We walked to the car rental agency from the hotel--not a short walk, and somewhat uninspiring given the exhaust fumes. When we arrived at the car rental agency at 8 a.m., we were informed that our reservation wasn't for a morning pickup, but for 1 p.m. Needless to say, that wasn't what we had planned, nor what we feel that Randy had arranged. We informed the clerk that a 1 p.m. pickup wasn't acceptable, and that Jill would wait in the lobby until a car arrived and that I would stroll down the street and check to see if any of the other rental agencies could meet our needs better. Amazingly--and supposedly, since we are still sitting here at 8:53 a.m. and the car has not shown up yet--the clerk found a car at the airport that would be here in an hour.

Car? Well, actually it's supposed to be a Suzuki Samurai 4x4. We need the four-wheel drive for the gravel/dirt road to Monteverde, and possibly for beach driving in Tamarindo. As we sat and waited for the car to arrive, we chatted with a couple who just returned their 4x4 to the airport, and had taken a cab into town. We're speculating that their vehicle is the one that we will get. It sounds like they had an adventure--a ticket at the turn-off to Monteverde; a loose wheel; and then they returned the car with the tank half empty which is giving the clerk havoc.

Another couple walked in, and their car was not available either. The agency representative offered them an upgrade at a reduced rate, but a rate higher than the rate of their original quote. The fellow, intelligently, said that was unacceptable. The clerk stepped in the back, then returned to say that he could have the upgrade at the rate for the original class. It is interesting to see the "scams" that these car rental places try to use--as Jill told me, however, she had seen the same type of things done at agencies in the States, so we can't blame it on the country.

We walked across to the French bakery for breakfast--two croissants and coffee with milk, which were excellent. We bought a loaf of bread to take with us, placed still warm in the bag.

Well, the fellow who was being upgraded received the car that the others returned, which leaves us wondering where ours is. Jill says we'll give them until 9:30.

Last night, after returning from the river trip, we showered and went to The Bookshop so Jill could get her guide book after all. Constantly during the rafting trip, she was bugged because she would see a bird but couldn't identify it. The price had been increased by 1,000 colones from when we had looked at it two days ago-the proprietess said that was because someone had shoplifted a copy. She offered Jill the original price if Jill paid by cash, rather than credit card, as she had intended.

We ate dinner at Vishnu, a vegetarian restaurant a couple of doors down from The Bookshop. We had no idea what was on the menu, and settled on ordering the daily special, which turned out to be delicious.