Leaving Costa Rica (and GAP-world)

After La Fortuna, Costa Rica, I headed to San Jose, the capitol city. Three of my former colleagues at GAP Adventures had just gotten an apartment and they were kind enough to let me crash at their place. I spent my last few days basically getting ready to head to Europe.

I bought some new non-sandal shoes (which gave me blisters on the first day... shoes you have to wear with socks are over-rated), bought a few new clothes, mailed some stuff home, and started trying to get my work laptop ready to turn over to the Central American office. Well, the first few things were easy enough, but backing up my photos and music was not so easy. First problem: My ipod was dying. Second problem: Electronics are super expensive in Costa Rica due to taxes. So, the ipod would not be enough store everything on as I didn't have faith that it would last me until Ireland. Correct guess - it completely died the night before I left Costa Rica.

So, off to Office Depot. I started looking into getting external hard drives and found that those taxes were indeed hefty! An 80gb hard drive (called "disco duro" in Spanish, which made me chuckle) cost about US$180, at least double some of the prices on the internet that I'd found. I sucked it up and bought it after checking that it was compatible with both apples and pcs. 20 minute taxi ride home, and guess what! Not compatible with macs.

Next day: chatted with two techie friends, one of whom suggested I buy and burn DVDs with the info. 20 minutes back to the Office Depot, 2 10-packs of DVDs bought. 20 minutes back to apartment. DVD inserted, selected to burn media on iTunes, DVD comes spitting out and I'm instructed to insert disc. DVD re-inserted, re-spat out. It seems that my laptop wasn't a DVD burner. Doh! So, either I say goodbye to all of my music and photos (!!) other than those that I'd uploaded to flickr, or I suck it up and buy an even more expensive external disco duro.

I convinced my old co-workers to go out for a nice meal at an Indian restaurant not too far from Office Depot so I can pick up a 160gb hard drive. Mission accomplished, and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner full of laughter and fabulous food with Mayra, Blaine, and Caroline, some of the ladies who are in charge of making Central American operations run smoothly. We got home and finished up a bottle of wine as I worked on packing. And then I tested out the apple compatibility of my new disco duro. Guess what- it worked! (I did have plan D ready - Give-Up-And-Cry - and was prepared to get to Office Depot at 8am the next morning on my way to the airport to return the damn thing.) But thankfully, that wasn't necessary. And now, I've got something on which I can store my photos while I'm on the road.

The next day, I left Costa Rica and headed to Dublin, Ireland. Although I'd been on the road for about 2 months following the end of my contract with GAP, my move to Europe was pretty big. It felt like a start of my travels... and perhaps it is. I've left behind my old stomping grounds (which happened to span Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) and have moved on with my travel, completely un-connected to GAP. In every country I visited during those two months, I either purposefully or accidentally bumped into other tour leaders or ex-tour leaders. Although they were my friends, ultimately talk always turned to GAP. I was still somewhat in the GAP world, albeit slightly disconnected.

My last fews days in San Jose, I was totally in the GAP world again, hanging out solely with GAP employees, spending time at the office, chatting with my old boss, who is also a friend. I became up-to-date on the changes that had taken place in the Central office (most of them positive changes, to my delight).

But then on Wednesday, I flew away from all of that and landed somewhere I hadn't been for 4 years. It feels very freeing, and I have finally cut old ties. My time with GAP was a great time, but it was also a stressful time with too much work for too few people, and I'm happy to be away from it all. Let the adventure begin! Here's to moving on!