02 December 2023 San Jose
In search of pizza
Every experience is conditioned, even Nirvana.
VJC
The alarm is set for 9 am but I was awake just before seven. This gives me even more time to pack for almost the last time on this trip.
With time to spare I take a walk to the bakery and supermarket to buy a few things for breakfast.
It’s the start of Costa Rica’s dry season. There is not a single cloud in the deep blue sky. It is going to be a very hot day in Quepos. After yesterday‘s hike in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, I am looking forward to sitting on the bus to San Jose for a few hours.
After breakfast, I am due to attend a monthly online board meeting for the Buddhist Recovery Network (BRN) monthly board meeting, so I ask the apartment owner if I can check out late. No problem.
Just after midday, I leave the apartment for the last time to walk to Quepos bus station, arriving very early for the 1 pm bus to San Jose. But I don’t mind, I have nothing to do and nowhere to go for a little while. When the bus does arrive, it fills up quickly and leaves, relatively, on time.
I have had no mobile internet access for the last three days, so I assumed that I had reached my Data limit. I will need internet access for my last few days in Costa Rica, so I bought a 7-day e-SIM (from Airalo) for US$9 but, low and behold, today my contract access has returned. Having spent 30+ years in IT I must try to remember that turning devices off and then on again, often resolves problems and glitches.
The bus was comfortable enough. On the road to San Jose, we had briefly stopped at traffic lights when I noticed we were on the famous ‘Crocodile Bridge’. Looking down to the river bank, I could see some of these reptiles lounging and even at this distance they looked very big.
Two hours after leaving Quepos we stopped for a much needed 15-minute comfort break. From this point onwards, the traffic is quite busy with lots of stop-n-start stretches. We eventually arrive in San Jose at 17:25, exactly four hours after leaving Quepos.
I ordered an Uber ride to the hotel ‘Condó Living 1333’, on Central Ave, which seemed very nice.
I have had a craving for pizza for several days now, which hasn’t lessened but much to my delight there is a highly rated Italian restaurant ‘Sapore Trattoria’ just a few hundred metres down the road. I walk into the eatery at 6 pm and the restaurant is nearly empty. The waiter asks me if I have a reservation while looking at a virtually blank diary page. He manages to find me a table! The pizza was very good and also the home-made chilli sauce that was served alongside.
That’s it for another day… good night.
Budget costs:
- Breakfast things in Quepos € 5.50
- Bus ticket Quepos to San Jose (Direct) € 7.75
- Uber to Central Ave € 4
- Pizza at Sapore Trattoria, San Jose € 23
- Supermarket cookies, Snickers and ice-cream € 8.50
- Candó Living 1333 – city centre apartment booked through Booking.com € 46 per night.
Link to more images at @Kapikoy100