Planes, Trains and Automobiles

This post should actually be entitled "Feet, Bus, Taxi, Bus, Bus, Bus, Feet" because that is how I traveled today in order to meet my new students. I guess I should explain that I live in Escazu on the west side of San Jose. I meet my students at Mall San Pedro, which is on the southeast side of San Jose. Unfortunately, there isn't a bus that goes directly from Escazu to San Pedro. I have to go all the way into the center of San Jose first, then either take a taxi or other bus to San Pedro. For those of you in Mississippi, this is like going from Petal to Purvis by way of Laurel. For those of you in Louisiana, it's like going from NOLA East to Kenner through the French Quarter. Supposedly, this is going to change soon with the addition of new routes but I'm beginning to think I'll be gone before that happens.

So, today, I walked about a 1/2 mile to the bus stop and caught the bus into downtown San Jose. Then, I walked a few blocks to catch a cab since I didn't know where to find the bus to San Pedro. (There isn't a central bus depot so you have to know where to go to catch the buses for each area and evidently, the stops are spread throughout the city.) I took the cab to the mall and met my students. After, I took the San Pedro bus back to San Jose, walked a couple of blocks, and caught another bus that was supposed to take me to the loading place for buses to Escazu. Unfortunately, that didn't happen but fortunately, I knew where I was when the route ended. I walked 100 yards or so to a bus stop, caught a bus back to Escazu, then walked the 1/2 mile home. All in all, an interesting experience. All the bus rides combined cost me less than $2.00. The cab ride was about $3.50. I meet with my students again tomorrow and I'm going to take a cab from where one bus drops me off to where the other picks me up and try to save the $3.50. I'm also going to take a map with me and mark the places so I can figure out how to walk from one spot to the other.