We were tired by the time we arrived at the hotel in San Jose. It was a long day of driving from Lake Arenal and hiking in Monteverde. I dropped the family off at the Holiday Inn and went in search of a gas station. It was dark, raining and rush hour. Let's just say that driving in that city under those conditions made driving in Chicago loop traffic look like amateur hour. There was one intersection, in particular, that did not provide a right of way from my direction - you just had to nose out and play chicken with whatever stream of vehicles was headed your way. Managing to make it through the worst of the traffic, I made a couple of unlucky turns and ended up on narrow side streets where every resident seemed to be milling about on the sidewalk despite the rain. Starting to feel uncomfortable, I quickly turned on the radio to attempt to sooth the nerves when I realized that I was probably listening to narcocorrido music based on its liberal use of words like narco and muerto. At that point I just blasted the music.. The Toyota might not have much street 'cred', but no one looked my way after that.
I was relieved to eventually find a gas station and then to navigate my way from memory to the car rental office. The lads there were consoling each other over Robin Williams' passing. It seems that Robin's charisma and talent passed through the language divide. One of the guys gave me a lift back to the hotel. After a late dinner, I went to sleep and dreamt of a relaxing shuttle trip to Panama.
