chapter 34 continued
COSEVI is thirty minutes from downtown S.J. in a town called Uruca but the highway I need to be on Friday to return home goes by Uruca. I ask Cesar to confirm with the court in San Ramon that if I pay the ticket Friday morning at COSEVI that when I get to the court I will be able to appear before a judge. When he gets back to me he assures me that I will be able to see a judge and that I should plead my case and request immediate return of my license and reminds me that the court is closed from 12 to 1pm for lunch and then closed from 2:30pm until Monday.
I have a narrow window of opportunity because knowing that COSEVI exists and finding COSEVI in that conglomeration of convoluted streets in what is known as “the central valley” that contains a whole bunch of cities with 2.8 million people and no street addresses are two different challenges.
But I found it in time to make it to San Ramon at 1pm. Why so late you might ask? I left the hotel at 9am. By the time I finally found COVSEVI (remember, there are no addresses in C.R. therefore maps are basically useless), waited in the lines (yes, more than one) and finally got the ticket paid (about $50) and then drove to court it was 1pm.
What would you expect to experience in court with not real strong Spanish? Cesar recommended that I have a bilingual person with me. Skip that. First of all the tica wasn’t with me for the trip back home and second, she wasn’t bi-lingual anyway. I’m in my car on my way home with no bilingual person with me and I know it’s pointless to try to find a stranger, who would be in court for their own stress producing problem, to help me. First, of course, are the lines. There’s the one to get into the building since a whole pile of people are waiting for the 1pm opening and where one at a time each person goes through a thorough security search. Then there’s the one when you finally find the correct counter and take a number and wait your turn. Finally my number is called, someone takes all my paper work and the only copy of my passport that I have with me and tells me to go sit back down. I figure then is a good time to go over in my mind the presentation/plea that I will make to the judge in hopes of having him/her release my license to me.