Adios Santo Domingo

 I will admit, I am ready to come home for only 1 thing: a bubble bath.

Ok, I am excited to see my family for a few days before leaping into an exciting new job at an exciting new (literally) school.

But there is SO much to miss here. On my día final, I enjoyed my final meals with my amazing host family, my surprise visit to Lapa Verde to see the final graduation of our round of students from Common Ground International (apparently there's a whole new batch of folks coming in next week), and a final stroll around town.

If you are EVER in Santo Domingo, swing by for some of Flory's bread and deserts.
They are NEXT LEVEL!

Lapa Verde (the blue building on the left) was my school every weekday M-F.
There is a beautiful sign, but I would have had to cross the street to take a photo of it
and I limit my crossing of THAT particular street to ONLY when necessary.

There are street names, but addresses rarely use them. Instead, everything is based on landmarks.
Lapa Verde is x meters south of McDonalds. That archway was my EVERYTHING the first
few days as I learned many new streets of Santo Domingo (because I'd made a wrong turn or two on my way to school)

Every colonial head city of Costa Rica seems to be built in the same pattern. The center is a park, with a church or basilica next to it. Then, even streets grow higher the further you get from the park, odds on the other side. And Avenues follow the same the naming patterns, evens on one side, odds on the other.

And in the park itself, a sign telling you where you are and what is important to this area, culturally.

Anyone catch that line about "head city"? Yeah, this whole time, I have been living in Santo Tomas de Santo Domingo de Heredia (in Costa Rica)

The last stop on my goodbye tour of the sites and smells of Santo Domingo was the Bus Stop. Yeah, that white sign that says "Parada de Autobuses", it's a MIRICLE that that even exists. I happen to NOW know that it's where you can pick up a few of the buses that go into San Jose, but there are others and they stop at COMPLETLY random locations around the city. I walk past SEVERAL covered bus stops with a bench on my walk to school, but I have never been in a position to wait for a bus there.
Also, not ALL the buses that stop there are going to San Jose. And the papers in the window of the busses say the names of the first and last cities the bus is going to. But not which direction it's going or where there might be a stop in between. It is not just the extranjeros who ask the driver for confirmation that it this bus is indeed the one they need before they get on.

Costa Rica, you have no military, and all that money goes into healthcare and education and I LOVE that. And hey, centralized public transportation is pretty great, you know?