Top 3 things I learned in my first day at Costa Rica

SJO airport is in Alajuela, not San Jose:

In 2008, Susy and I went on an one-week yoga retreat in the hillside of Alajuela. On our last day, we trekked across San Jose city in a cab (I still remember vividly the cabbie locking all the car doors as we enter the city limit due to safety concern) in order to be closer to the airport before our flight out the next day. How silly of me!

Perhaps I should have known that the SJO airport is not in San Jose. It's like SFO airport is in San Bruno, not San Francisco. It's like Heathrow airport is closer to Slough (where the Office is based in) than London Central. It's like the YVR airport is not by Vancouver downtown but right next to Richmond.

Costa Rica doesn't have a standardized system of addresses:

Ladies and gentlemen, leave your GPS or Google Map at home because streets here don't have signs or sometimes names, and houses don't have numbers. Upon arrival, I was instructed to take a orange ("official") cab to Hotel 1915. There was no address provided in the instruction. The cabbie asked, "what's the address?" I responded, "está cinco minutos de aqui." Trick question! I guess I answered correctly because I was dropped off at the right place.

I always love a good scavenger hunt. Next time you ever find yourself at Alajuela, stop by Coffee Dreams, a great little place for coffee/snack. On the restaurant receipt, the address is 100m sur del museo ("100 meters south of the museum"). Buena suerte!

Cultural differences:

Travel is a lifetime experience. With the right attitude, cultural differences are fun and enlightening!

Just a few weeks ago, I stopped by Trader Joe's on my way home from Skyline to the Sea 50k, my first ultra-marathon (woo hoo!). I grabbed a Toblerone while the cashier was ringing me through. He said, "the chocolate always get us, eh" (okay, maybe he didn't say eh, but I have selective Canadian hearing). I mumbled, "but I deserve it after a long run... (trailing off mid-sentence)." 

Strategically placing sweets and chocolates by the check-out counters is a successful marketing ploy that tempts us into impulsive buys in our moments of weakness. Today I went to buy some grocery at the supermarket. I glanced at the shelves next to the check-out counter. Maybe because I've learned Spanish since the first time I've been to Costa Rica, I understood the words "sensitivo" and "super sensitivo". I giggled like a school girl and thought now that's a cultural difference!