We got up and checked out before 7 am, and it felt way too early for breakfast. But Jack had made us a “small portion” which looked and smelled too good to skip. We said goodbye and took a taxi to the airport. The check-in process was quite chaotic, and we were sent from office to office to pay departure taxes, get boarding passes, go through customs and immigration. In the security check Fredrik were chatting with the security guard about Norway and went straight through. Gunnhild on the other hand had to unpack all electronics and give away 3 lighters. No problem, since Fredrik still had two. 😉
We were 19 people (full plane) in a small Twin Otter to San José, and got some good views of Bocas del Toro after take off. In San José we arrived at a very small terminal with mainly helicopters and private planes in addition to the small Nature Air planes. Immigration, baggage claim, security and customs were all in a small room, but with only 19 people it went pretty smoothly.
After a couple of hours our flight to Liberia was boarding. When we booked it it was only going to Liberia, but now it turned out that it would continue to Tamarindo which was our next main destination. Too late to change the tickets, so we got off in Liberia, picked up our bags by the plane and walked to the terminal. We found an ATM and got 100.000 colones (felt like a lot of money but equals 200 USD). We got a taxi to Liberia Hotel which is in Calle Real, half a block from the main square.
We had read that Liberia was a charming colonial town, but it was only a few buildings and after visiting Cuba last year it was not very impressive. It was nice to be in a more genuine city again though, and we walked around most of the city center. It was very, very hot, but there was a cool breeze all the time which made it bearable. In the evening we had our own little beer tasting session in the back yard of our hotel with all the different local beer we could find in the super market. The winner was without a doubt Bavaria Dark.