Calling from the Costa Rican coast

The guidebooks say that it takes something like three hours to drive from San Jose, the capital of this Central American hideaway, to the Pacific Ocean. Right. Maybe if you’re not touching the highway. Because it took us something like five, even given the hour that we took off for lunch. And it felt twice that long.

Not that I’m complaining. To be out of Spokane in December, to be in a country in which the temperature is in the upper 70s and the sunshine as bright as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political star, is something to be desired. By anyone. But it just goes to show you. Don’t trust travel writers.

As for Arnold, I mention him for more than the obvious reason. The place we’re staying, a resort near the coastal town of Quepos, not long ago hosted him and Maria for a month when they supposedly rented the whole place. Hmmm. That explains the words scrawled on the door to the bathroom. ”I’ll be bock.”