Day 17 - Off to Get a Gold Crown

This morning everyone was back into routine... basically, Elliot up while it was still dark outside and playing his video games on his DS or iPad while the rest of us slept. I woke up a few times during the night and just stared at all the stars that were bright and filled the sky. Elliot returned to sleep when the sun still hadn't risen after an hour awake. Finally morning came and we were all up and ready to get some breakfast from downstairs. The 3 parrots downstairs greeted us with holas and whistles. Breakfast consisted of eggs, fruit, beans and rice and toast; a typical Costa Rican breakfast.

I packed up our things and then we were off in the SUV for Liberia where today I was getting my gold crown fitted. Arriving in Liberia, we set to work looking for the dental office. The instructions were to head west 450m of the Bank of Costa Rica, but there were no dental offices located there. I worked the street for some more info and ended up work with a helpful gentleman and a police officer who said I would find a farmacia east of the bank with the name I was searching for. Correen argued with me which way East and West are and we were still not locating anything referenced in the emailed instructions. I sat next to a man on a park bench and asked him for help finding the farmacia. He told me that it was 100m away and we made short work of reaching or destination.

Correen and the kids went for a walk while I went and got my crown. An hour was suggested as a time to return and meet me. As soon as I went inside I told them, "no es oeste, es oriente", with a smile on. Finding things in Central America with no road signs and misinformation is challenging, but humourous. The fitting of my gold crown took only about 15 minutes, so I thanked them for the work done and left to find Correen and the kids.

I met them about 5-6 blocks down and we returned to the car and drove to Burger King for some lunch. After lunch our plan was to return to San Jose, see if they had a room available for tonight, and have a day in San Jose to tour some museums, etc.

Driving in Costa Rica is very different from Canada. The majority of cars on the highway are driving between 40 km/h and 60km/h on a posted 80 km/h road. The other drivers are the ones passing these slow moving vehicles usually on solid lines and sometimes on blind hills and corners. I even had a police car speed past me on double solid line. So the norm is to safely negotiate passing whenever you can or add double the time to your trip. Well today, I got stopped by two motorcycle cops and they informed me of my offense, passing on a solid line and the officer said it would by a $600 usd fine. Say What?! An officer returned and asked me to step out to talk to them and they asked if I wanted to pay the $600 fine or pay $200 to them right there. In hindsight I probably could have negotiated this amount down, but I paid the $200 bribe and got out of there. There wasn't anymore double line passing by me on the remainder of the trip, but everyone else on the highway was still doing it, including huge 18 wheelers.

Correen checked with the front desk at the hotel and there was a room available. We parked and the whole place was decorated for Christmas and they were setting up for a huge staff party, immediately in front of the main entrance of our hotel. Correen and the kids went to the hot tub for a swim while I worked on the blog. When they returned, Elliot stayed with me while Mom and Tegan went to order Pizza with the front desk's help. About 30-40 minutes later the girls returned with Dominos! The have Papa John's and Pizza Hut as well here. So at 8 pm, with the disco music playing outside at the fiesta, we were eating slice after slice of pepperoni pizza, drinking orange Fanta and Coca-Cola while watching episodes of Friends and Two and a Half Men on TV.