Locked Up Abroad.....well, almost

Most people have one or two of these stories. You know, the kind that you laugh about after but at time might be thinking..."What the hell am I doing?"
Well, here's one a little like that.
In all the times that Dave and I have traveled we don't carry our passports with us and I have read many recommendations on whether we should or not. Some say (in quite a panic), don't carry your passport around because if you get robbed or lose it, it will be gone and so hard to get back. Others have said "Always have your passport with you." And others still say, don't carry your actual passport but rather copies of it. Copy the picture page and the page that has you entry stamp and/or visa. Well I don't carry a flippin copy machine when I travel so that seems like a stupid suggestion to me!
As I've said, I do neither and so far, no problemo!
As of today I have a very different perspective on this subject.
After some much needed sleep we got up, had coffee on our deck and saw a couple of bats and some big ass beetle thingy and a skittish hummingbird. The monkeys, birds and others that had woken us with all their noises at about 4:30 seemed to already be long gone even though it was still only 6:30. No worries, we'll see our share I'm sure.
Today we decide to just cruise around the area and see where everything is. First we head to the feria (farmers market) in Uvita and get some fresh fruit, pineapples, mangos and papayas....yummy then we just start driving around.
I have a horrible sense of direction, the main reason why I don't try out for the Amazing Race, and even with a clear map telling me where everything is and a damn GPS system boinging every time we pass a beach I still can't figure out where the hell I am...oh well, thank goodness for Dave!!
Driving up Rte 34, the main coastal highway with one last group of things to investigate we run into a road block. It is La Policia de Migración, and even those that do know Spanish know that this the Immigration Police. They ask to see our passports which we say are in our hotel so then they just ask for ID and while Dave has his license on him, silly, naive Debbie doesn't even have that......Go on everyone, say it...what an idiot. I agree. I tend not to carry my purse with me when we travel and 90% of the time (OK, 100% of the time) I do not carry any ID....oops!
So, what do you think happens next? They ask us to pull over to the side of the road, they take Dave's license, get on the phone and then try to ask us questions.
When did you get here? How long are you staying? Where are you going? And even though I know all those answers and can give them in Spanish, I am a little nervous and it takes time to think.  They are reading Dave's license which is in English and trying to figure out which of the words are actually his name. We obviously give all the help we can and after about 1\2 hour they tell us we can go and we promise that we get and carry our passports with us from now on.
In the meantime we notice that they have pulled over 2 other cars filled with stupid Americans that just don't follow the rules!!
The officers themselves were very nice, very patient with us and very professional but I realize now that could have gone another way.
After our release we headed on our way, stopped somewhere for lunch and who do you think we saw drive by? Yep, La Policia de Migración. This time we smiled and waved!!
All this excitement and we are only on day 1!!!

So Here We Go Again...

Once again Dave and I find ourselves on our way to Costa Rica as a sort of vacation/retirement scouting trip.
We came here back in October 2013 and had a great trio. We pretty much settled on the fact that we would want to live on or near the beach and the one real beach town that we visited, Samara, seems like a nice quiet beach town that may fit the bill.
Then we came back home and I started to panic. You see, Dave and I want to retire early (I know, who doesn't),  but in order to do so we have to find somewhere to live cheaply. At least cheaper than the US.  I've had my ears open and have checked forums and blogs and websites, oh my!!! So much information, so many choices, what am I going to do.........breathe!
We went to a living overseas conference last October that helped to consolidate a lot of the information I was getting and also gave Dave a chance to hear about all these places from people other than me. When all was said and done we decided that we would concentrate on Costa Rica until it didn't feel right to do so. I have had to train myself to stop jumping on every new bandwagon and every new place I hear of because that was making me nuts, and just concentrate about learning about what Costa Rica has to offer and then making our decision from there.
So here we go again....

In true Debbie fashion I have picked the earliest flight out meaning that our first day will be a bit rough but we will get right to our first place on the coast and not have to stay a night in San Jose.
We will spend just about 3weeks visiting much of the Central Pacific area including Dominical\Uvita, Manuel Antonio, Quepos and finally Jaco.
I am excited to see what happens next......