A Short Detour-by Becky Baird

It all started when Senora Thompson shoved Liam, Luke, Brooke and I into a cab with directions to "the green church in Heredia." As soon as our cabbie took off he asked me in spanish, "Where are you going?" I repeated the instructions given to him seconds earlier and he gave me a look that is best described as, "what in the???" At that moment the alarm in the back of my head starting buzzing, and I know los tres (the three) in the backseat felt similarly.


Cheryl, John, Emmily and Ten minutes and one near-crash later, we found ourselves in front of a very big, but very white church. We put our heads together and decided to breathe and then ask for directions. My spanish is decent (although I find the longer I am here the easier it gets) but it doesn't do any good if nobody knows where the green church is. With three sets of completely different directions, we decided it was best to return to where we were dropped off. Fortunately, we saw Cheryl and John with Emmily and Joel (the Thompson kids) with looks similar to ours.

As relieved as we felt, the eight of us still had no clue where to go. After a few minutes of recounting all we knew, we saw the lovely Senora Thompson running towards us. We literally ran 5 blocks to meet up with our somewhat worried group, and all ended happily ever after.

If this story is disconcerting for anyone, just know we were never in any danger, had the phone number of our tour guide and could have easily taken a cab back to San Jose. Basically, it was a learning experience that is a pretty good story as well. More later (probably sooner) before we leave el capital. Pura Vida!