San Jose, Costa Rica January 2019

Monday 14 January

Well I never thought Brickman Exhibitions would take me to South America, but here we go! Off to San Jose for 6 days to help the locals put an exhibition into the second floor of a car park in one of their huge shopping malls. I'm dreading opening the doors of the containers given the month at sea, I don't know what will have moved during shipping. Only a week late too. It’s going to be a testing week to say the least.

After sitting on the tarmac in Sydney for 2 hours, great start, so the airline staff could fix the computer & kept refuelling, we finally took to the air for the long flight. Landing at Houston Texas with 6 hours to kill, so did some work as I've been told it's 1-1&1/2 hours into Houston CBD by train. Absolutely knackered as I didn't get much sleep on the flight. Next part of the trip awaits, with hopefully some sleep, however it's only a short 3 hour flight, but definitely having a sleeping tablet when I finally get to the hotel.

Was met by the Costa Rican promoter at the airport, a lovely lady called Marie, who then drive me to the hotel via the shopping centre site, though not really much to see at 11pm at night. The hotel, Sheraton San Jose Hotel, was only around 500m from the shopping centre.

I checked into my room, did some unpacking and made my way downstairs to peruse the facilities. I was taken aback upon entering the adjoined Casino, with walk-through scanners and heavily armed security officers. Not something we are used to in Australia. It was a vast area, not really my thing so headed back to my room to hit the pillow after 34 hours of travelling, before heading to site first thing tomorrow, Wednesday, Sydney time.

Tuesday 15 January

Went to check out the site of the exbihition, and it is a car park, second floor. However the Promoter has transformed it into an exhibition space, on the inside. The outside gives away the lengths she went to to host the exhibition. Scaffold floor & walls that were plastered on the inside, draped ceiling with truss rigged where I needed it, scaffold stage areas, it was just like a bought one.

Wednesday 16 January

Nothing to report today as the containers still haven't been cleared through Customs, or some other holding up mechanism at the docks.

So my constant companion/driver/all-round lovely guy, Joaquín Antonio Gómez Arias decided to take me for a drive into the centre of San Jose to see his city. We made a couple of stops to see some famous or important buildings etc of the city. Some were beautiful & in between our English/Spanish conversation via phone app I actually enjoyed seeing the sights. The return trip to the shopping centre did show examples of the social divide in the city, with opulent houses adjacent to corrugated iron clad dwellings for the needier.

All we needed was the containers from the docks. These didn't arrive until the evening of Thursday 17 January, then it was helter skelter putting the show in. The actual space was on the second floor of the car park so fork lifts had to shuttle crates up a ramp and around 300 metres from the containers; all done in 2 & 1/2 hours.

Then it was all hands on deck to get the exhibition out and onto staging and the floor. The English/Spanish barriers was starting to break down slightly with Production Manager, Carlos Chaves, coming to the fore, guiding his crew superbly.

Friday 18 January

A big days effort and things started falling in place, but it was bedlam, everyone chipping in on what was to be the quickest install we had done.

We've just put the finishing touches to the exhibition & returned to the hotel. I am feeling totally knackered but we have to go back for the VIP Opening. One thing that is gobsmacking is the amount of security everywhere. The hotel is bad enough with the amount of hulks roaming the hotel & casino, I always stay in the classy establishments, especially the commando guy at the front door who is armed. These guys would kill you rather than look at you. But the shopping mall is another whole level, security everywhere, on segues, bicycles & walking, All with guns!!! The ATM change guy even had an automatic small rifle. Kind of scary really, for an Australian to see so many guns!

The Opening Night is going nuts, so many people, kids, photos taken & massive smiles all around, that’s what counts. Before & after shots. Great work by the whole Brickman team, see ya Costa Rica, is was nice!