The Pine Tree Inn, Costa Rica, Sept 2002

Continued from earlier Posts-

Playa Hermosa

Nicoya Peninsula

Journal Entry

Sunday, October 17, 2002

... Driving in Costa Rica is quite an experience within itself, especially in San Jose.  Traffic laws don't really mean anything.  We learned real quick that it if you want to hang in San Jose traffic, you have to drive like a bat out of hell and keep one hand on the horn.  It's survival of the fitist, you do what you need to do to get where you need to go. We drove around in the pouring rain for hours that night. We had no idea where we were going, we kept ending up on one way roads.  It was just us and a really bad map.  After hours of searching for the place in our book that we wanted to go, we finally gave in and ended up at The Pine Tree Inn in Escazu.  This is where our luck turned around.

I think fate brought us here.  It was the best thing that could have happened.  We walked into the office and there was Juan.  He speaks no English at all, just gay Spanish, which is not easy to translate. We were trying to get him to take our travelers checks.  Greg told him as best he could about the "banditos" and our "problemos" but he kept telling us "No, no." After several minutes of this, in walks an American, a very intimidating, strong minded, no bullshit kind of guy, I could tell all of that right away just by the look in his eyes.  He could tell we hit a communication barrier with Juan.  We told him about our troubles and out of nowhere he throws down the cash for our room and says "Don't screw me, and DON'T tell my wife I did that!"  

Dennis Church was his name.  I wish Greg could tell you all about him.  Greg says he is going to make a movie about this man.  He has a lot of stories, great stories.  He was a Vietnam Veteran who has been through a lot.  Greg would sit on the patio with him for hours every day and just listen to all of his stories. He taught us "mucho" about how a "gringo" gets by in Costa Rica...  There's the legal way, the illegal way, and the Dennis way...  We had three major things we had to get done right away.  I had to get a new passport at the Embassy, new plane tickets at the Delta Office, and new travelers checks at American Express.  Dennis told us where to go, and who to talk to, he even drew us a map to get us from place to place.  This would have taken us days to do on our own.  We had it all taken care of in two hours. 

My experience at the Embassy was the best.  They are only open from 9-11 AM and the line of people wraps out the building and down the street by 8 AM.  Dennis told me when I get there to walk right past the 200 people in line, go straight to the guard and tell him I am here to speak to Mrs. Fernandez at window B.  So, with much hesitation and little to no confidence, I did it... and I walked right in.  It was so cool!  It was supposed to take 24 hours to get a new passport, I had mine in hand in one hour!  It felt so good to have something go smoothly for once.  Delta and American Express were also a breeze.  We were finally ready to relax...

We spent our last few days hanging out by the pool, watching CNN, sleeping in, eating out, and RELAXING!  Not the trip we had planned at all, but relaxing was just what we needed at this point.  It was sad to think we had to leave soon, but we couldn't afford to stay. We ended up coming home a week earlier than we had planned.  

I came home to the news that made everything that happened in Costa Rica seem so small and it made me realize why everything had gone so wrong.  I honestly believe that I was never supposed to get on that plane.  We had been turned away that first night for a reason, we were supposed to stay home.  There is a huge empty hole in my heart because I missed one of my best friend Doug's funeral...  He fell asleep at the wheel coming down Big Cottonwood Canyon and he rolled his truck...  I hope he doesn't remember a thing...  Poor Doug...  This happened right around the same time we got robbed.  I had no idea this was happening.  Everyone at home worried whether or not to tell me.  I'm glad they didn't.  It would have been much harder for me to know and to not be able to come home any sooner...  It's weird how life works.  I feel like I messed up the path I was intended to take.  I should have been there for Doug, but how was I to know, I just wanted so badly to to see more of Costa Rica, to lie on the beach, and have a good time with Greg...  Something was trying to warn me not to go...

After all we went through we still have love for Costa Rica, we will go back again someday. And you can bet that when we do we will stay at The Pine Tree Inn at least one night and we will most definitely track down Dennis Church...

The End

Looking back now, after having time to heal, I really don't believe I messed up the path my life was supposed to take,  I think it just made a quick switch of tracks, maybe it was a last minute decision that it was Doug's time to go.  I think all of the crazy turn of events on this trip were just an adjustment of that.  I believe we got back on track in San Jose.  I have dealt with the loss of my friend and have said goodbye to him in my own time.  But it was a very hard thing for me to understand for a long time.  Greg and I definitely came away from our trip with some great memories and many stories that are a lot more fun now to tell than they were to go through at the time. 

My life wouldn't be the same without this experience.