We arrived at the airport in San Jose with a warranted mix of joy and exhaustion. While the rest of us waited outside the terminal, Tomas took off to go figure out our transportation needs. Before too long he came back in a small white sedan along with an old friend who drives tourists around in a minivan for a living. We had no time to waste so we loaded up in the two vehicles and headed across town for a 3.30pm meeting with a man named Phil, who works for USAID’s Latin America and Caribbean Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance here in San Jose. He told us about his work with USAID and we flexed our growing disaster relief muscle by asking a number of probing questions, ranging from how they decide what to do in any given emergency situation to what the dynamics are for Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Upon leaving this meeting, our task for the rest of the day was simple: obtain groceries and get our tired selves out to Casa Shalom, where we’ll be staying for the duration of our trip (further blog entries will undoubtedly have more to say about this place, so I won’t go into it now). Though our objectives for the afternoon seemed quite reasonable, things did not quite go according to plan. To begin with, it took us an hour to move five miles; today is Labor Day so apparently everyone was headed out of town on the eve of the holiday. It was a challenge to keep our caravan of three vehicles together, but in addition to Tomas, hats off to our two other brave drivers – both of whom from the Land of Lincoln, both of whom sensational drivers.

Eventually we got to the grocery store Mas X Menos (“more for less�) and split up into three teams to find, with maximum efficiency, all the food and household supplies necessary for a team of 14. An hour and 300,000 colones ($575) later we were good to go, though we did learn that ten kilos of ground beef is serious business.

After the grocery store it was supposed to be a simple 45-minute drive to our destination. But between our futile efforts to find brake pads for one of the cars, a few credit cards being declined at the gas station, and then, lastly, smoke emanating from beneath the hood of our primary vehicle (the van), our plans were thrown out the window. In the end, the volcano had claimed yet another transmission and along with the assistance of some local guys who came to help, we ended up pushing the van up a hill, across a road, and into the ditch on the other side where it would be out of harm’s way. Two of us stayed with the van while the others headed on to Casa Shalom, where they unloaded themselves and their belongings before Tomas, Courtney, and Jessica came back with the two remaining cars for us and our many groceries.

Around midnight we finally arrived at Casa Shalom, battle-weary but triumphant. The same cannot be said for our van, however, and at the moment the little white sedan with failing brakes has become a car of choice until we find something bigger and better. But not to worry, loved ones – with your prayers and a nice Latin American dose of thinking on our toes, we trust that we’ll not only return home safely in a little over a week; we’ll also return having learned a lot, and with many a story to be told.