Bob LaGarde
A few thoughts on Business, Politics and Adventure
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A few thoughts on Business, Politics and Adventure
All of my Road Trip posts up to now were written contemporaneously during my trip and published on my former blog, Southbound Rambler. Any posts that I may have made after Canas however have been lost. So the remainder of the trip to David, Panama and then back to San Jose is being written from reconstructed memories of the events from 14 years ago.
The job opportunity that I had in Costa Rica was to develop a training program for an Alajuela based call center. Alajuela is only 4 hours from Canas so I had planned for a leisurely start the next day however when I woke the next morning I found that the soda (small diner) on the premises was closed. I don’t function well without coffee so I packed up my things and headed out to explore a bit and look for coffee.
I got into Alajuela just after lunch and in a brutal dose of irony, stumbled across an answer to my the lodging dilemma that I had faced nearly everyday of my trip so far. In downtown Alajuela I found the Backpackers Hostel, a clean, friendly, well-located hostel with good internet, snacks, lots of friendly travelers and all for less that $20 per night. I couldn’t believe that I had traveled over 3000 miles and never once thought to look for hostels instead of hotels.
I got checked in and shot an email over to my contact on the potential job opportunity to let him know that I was in town and available to meet.
Alajuela is just north of the San Jose airport. After checking in and catching my breath, I jumped back in the car to find the Zona Franca business park where the company that I would be interviewing with was located. It was just 2 miles east of the airport and easy to find. I drove on into downtown San Jose and then headed back toward Alajuela to explore the residential areas around the business park. It wasn’t exactly my idea of a tropical paradise.
By the time I got back I had an email from Rick, the project manager for the AT&T call center contract at the call center, inviting me to come in at 10 AM the next day to discuss the job.
I had fallen in love with Costa Rica in 2008 when I flew in for a long weekend fishing trip. We had rented a car at the San Jose airport and drove to the Los Suenos Resort in Playa Herradura, just north of Jaco. I loved virtually everything about the experience. The drive from the airport to Playa Herradura was mesmerizing. Flower markets alive with majestic displays of color. Thriving tropical foliage that infused you with a sense of life. Twenty foot long crocodiles at the Tarcoles River Crocodile Bridge. City life in Alajuela and San Jose were not that Costa Rica.
The next morning I got up early as usual and went out for a walk tour of el centro Alajuela. There were two parks within two or three blocks and an elaborate municipal building but otherwise it was pretty unremarkable.
The adventure of the day started when I got back to the hostel. There were two well dressed, official looking people milling around my car. I approached and explained that I did not speak Spanish and asked if there was something I could help them with. Fortunately they both spoke good English. They explained that they were from the tax department and they were there to confiscate my vehicle.
That threw me into an immediate panic. I nervously protested that I had brought the car into the country three days prior and had a permit for the car that was supposedly good for 90 days. I dug out all my paper work and crossed my fingers that would satisfy them. Well it didn’t. Apparently in Costa Rica, official looking documents are assumed to be forgeries unless proven otherwise. So I ended up sitting nervously in the back of the car with them for over an hour while they tracked the import certificate through their system to verify its authenticity. Fortunately my documents weren’t forgeries, they may have been obtained through bribery but at least they were authentic! I could tell that they were surprised once they verified that the car had been brought in legally. But then they became friendly, wished me well, and thanked me for my cooperation.
At the appointed time I drove over to the business park to meet with Rick about the training program job.
Rick was an American expat living Santa Bárbara de Heredia. He was absolutely thrilled to have an experienced, well spoken American interviewing for the job. He was super friendly and I felt entirely comfortable about working with him but the rest of the business I was a little less sure about.
The prospect of taking a job there in San Jose completely broke the carefree spell of being a tourist. Taking a job and finding a place to live immediately turned it into more of a permanent lifestyle decision. I felt comfortable enough with Rick to level with him about my concerns and he was entirely empathetic about the whole situation. He related a bit of his own experience living as an expat and assured me that the job was mine if I wanted it.
I had already been thinking about checking out Panama based on my earlier meeting with Hector at the Honduras/Nicaragua border. I explained all of this to Rick and he promised to hold the job open for me for a few days to give me time to decide what I wanted to do.
I returned to the Hostel and started plotting my trip to Panama. I was dangerously low on funds at this point so it felt good to have a solid job prospect. But I felt like I was too close to not forge ahead and at least check out Panama before committing. Plus I really wanted to see more of Costa Rica. That night I went up to the roof top beer garden there at the Hostel and chatted with some of the other travelers. One of them advised me to take the mountainous Pan American 2 route through the Palmares rain forest region of Costa Rica. I headed back to my room to pack my bags.