Last day in paradise. I woke up at 5:45 to the sounds of rain, so I lingered in bed for a bit longer before heading out to the deck to listen to the birds and the rain. I was hoping to walk some of the trails on property, or head down to the beach, but it was not meant to be this morning.
We had breakfast on property (the only hotel that didn’t include breakfast on our whole trip), and then started for the airport. With our driving experience so far, we didn’t want to chance any mishaps on the way to the airport, so we left with plenty of time to get there. When we got to the highway, near San Jose, the traffic slowed to stop and go, which is apparently known among the locals, as they were walking up the center of the lanes, selling bottled water and snacks! On the highway! We also passed people hanging out on a hillside, just watching airplanes come and go from the airport. When we went the gas station to fill up the rental, we had an interesting thing happen to us. After turning the car back on, we realized the gas was one dash away from being full. So we asked the attendant (again, full service station) to fill it up. He let us know the auto shut off was what kept it from getting full, but proceeded to rock the car back and forth while clicking one drop of gas in at a time to get us full! Now that is service!
Quick flight over the Panama for our overnight layover. The only time we feel we got “taken advantage of” on the whole trip was when we paid for our taxi ride to the hotel. There are not metered taxis in Panama, so they just give you a rate, and apparently we paid about $10 too much–Chris said no tip after that! Another thing we noticed after our time in Costa Rica, and our drive to the hotel in Panama, is that restaurants tend to close earlier than what we are accustomed to in the USA. So I had booked a hotel next to the mall in hopes of finding dinner there, only to find out that basically everything was closed. Room service and the Grinch on TV to close out the night. Back to the airport the next day, where we found out we got to go through security twice (!) to get on our flight. Once, at the normal place, and another time at the gate. They wouldn’t even allow us to bring water into the gate area, so something to note if we ever have another overnight international layover before a flight back to the States. Overall, another great trip with my crew!