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Picking
up your friend at the airport.
From
time to time we all get visitors and if you are like me,
like to greet them at the airport. Last
Monday afternoon my long time friend, and whom I
haven't seen in a while, arrived from Canada.
I prefer to take the bus to the airport. There are two
bus lines with direct service from downtown, the red bus
and the yellow bus. The red bus is operated by TUASA who
for the longest time had the oldest and the most
uncomfortable buses. I beleive the owner of TUASA is
also a partner in the new car inspection franchise.
Their buses are now new and quite comfortable.
The yellow bus was my favorite for the longest time. It
is operated by Station Wagon Alajuela and its now aging
fleet shows signs of wear and tear and lots of abuse.
I
usually take the bus at the major stop on Centro Colon,
a stop where all buses going west make a stop. On this
day I waited for over 15 minutes and neither bus came
by. I was dumbfounded as these two provide service like
every 5 minutes. Then it dawned on me that sometimes the
buses go along 1st avenue, one block over. And, it was
then that I
realized that they moved the bus route.
Oh yeah, one very important to remember: you need to
tell the driver that you want to get off at the airport.
Though the bus is clearly marked "aeropuerto"
the driver, I suppose decides if he will make the detour
from his route to go by the airport bus stop. So unless
you tell him... well you will be like me and end in
downtown Alajuela and have to take a taxi to airport,
unless you know which bus...
So,
now I am at the airport. I can't tell if my friend's
flight is in. The 'new' monitor are 'new' on the outside
but have the same information on the inside - hard to
figure out and totally useless. One thing I was trying
to figure out why I was given the 'scheduled arrival
time' and the 'arrival time'. In the case of my friend's
flight the SAT was 17:05 and the AT 15:05 and that the
flight was on time. It was now 15:45 and had no idea
where my friend was.
I asked around, since there is no official information
booth, a taxi driver who confirmed that the TACA flight
had not come in. Of course, he would know, as they do
nothing all day but wait on flights to score a fare.
To get flight information, I had now one of three
choices: call the information number I was given and
recorded in my phone book, go upstairs to the airline
counter or just wait.
I
called the number, I was given the same information on
the monitor. Big help there. So, I went upstairs to make
a visit to the airline counter. In the old terminal,
anyone could walk in to the departures area and approach
the airline counters, not that they were any help in
most cases. Now, you have to carry your passport to get
through the security at the main door.
All I had left was to wait.
Finally,
the flight arrived. It was an hour late. I can't bitch
at the airport for that, so I will turn to the airline.
It was TACA, a precursor to LACSA who are famous for
never leaving on time, so no surprise there. In reality,
I friend later told me, the flight got delayed in
Toronto as the de-iced the aircraft that morning.
A
new system they now have is the way you pay for the
taxi. A booth was installed on the walkout out of the
building where you pay for the taxi service, get a
receipt and get into the many waiting taxis. You need to
know where you are going. The new fare system is based
on zones or areas and all 'official airport' taxis are
orange, in contrast to the red of the normal taxis.
An uneventful taxi ride gave us a chance to catch on old
times and make some plans for the next few days. A short
nap, a light dinner and the games began...
Next time I will relate to you some of our adventures!
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