Back in the City

Arrived in San Jose today, got to the hotel where we are staying the night and realized that the phone I bought for emergencies no longer worked because I couldn't remember the PIN number.  (Yes, i know...brain dead...). Thus, task one this afternoon was to find a Kolbi outlet and get a new PIN.  

Note to travellers, this is not an easy task in a foreign language, especially when one's language skills are very rudimentary....

The two lovely young men at the Front Desk told us to go to Wallmart to find a Kolbi outlet and called a cab driver who works for the hotel.  Up he drove and off we went into the crazy traffic.  We arrived at Wallmart to be overwhelmed by the epic size of the store, probably one of the largest of their stores I have seen.  Sells the same kind of stuff, plastic and appliances.  Marching in MG and I asked for Kolbi and, not surprisingly, the salespeople didn't understand us nor did we understand their directions.  Fortunately two women salespeople helped us find somebody who spoke some English.  Bottom line, we weren't at the right place, we were told we needed to go to Place America which was two klms away.  

Off we went and pulled into an old style shopping mall (sorta like a run down version of the open air malls in the Bay Area) looking for the Kolbi store.  Oops, first outlet didn't work but we found out that the ICE (pounced icee) store which is the official Kolbi store was around the corner.  There was a guard at the door, the inside was freezing (must why the name) and there were close to twenty people and as many kids waiting.  The guard pointed me to take a number and I sat down only the realize there were ten clients in front of me and two salespeople who were not in a hurry.  You know that sinking feeling when you know you are going to have to wait and wait....as in the passport office.  Yep, that was me. 

MG went to find our driver, Rigo, and shortly came back to say there were yet other Kolbi outlets around the corner.  So off we went, with my number clutched in my hand, to find if we could get my phone unlocked.  Stall one said he couldn't do it and the two young women in stall two also said no.  We worked on our language skills for awhile and Rigo, laughing that I couldn't remember my pin (after he decoded my pigeon Spanish) suggested we just get a new chip.  The young women said okay but needed my passaporte. However,  after being warned not to take our passports to town I didn't have one to show her.   I showed them my drivers license and Nexus card but that wasn't good enough..   Akkkkk. so close.  

But, Rigo had a plan.  He could buy a new chip for my phone with his drivers license.  Cost 1thousand colones (two dollars).  done!  I now have a phone, at least that works in Costa Rica, I think.  

Tomorrow we leave for Tortuguero, a national park on the Caribbean side and guess what!  I just found my friggen PIN number in the only place I didn't look, a hidden pocket in my wallet.