Why won't this ATM work?

Sunday was our last full day in Costa Rica. We started with our usual breakfast of toast and eggs at Mi Casa Hostel. After eating we did some school work and took a taxi to the Children's Museum, which is part of the National Gallery, and housed in a restored penitentiary.

The Children's Museum turned out to be a real treat. Aidan's favourite part was the Egypt exhibit where he got to dress up as a pharaoh and lie in a sarcophagus. Susan and I were impressed by the quality of the exhibits and the number of staff that were available. After the museum, we went downtown to the central square. We had an outstanding lunch at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, where many heads of state have stayed, and sauntered down the main pedestrian mall.

Monday morning dawned bright and beautiful. We were off to the airport at 7:15 for our flight to Peru. Check-in was straightforward, but we forgot that our Swiss Army knife was still in Susan's purse. Needless to say it was confiscated. We boarded our jet on time and were pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was brand-new and had more legroom than anything we've ever flown on before. The service was also fantastic and we have no trouble recommending Taca Airways to anyone.

We arrived in Lima, Peru in good shape. Our first order of business was to get some local currency (Nuevos Soles or New Sun in English) for the taxi ride to the hotel. The first ATM we tried stymied us with an unusual screen asking us to re-enter the amount we wanted in multiples of 50 or 100 soles. No matter what we entered, it didn't work. The second ATM did the same thing. We were starting to think we might have to exchange some of our American money, but we walked over to a third ATM in the Departures area and it worked perfectly. We quickly realized that the other ATMs were simply out of money, because the same thing happened in the Arrivals area in Costa Rica. One other interesting point about the ATMs - they would only let you take out 400 nuevos soles at once (about $150). Thus you were forced to do multiple transactions and incur more fees to take out a reasonable amount of money. Tricky!

Getting a taxi in Lima is an adventure unto itself. The 'official' airport taxis charge about double what the other taxis do to go downtown. If you are brave, you can walk out to the main street to flag down an 'unofficial' taxi and haggle about the price (you have to bargain for all taxis here), but there is also a small element of danger when doing this. Not speaking the language, we decided to use the official taxis, which cost 45 soles ($17). The ride to Miraflores in the chaotic traffic took about 40 minutes. You start in the poor outskirts with kids running between the cars trying to sell stuff end end up in a nice, modern suburb that looks like a chunk of Europe.

We are staying at the Inka Lodge ($36 night), which is a very nice hostel just off the main avenue in Miraflores, so its nice and quiet. More on our Lima adventures tomorrow.