Muffin Tops

Wandered down some of the 8 lane Los Angeles roads this evening and came across a 50's diner where we had dinner, to the accompaniment of a news helicopter flying endless circles overhead whilst doing a live news cross. The huge $2 shop across the road that had tape around it, and police and security cars parked out the front. Never did find out the story.

Took the shuttle back to the airport and boarded the midnight Delta flight to San Jose. The irony was that we had a brand new 757 with fast, free wifi, power points, usb points, and hundreds of movies on tap, and we slept the whole trip. Five hours later and we were enjoying the summer climes of Costa Rica.

There were four staff strategically spread throughout the terminal to greet us - a greeter to welcome us, put a sticker on us and direct us down the corridor to the tour guide who introduced us to the rental car host, who walked us to the shuttle bus and handed us over to the shuttle driver. Impressive, until we filled out all of the paperwork at the rental car depot and were then told that we couldn't rent the car without a credit card, and we only had a debit card. So the rental car host handed us back to the shuttle driver who deposited us back at the airport, but the tour guide had long since gone of course. So there we sat.

Waited a few hours for Brendan and Rachel to turn up on their flight. Surely they would have a credit card. I played tour guide and introduced Brendan to the rental car host who walked us to the shuttle driver, and we started over again. After the usual insurance upsell, we drove off towards the city centre, and our rather chic, newly refurbished hotel with beds so large that opposite sides have different weather forecasts.

Did a wander down to the centre of the city, our destination being the old market area. Didn't think that you could make your living selling wax candles, or collars for your donkey, but obviously I was wrong. Right on cue the heavens opened up for the afternoon downpour, and we scoured the market for an umbrella, but no luck anywhere. You might expect that in a city that averages over 20 days of significant rain per month, the central market would sell umbrellas, but no, it took us several blocks to find a shop with any. Then the sales person opened up her entire stock, but could only find one that wasn't torn, so threw them all away. By this time the rain had gone away for the day, so it was all a bit academic in the end.

The women in San Jose wear their muffin tops with pride, and almost everybody has one. It isn't about what spills out and over their tights and jeans, and yes it does, but about what stays firmly squeezed inside. Booty is what it's all about, even to the extent that all of the jeans and tights on the models in the shop windows are displayed back to front to proudly show how you'll look from behind. Maybe that's also why we've got a king sized bed.

Some food items appear to be cheaper than home, such as coffee, but the McDonalds Big Mac index is AU$8.95 whilst a Big Mac meal at home costs around $AU9, so that's very much on par. We sampled the local Costa Rican dishes at the hotel for dinner, before retiring in a vain attempt to reset our body clocks. Brendan and Rachel had been up since 3am, whilst we only kind of dozed mid flight last night, so we could use some shut eye.