Through one of Laurin’s friends we heard about a small town in a coffee growing region closer to the capital San Jose. The friend had a contact for us who ran a BnB and was a chef. He did not have room for us but gave us advice on visiting the town and agreed to meet us when we were there.

The road trip was another opportunity to see the country. We drove to Liberia and then turned south on the Pan American Highway. In 1964 this road linking the Americas from Canada to Chile, save for a short gap in Panama, was completed. For a while we drove on freeway. Then we encountered road construction. They were widening a section of 2 lane into freeway. It was a massive project that stretched for many kilometers. In addition, Friday afternoon traffic was very slow, reminding me of Puget Sound traffic. The highway became a winding road climbing uphill into some mountains as dusk fell and we could no longer see the countryside.

We found our hotel after dark, checked in, and walked to a nearby hamburger restaurant for a bite. Hotel La Posada had unique artwork in every nook. We found solid wood furniture in our rooms and in the dining room where we breakfasted.

Like many Latin American towns, San Ramón had a Saturday Mercado (Pictured). An open air covered area at the local fairgrounds had displays of fruits and vegetables, many of which I could not identify. They also sold meat, chicken and cheeses. Unfortunately, we were too far from the boats to make any purchases and expect them to stay fresh on the journey back.

Later we went off to meet our new friend Andy. Costa Rica is full of ex-pat Americans and he was a good example. The Californian arrived twenty years ago and never left. He and his wife purchased a small coffee finca and have built a BnB business, which was doing well before the pandemic. Andy is an avid pickleball player. I have noticed the popularity of this sport whenever I was in a community with a lot of ex-pat Americans or Canadians along the coast. Andy has a business plan to make his little coffee finca into a destination pickleball resort.

Back at our hotel, we acted like Americans and watched San Jose State defeat Boise State in an American football game. At halftime I walked down the block and ordered pizza from a nearby take-out restaurant. It could have been a fall afternoon in the US, except for the fact that we were sitting a table outside our hotel rooms and it was about 80 degrees out.

We took a different route back to the boats, taking a left off of the Pan American Highway towards the coast. The route had less traffic and led us through fields of sugar cane, their white flowers sticking up above like a crop of feather dusters. We also saw lots of grazing cattle.