Costa Rica (All work no play)

Headed down to San Jose, CRI early yesterday,takes about 6 hrs with the connect time in Houston. It was perfect flying in on a Sunday because the airport was pretty empty, and nothing happens in San Jose on Sunday, so there was no traffic. There were so many people coming to San Jose though, we were on a 777-300! That's the same jet I take when I fly to Dubai, so pretty surprised 1. that the runway in San Jose could handle that big of jet because it's in the mountains, and you literally fly into the valley to the city 2. that San Jose had such a draw. Looking around at customs, the line for Citizens was maybe 10 people, everyone else was foreign. There were many German/Austrian/Swedish people around me. The one couple I talked to said they have a house in Punterenas which is about an hour from San Jose. They fly direct from Vienna to Houston, then Houston to SJO, they were staying for the Christmas/New Years.

This was the cover of the United Magazine for December- what a coincidence! It talked about all the volcanoes, rainforest, wildlife, and how it has a special rating for it's pure beaches. Which if you look at the map- San Jose is smack in the middle of the mountain range in the center of the country- so unfortunately I won't be seeing any of those things in the magazine- at least this time :-) Getting around here is a breeze- all the taxi's are metered, thank goodness, and they are government regulated. Going from the airport to hotel only cost me $8.00 US, so that was a nice surprise. As we were going down the highways and side roads, I noticed there are a lot more BMW's, benz, and new cars on the roads here. Then I started looking at the houses, and was again surprised to see they are huge, and new. I talked with the local manager at the store last night and she said San Jose is a wealthy city by Latin American standards. Agriculture is big $ here because it's coffee and liquor, there are factories, banking, and apparently there is a really nice old town that draws lots of Latin American Tourism as well. When I went to our mall last night, I was delighted to see packed hallways, and people with hands full of shopping bags. Most of the time, you see lots of people in the mall, but 1/100 have a shopping bag, but the people last night were really shopping, a good sign for the mall. Since I had been up since 6am, I planned on just seeing the store, snapping pictures, and going back to the hotel for dinner and chilling out, but I should have known better. The team just didn't have enough leadership to get done what needed to be done, so I had to re-group the team, re-set the direction, and work, work, work! We get our first shipment of product tomorrow, and they were still messing with unpacking props and table materials. I did end up just calling it a night at 8pm, knowing that the next three days are going to be loooong as we try to open as soon as possible to get in on the christmas shopping dollars. We're staying at a Sheraton that just opened up a 2 months ago. Really nice, by far the best Sheraton I've ever seen. Modern, great lounges with Restoration Hardware furniture, fancy light fixtures, and great color scheme. A great value too- only $82.00 a night, and food/beverages are really cheap (either their currency, the Kolon, is low against the dollar, so stuff is just cheap here). Next post will probably the Opening pic with the staff in front of the store (fingers crossed), or it will be my recap as I sit in the airport heading to Panama. I'll be going there the end of the week to help out during Super Saturday this weekend.

Pictures of the lounges' pool table in the lobby (pretty posh for a Sheraton :-), and the views from my room of the area called Escazu.