place. It’s very nice inside and the staff is very friendly. They are very secure; you have to be buzzed in through two steel doors with cameras to get inside. I got my stuff packed away and took a taxi to the Terra Mall, the “biggest mall in Central America”. It was my goal to go to the Cinepolis VIP and watch Indiana Jones 4. I walked around for a while, played some video games (Midway’s Total Carnage from 1992 and Metal Slug 4), and people-watched. The movie was great and very true to the spirit of the first three. The theater was also great and featured reclining leather seats with footrests.

On the taxi ride home from the mall I passed a skating rink called Patines Music. The cab driver got hopelessly lost and could not find my hotel even after I drew him a map. I don’t think he was from around the area. We eventually found it after he talked to some of his compañeros. I decided to head out to the skating rink in hopes of meeting and talking to some Costa Ricans and caught another taxi back after trying to find the address online. I took a direction sheet back to the hotel this time. I tried explaining to the cab driver where Patines Music was but he had to call his wife who spoke English and we eventually figured it all out.

The skating rink was fun, skating is alive and well in Costa Rica. Some of their skaters rivaled people I’ve seen in the US. I took some videos of a guy whose name I have no idea how to spell, I will put those up later. They told me to come back tonight and that there would be better music. After the session ended they all got out hockey sticks and had a match. It was interesting to go skating because there’s a physical vocabulary that takes the place of a spoken one, you can say, “Can you do this? What about this?” without actually understanding the spoken part.

I went home and couldn’t sleep so I watched Beyond the Sea on my laptop. Very good movie. I can tell Kevin Spacey loves Bobby Darin.