I’ve been updated on the Iron Maiden concert since it was first scheduled, by a friend of mine named Pablo. I met Pablo two years ago while dancing at a collection of bars in San Jose called El Pueblo. We exchanged emails have been pen pals ever since. Pablo works for Hewlett Packard and is online almost as often as me.
Anyway, avid metal fan that he is, Pablo has been sending me news about Iron Maiden since the group performed in Costa Rica (for the first time ever) in 2008. He and his friends are all Maiden fans. When I told him of my plans to return to Costa Rica in February, we were both elated to realize that I’d still be in the country to attend the concert on March 3, 2009.
This year’s concert is in La Liga soccer stadium in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose. Pablo and his brother Javier have jobs working security for the show. Pablo plans to sneak me into the show for free. The brothers have a cousin who lives in town and will let us sleep at her house that night. This was about all we have planned in advance. I know the show starts at 7pm and that it takes two and a half hours to get to San Jose from where I am staying.
Monday before the show (March 2nd)
This morning I was trying desperately to catch up on emails when Pablo messaged me. He still has not received his requested vacation time to attend the show and he’s panicking. I just learned some new slang curse words. My favorite is still “carepicha” (dickface).
Also, Pablo tells me that he has to be at the stadium by 8am tomorrow. I have to be there too, at 8am, because that’s when they are entering the stadium. Otherwise he has no idea how he’s getting me in.
If I work with them for the day, I can earn 15 mil colones. That’s about $30, or fifteen Costa Rica beers. I consider this pretty seriously as a story for the grandkids (“I once denied a seventeen-year-old metal head entrance to an Iron Maiden concert in Costa Rica because he was too drunk to take the chain off of his boots”), but I also don’t want to get up at 4am and then work for seventeen hours.
Finally we decide there is just no way I can leave Puntarenas in the morning and arrive in Alajuela by 8am. Working the show is not an option.
The new plan is that Pablo will call my hotel in the morning and update me on details after they have started working. His vacation time is finally approved at about 6pm. The evening news includes reports that Iron Maiden has landed.
It is important to mention here that I have never been to Alajuela before. I know that the airport is in Alajuela, but I’ve only traveled from there and back to Puntarenas. I have never been in the town of Alajuela before, to know where anything is. It’s also important to point out that I do not have a cell phone down here, and neither do Pablo or his brother Javier. That’s OK though, I am going to this concert.
[...] calls to suggest that we surf from eleven to one or two. I tell him to come on over but that I am still waiting to hear what time to leave for Alajuela. Immediately after, Pablo calls on a horrible [...]