Friday, August 20th . . .

The day began early. We were up at 4:30 a.m. and Judy and Craig (my sister and brother-in-law) drove us to the Atlanta airport for our 9:40 flight to San Jose. A mere 18 hours later we finally went to sleep in our "new" home in Costa Rica. It was a long day! Not bad - just packed full with things to do. Our flight from Atlanta arrived on time in San Jose. Our big brother, Chad and Nikki, met us at the airport and whisked us away to the house that we now call our home. We briefly checked out the house and unloaded our bags. Then it was off to do some shopping! First stop - PriceSmart (like Sam's or Costco)! Nikki and Chad helped us fill out the application for membership and we got our member cards just moments later. As we walked the aisles, Nikki and Chad helped us convert the prices from colones to dollars. We purchased things like paper towels, napkins, soap, disinfectant, etc. After we finished, we got a taxi to bring us back to the house where we dropped off our purchases. We did this very quickly because we needed to keep the taxi so he could take us to our next destination - Pequeno Mundo (kind of like a Big Lots). After returning from Pequeno Mundo, we walked to a bus stop and Nikki and Chad showed us how to get to Hiper Mas (Walmart) by taking the bus. First, you have to know which bus to get on - there are many that pass by the bus stops. Second, you have to wave down the bus if you want it to stop - it doesn't automatically stop. Third, there is no set schedule for when the buses come, so you may have to wait at the bus stop for only 10 minutes or you might be there waiting for 40 minutes. Once you get on the bus you have to pay attention so that you know when to get off the bus. (Obviously, Chad and Nikki taught us well because the next day Ike and I did it by ourselves!) When we left Hiper Mas, we took a taxi back to our house because it's not recommended to ride the bus back from a store with bags and packages. By then it was close to 6:00 and quickly getting dark. For dinner we went to a restaurant that served typical Costa Rican food - chicken, beans and rice, veggies. It was really good, but I can't remember the name of it. After taking care of a few more errands, it was home to unpack and make our bed. We finally collapsed into bed about 11:00 pm. We were so tired we had no trouble falling asleep. And we slept well . . . until about 5:30 the next morning when a rooster started crowing.