Saturday, October 3, 2026 – Our last day in Costa Rica. We had our last and first breakfasts in the Costa Rica at the same place, the Holiday Inn in Sabana (San Jose, Costa Rica). Afterwards we had a quick swim.
Our flight didn’t leave until 1:54 PM, but our pickup from the hotel was 9:45. And the trip to the airport was quick. It only took about 15 minutes. We had a lot of time to kill. Immigration/Customs was quick. The security line was quick. We ended up having a slow lunch. There was a California Pizza Kitchen in the airport, one of Sonia’s favorite places. We spent a lot of time playing spades. It was guys vs. girls. And the girls continued the streak of beating the guys.
Just a reminder, Costa Rica loves is Sloths!
Customs and Immigration back in Houston was really fast too. We didn’t even need to show our passport. It was all biometric, face scanning. And the line was only a minute long. The process took about 10 seconds.
And that is a wrap! Had a wonderful refreshing trip and looking forward to our next time. I’m planning to have a “Pura Vista” party in December and invite our friends that have been to Costa Rica. Definitely will be having rice, black beans, plantains, and other Costa Rica food. Also, planning to watch Walker to get a little more up to speed about the War of Central America from the 1850s.
We took the bus from Jaco to San Jose. It was only 3 hours.
Had breakfast in Jaco before leaving.
Went through a tollbooth on the way from Jaco to San Jose. Saw a sign listing out the various “tarifas de peaje”. Sow the word “ejes”, and figured it must me “axle”.
Tried out the hot tub at the Holiday Inn in San Jose when we got there. We did not have that much time between getting to the Holiday Inn and the time for our VIP City Tour. But we had not been able to try the pool on the first visit, and with the afternoon rains and everything else, we wanted to make sure we did not miss it.
While Sonia and I are in the hot tub, a man comes up to talk to us. He is Alfred, and he had recently been deported to Costa Rica. He told us his story. He had been living in the US for 9 years, then he gets rear ended. And he ends up being pushed into the car in front of him. He doesn’t have insurance, and he gets caught by ICE. They deport him back to Mexico. He jumps the border again, and gets caught. He is held in ICE detention for a month. He seeks asylum because of the cartel situation in Mexico. He does not get asylum, and he is a Mexican citizen. But Mexico apparently has a program with Costa Rica where some of its citizens can go down there to look for jobs. Albert had excellent English. And he had previously worked as a security guard. He would be meeting with immigration officials on Monday.
Several things struck me about Albert. First, he had a lot of tattoos and was hanging out with several other young men with tattoos around the pool. So many people have tattoos, so this may not mean anything. Second, he was extremely friendly and communicative. I was wondering what he wanted. He would ask me the next day for some money. He apparently had $20 in his jeans which ICE kept. I was swimming at the time and did not have my wallet, so I literally could not help him. I wonder if that was the sole purpose of him trying to be friendly with everyone. Third, he talked about crossing the board, and the issues with ICE very mater a factly. Like he was describing the rules of a game. “You role the dice, sometimes you pass ‘GO’ and collect $200, sometimes you landing on Chance and have to pay everyone $10.”.
Then went on a city bus tour.
First place was the art museum which used to be their airport. You can kind of see that the tower in the back was the air traffic control tower.
One of the features of the art museum was a room with a carving in the wall outlining the history of Costa Rica.
It had other art too.
Then off to the city. As you can see it was raining!
We went to the central market which had several hundred stores selling everything.
Then we went to the church. Catholic churches are in every city.
Then the national theater.
Then to the park to see the memorial to the war of central america. This is the one that the American William Walker instigated in the 1850s.
My sister Maggie’s 40th birthday. I sent her happy birthday text, but did not get anything back. And I tried sending her some money via Zelle the same way I had done in the past, but got a message back a few hours later saying it had failed to go through. Not sure I have any good contact information for her.
Also, Christopher had texted the day before asking if we were going to do the Houston Half Marathon. I said we were and he is going to fly down for it. Now I have to get ready. Only 3 weeks. I had decided to run 5 miles this morning. I got up early and went out on the run.
Lots of neat sites along the way.
It says “Welcome to Aloha – The Place where there is no world crisis”
I only ended up running 2 miles. But it was a start. On the walk back I saw this coffee place with a cat in an astronaut suit. I had to stop.
It was a cafe called ‘Jet Fuel’. I got an iced coffee and admired the other photos.
Lots of street art in Jaco.
Sonia was ready for me when I got back to the Best Western.
We had breakfast, and then went for a swim
And saw the iguana again.
Had a pina colada
Took an Uber to “Roasted Edge” that seemed to have boardgames according to Google maps.
Sonia and I got up fairly early. Took a walk around the Hotel Eco Arenal property.
They had some cats that would visit us for breakfast.
Lots of beautiful plants.
Then the bus ride to Jaco. It was about 5 hours.
We did make a stop halfway.
It had a butterfly house.
Finally made it to Best Wester in Jaco!
Time to get some food from this all inclusive resort. We had to wait about 90 minutes for our rooms to be available.
But also a lot of neat things to see.
Looks at this guy!
Also had table tennis to play.
We went on a walk on the beach.
Now read take a look at these to pictures, and let me know if you don’t see an obvious answer!
Of course I think the point is that they sometimes have men clean both bathrooms and other times women cleaning both restrooms. But still I thought It was a little funny.
We went on a walk of Jaco and so some interesting sites. A lot of cool street art.
I thought RadioShack went out of business. Apparently the one in Jaco is still hanging on!
This will give you a little better overview of the city.
Today was a free day. Started with breakfast at the hotel.
Linus and Shirley had found a massage place just down the street from our hotel. We decided to walk over there.
They were closed. But we called them and made an appointment for all 4 of us that afternoon.
There was also a Pickleball court just down the street from the hotel in the other direction. They only charge $20 per hour for the court and they have paddles and balls. They also have a camera system that records you playing and you can download it on your phone.
There was a new towel figure. I think this is a person wearing one of the hats that we brought.
We decided to spend some time in the hotel pool.
Then went into town to get some lunch.
We got a vegetarian pizza and a big sampler and split it between us.
Walked around town a bit.
Got to see the church. A common pattern of development in Latin America by the Spanish was to build a church and a park in each of the cities.
Finally time for the spa.
We could see a good view of the volcano from here.
They had two houses. Sonia and I got one. And Shirley and Linus got the other. We got the 2 hour combo. The first part is a complete body scrub. Then you have to take a shower. My skin felt so smooth afterwards. Then they do a full body massage.
Afterwards they gave us coconuts to drink the juice out of. Also we had timed it nearly perfectly with the rain. It rained while we were getting a massage and then pretty much ended by the time we were finished.
We ended up stopping at Mary’s again for a little snack.
Monday, September 28, 2026 – started the day getting up early to watch SpaceX Starship Flight Test 14. Successful flight, went to orbit the first time and deployed Starlink v3 satellites that will have a normal operational life (unlike the ones that were deployed on the suborbital flight 13 and were only operational for about 15 minutes.)
Then we had breakfast at the hotel. I did not realize that the tables were assigned by room. But ended up sitting next to some German speaking people on holiday.
Then we got the bus for our morning river rafting.
Afterwards we got an into chocolate making.
There was this table that looked really neat there.
On the way to lunch saw a “school bus”. Looks like something you would see in America.
Also got some better views of Arenal.
Was pleasantly surprised to see the housekeeping staff made some blanket animals. We got an elephant in ours.
Linus and Shirley got a hippo or is it a dog?
After a rest we decide to venture out.
We end up going to Saffron an Indian restaurant (one of several) in Arenal. It was also raining.
Afterwards we walked around and looked at some of the souvenir shops.
It is a very good article that asks a lot of fundamental questions. Below is a listing of books and other material that is referenced from this article. Also included are works by Josef Pieper, a philosopher that explores the value of leisure.
