No sweat… I’ve been to San Jose many times. I figured that I could kill some time playing cards and watching the show at the Del Rey, and I had written to Jonesie, and we were going to meet up for lunch. So here’s your report: no girls, one meal and three taxi rides.
The folks at the Taca counter in Miami were real nice and polite. I asked what an upgrade would cost, and the woman at check-in upgraded me for free on the first flight and told me that the second half was full. The flight was uneventful, but on time. The seats were comfortable, the stewardess was young and beautiful, and the breakfast was passable.
When I went through immigration, I explained that I was only in the country for a few hours, and the clerk told me what I needed to do to avoid the tourist/airport tax when I returned. In nothing flat, I was in a $19 taxi to the Del Rey.
I walked in, and I thought back to the first time I ever entered: 11 pm on a Saturday night. The place was electric that night – I had never seen that many beautiful girls in one place before, and the energy there carried me for a week with almost no sleep.
It’s a good thing I had those memories: the casino was closed. It turns out that the country recently passed a law limiting all casino’s hours to 3:00 pm to either 3 or 5 am. So, no action, no drink girls, no energy, no guys… and very few women.
Instead of playing cards, I counted the girls in the Del Rey and came up with sixteen. Of those, I would have granted six of them an interview, and would not have objected to as many as twelve of them in my bed, but not all at retail price.
I fended off the advances of a couple of chicas, read a book for a while, and then Jonesie showed up. We shot the shit for an hour or so, comparing notes, trips, and countries we have visited. The time flew by, and we decided to head out for lunch. On the way there, we noticed a lot of beautiful girls in the street, coming and going from work, school, or whatever. Girl watching in San Jose has always been a pleasure.
On one of my very early trips to Costa Rica, I stumbled upon a restaurant called Thomy’s Paprika. It wasn’t a restaurant in the true sense – Thomy had six tables set up in his living room in San Pedro, and cooked whatever he damn felt like that night. It was always excellent, and Thomy could spin a yarn as well as he could cook. I wound up eating at his house many times, and turned on a lot of other mongers to his place. Then, one trip, I called for a reservation, and he was gone. And he stayed gone for years. Then one day a couple of years ago, Thomy sent me an email, telling me that he was back in San Jose, and he had purchased La Bastille, one of the oldest restaurants in the city. It’s on Avenida Central and Calle 22 (http://www.la-bastille-restaurante.com/Bastilla.htm). Stop on by, he said. I did once, and it was a pleasure to have him cook for me again.
Jonesie and I taxied to Thomy’s La Bastille, asked for Thomy, and it was like old times. He told us the specials, we ordered, and the food was delicious. Thomy stopped by a couple of times, and he can still spin a yarn. After lunch, the three of us had some espresso and solved most of Costa Rica’s economic problems. For you food fans, I had the onion soup, and the corvina covered in garlic, almonds and goat cheese special. It was awesome.
Note: The man with the croquettes is not Thomy; it was our waiter.
We finished up, and I headed back to the airport. Near the airport, we passed the Fiesta casino. My driver told me that the casino had girls, like in the Del Rey, he said. I haven’t seen any mention of this, so can a regular San Jose visitor confirm or deny this report? The taxi meter said 3,810 colones, so I gave the driver a 10,000 colone note and asked for 5,000 change. He tried to tell me that the fare to the airport was a fixed 8,000 colones. I would have nothing of it, pointing to the meter, and saying that he should have told me in advance. He backed down easily, so I guess that he was trying to see what he could get away with.
At the airport, getting my tax-free exemption was no hassle whatsoever, and if I hadn’t stopped at the Taca ticket counter to try for another upgrade (no dice), I wouldn’t have even needed it, as I already had my boarding pass and no one asked for anything at the security checkpoint.
I spent the colones that I didn’t lose in the casino on a couple of bottles of Britt Liquor and a bottle of vodka for my friends in Lima. OK, I also bought some of the Britt chocolates for myself, too. The flight boarded on time, the flight attendants are friendly (they should send the Copa employees on a Taca flight to take some lessons), and the plane pushed back only three minutes past the scheduled departure time. The flight was uneventful and the food in coach, although severely lacking as compared to lunch at Thomy’s, was edible. Here’s what Taca feeds you in coach:
What more could I ask for? I had a nice visit in San Jose, and I’m on my way to Lima for a week.