Day 16 - Drive to Alajuela

We had our free breakfast at the hotel and were on the road back towards Alajuela at 9am. It was an easy drive until we made the turn off the coastal highway and started up into the central valley. There were quite a few places where they were doing road construction with one way traffic control forcing us to sometimes have to wait in places for 20 minutes until we could proceed. While heading up the mountain we were stuck behind some slow trucks and our car began to overheat so we had to pull over a few times to let it cook off before we could get back on our way. Once in Alajuela we found our way back to Las Orquideas and checked in. We wanted to go walk around Alajuela and get some lunch along with some coffee and other things at the MegaSuper. Once in Alajuela we got stuck in some really bad traffic. We learned later that everybody had just received their Christmas bonuses (mandatory in Costa Rica) and were out shopping so the streets were packed. Being stuck in traffic the car began to overheat again forcing us to put the heat on full blast in an attempt to cool it down. We finally found a place to park but then saw that all the other cars had some sort of parking permit. Not being sure if it was ok to park or not we gave up on the idea and drove to the MegaSuper and got a bunch of coffee and rum to take back home. Next we made our way back to Tricolor to return the car, getting slightly lost along the way. I was a little worried about returning the car since we had lost all the hubcaps somewhere along one of the many bad roads were drove on but they didn't say anything and gave us a ride back to the hotel.

By this time it was about 3pm and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and were starving. We went to the bar and ate a double order of their famous buffalo wings washed with with some cold beers. Next we took a dip in the hot jacuzzi and then a refreshing swim in the (cold) pool. After showering and watching TV for a bit in our room we went back to the bar for some tasty burgers and margaritas and were in bed by 9am.