glowingfish

Thank you for this! I know very little about Costa Rica, which I suspect is the case for about 99% of my fellow Britons. If you mentioned the name someone would probably mention ecotourism, after which there'd be a dearth of suggestions.

The buses aren't operated by a central transit agency.

I mean, neither (outside London) are ours, thanks to Thatcherite deregulation in the 1980s. My thoughts on that get too political for here, but suffice to say I envy London.

But the train stations don't even have a dot matrix display for arrival or departure time of trains.

That, on the other hand, we do have. Ouch. I remember before those signs existed, and waiting in the snow at a small unstaffed station could be a bit heart-in-mouth until you actually saw the train appear!