We arrived rather late, approx. 9:00pm local time. I was expecting a person to be at airport with my name waiting to take us to our hotel. There wasn’t anyone. What there was was a bunch of semi-pushy taxi drivers asking if I needed a taxi. I started replying nicely, but unfortunately for the 8th taxi driver, my response became rather curt.
A man by the name of Carlos approached and asked what I was looking for. I was a little uncomfortable because I didn’t know what his intentions were and I didn’t want to make us a target upon arrival. I told him the hotel we were looking for the transport to, “Ah, you are looking for Manuel.” he replied. “What is your name?” I told him “Tim” and he told me to move to another area to wait. While in sight, the other area was removed from the crowd I found some measure of comfort being surrounded by, so we stayed put.
Now I have seen “Taken”, and Carlos reminded me a lot of the guy that befriended the girls at the airport. I had already decided that I was not going anywhere he tried to send us unless I had some confirmation that he was trying to help me.
He returned and asked if my last name was Raymond… confirmation received.
We followed him to a spot where Manuel arrived shortly thereafter. We loaded up and left the airport.
After a long day of travel and non-normal meals, we asked Manuel to stop where we could get some quick food before getting to the hotel. I am mortified to report that the first food we ate in Costa Rica was McDonald’s.