Business as Unusual

Well our last couple of days has been a little unorthodox in relation to a normal day in the office. Geoff's escapade in Nicaragua had put us desparately behind schedule and left us with a very short time to finish our business.

So pack up and say goodbye on Wednesday night, head off early Thursday morning for the bus station, (view from the most pleasant bus station I've ever been at at top) and the four hour bus trip to (nearly) Atenas. An interesting trip, if long.

We passed through areas we had only visited in the dark or (in my case) in the rain, watched the mountains go by, and dozed on and off. About 2 hours into the trip, a man, apparently blind, carrying an old spanish guitar that had lost most of its varnish, climbed onto the bus and made his way half way to the back. As the bus moved away, he began to play and sing, his voice a beautiful clear tenor, serenading us with Spanish songs about love and the blue sky and his one true girl. After about 20 minutes, he stopped, gave us his name, and told us a story about how he is trying to become a professional musician, and if we liked his music, perhaps we could reward him with a little change.

Our trip took much longer than we anticipated, due to traffic, a festival in a small town, what we assume was an accident on the road ahead, and an hour or standing in the sun while we waited for Geoff to take a second bus into Atenas and send a cab back for us - so we didn't make it in to Atenas until after 3:00 p.m.

We stayed at a gorgeous b&b called Ana's Place (see pictures), but had very little time to enjoy it, as we got there, threw our luggage in our room, and ran (well, walked briskly) to the lawyers for our first meeting. Next, we ran back to Ana's, said hello to the birds, showered, dressed in Atenas appropriate clothing, met up with Geoff at the central parque, and walked to La Trilla (arguably one of the best restaurants in the world), ate supper with Mike and Sharyn, walked to the other end of town (town is not very big) and said "Hello" to the old gang at Puerta Del Sol (Hugs and kisses all round). By 10.00 p.m. we were half baked, having been travelling since 7, so we headed back to Ana's to sleep.

We were up again at 8:00 for an appointment with the bank - we discovered that opening a bank account, credit line and so on in Costa Rica takes two and a half hours and ends with a "come back on Tuesday", now a really big rush back to the lawyers for a directors meeting, pick up the official books, a run to a nearby soda for a quick (and extremely delicious) breakfast, back to Ana's place, check out quick while Rob is packing and hop in a taxi for the half hour trip to the airport by 12:30 (for $16.00). We made it with less than 15 minutes to spare, but we made it!

Whew!

And would I ever do it again? In a New York second!