Arrival in Costa Rica

In order to get to Tres Ríos, Costa Rica, from Mérida, Mexico, I first had to go back through Houston. I left before the crack of dawn (4:45 AM) from my homestay house and arrived at the airport shortly after 5 for my 7:10 flight. Since the line was short for both check-in and security, I had a lot of time to wait around near the gate (Mérida is a small airport; the only snack stand was charging 46 pesos for a 300ml bottle of milk that could be purchased at Oxxo, a convenience store, for 11.50 pesos). Luckily, JC was on the same flight as I was, so I at least had some company. Once we touched down in Houston, JC and I left together to go through customs. Unfortunately, we were separated as I was just passing through on my way to Costa Rica and JC’s final destination was the US. I spent the rest of my (short) time in the airport going through security again, finding an ATM, and trying to get my ticket changed for my return trip (I was originally scheduled to go through Newark (and Chicago) before getting to Louisville, but a flight change made it so that I would arrive in Newark at 3:15 when my flight out of Newark left at 3:00—this was something of a problem, in my opinion), which took a ridiculously long time but was eventually accomplished. From Houston, I flew into San José, Costa Rica, which is a beautiful and bustling city of 3 million that is also the capital of Costa Rica. From there, I went through customs for the 2^nd time that day and quickly found my homestay mom, Emilia (we’re twins!). We then took a prearranged taxi to Tres Ríos, which is 30 kilometers from the airport (though only 12 kilometers from the center of the city). It took us over an hour to get to Tres Ríos, partly due to traffic. I thought our taxi was going to break down on the highway (we came to a complete stop at least three times!), but we did make it. Helpfully, none of the streets around here have signs with names (I didn’t even know the address of this house for a few days), so unlike in Mérida, I cannot find anything based on an address.