CaN i GeT aN AmEn?!

If there's a chance of #*&^ happening, best to have friends around. My six little buddushkies and I decided to forgo our high school reunion and have a "freshman year" reunion in none other than exotic Costa Rica.

Six of us arranged our flights so that although we were coming from Chicago, Oklahoma City, D.C. , Phoenix and Salt Lake City, we would land in CR within one hour of each other and then make our way to meet our last friend who was already at the condo. Problem #1 arose when I got a text saying the SLC-er realized she had FORGOTTEN her passport when she arrived in L.A. crap. (I mean, what else can you say?) Luckily, through a guy I met on the plane, I gave her the number to a cheap taxi that could get her to Jaco when she should arrive via standby (after receiving her FedExed passport) the next day.

Problem #2 occurred when we conglomerated and cleared customs in San Jose. We stepped out into the sweltering humidity, looking around for our prearranged transport. We saw a lot of signage for various bachelor parties (well, we could also hear the high school glory day men) and the random CEO, only to find ours was nowhere to be found. Some guys approached us about transportation and they were nice enough to call the condo, but oopsie, they forgot to send someone. Their excuse? The guy in charge was on vacation. We huddled together to work out our options. In the end we decided that instead of paying an exorbitant price for a local taxi to take us the 2 hours to Jaco, we would rent a car (the #1 no-no from our friend... I know, insert cheeky grin.)

Well, okay, so rent a car is a fluid concept, we rented the dudes OWN car. More precisely, his broken-air-conditioning, chunk-out-of-the-seat, guessing-the-gear-gearbox, racing-striped, cant-see-it's-so-tinted mini van. Yeah, he took out his bible before we piled in. He forgot his change though, and I used it on the tolls he "forgot" to tell us about--I thought it was only fair. The largest problem with this vehicle was it's inability to handle the winding, narrow, steep cliffs with six passengers and their luggage. Luckily it waited to die until after we had cleared the mountains... and we drifted into the gravel entryway of a roadside market.

Sufficeth to say, there were a variety of emotions that occurred within the car. Freak-outs, laughter, frustration, etc., until 20 minutes later when i tried again and it resentfully sputtered to life. Upon arriving at our destination we decided we would use the car for short trips, since we had it, but would call and tell him it wasn't working and he'd need to come get it. That was the plan and it worked flawlessly... (for those scared of an angry Latino man hunting them down) until Monday when our driver dropped seven of us off at the airport... ironically, right in front of our little Latino car rental entrepreneur.

*I'd also like to note MY passport was stuck in broken safe for 3 days... again, awesome.