2022-02-06 — The Rich Coast

Hola, família y amigos! 😊

Happy Sunday. 😊

Today’s post comes live from the Montaña de Fuego hotel in La Fortuna, Costa Rica.

It’s been a good day and a very long day. I got to bed a little after midnight and got up about 2:25.

I wasn’t thinking very well when I went to bed, so my choice to get up at 2:25 when we’d planned to leave for the airport at 2:30 wasn’t… very well thought out. 🙃

I think it took me about an hour to get my junk together and get out the door (big thanks to my mama for the ride to the airport, even after my long delay!)

I got to the airport about 15 minutes to 4, I think. Somewhere around there. I was instructed to be there at 3, but what did I find when i got there? The counter didn’t even open until 4:30. Not sure why they give instructions to come when they’re not even going to be open. I want to remember that for the future. It’s such a small airport that there’s really not going to be much of a wait, even if it’s “busy” (not the case with regard to… later).

So anyway, i waited at the counter for and 45 minutes before waiting at the gate for the rest.

I realized right after getting my pack through the screening area that it was… a bit handicapped. The zipper fabric had torn away from the body when the TSA agent opened my pack to inspect it (don’t think it was the TSA person’s fault). The stitching was mangled in the support area, which opened a seem from the outside to the inside like 10 inches long, and one of the belt straps was nearly completely torn off.

🤦

Not sure how/when all that happened. I don’t remember if I used that pack in China or not. I… think so?

Anyway, i dozed but not very well on the first flight. What I was able to get, in terms of sleep, was aided by the fact that there were some empty rows toward the middle front of the cabin, and even I saw it was packed in the back where I was supposed to sit, i just plopped my butt down in one of the completely empty rows and didn’t look back. 😊

I met up with my friend John in Atlanta on my second flight, where we magically and gratefully ended up sitting next to each other. We were originally on completely separate flights to Costa Rica, but they changed our itinerary, and when they did, we were plugged in right next to each other.

Imagine that. 😊

We were an hour late taking off, after boarding on time and being ready to go. I guess some prime checked in, checked their bags, and then decided not to go (for what reason I don’t know, hopefully nothing bad). However, because they’re luggage was already on the plane, and because federal law won’t allow luggage on the plane that doesn’t belong to an actual present passenger (for international flights), we had to wait an hour for them to go through the luggage on the plane to find the pieces that needed to be taken off.

Ugh 🙃

It was cool to be with John, though. Good man, he is.

Gratefully, I was tired enough that i did manage to sleep a bit on the ride from Atlanta to San Jose. That was nice, too. Mostly, i offered brain teaser games or tried to find movies i could listen to in Spanish to help me get my bearings a bit for the trip.

We made up some time on the the flight and even up arrive arriving about 30 minutes late.

That’s when things slowed down to a standstill. The immigration line was massive, and it went so slowly. After she 2 1/2 hours in line, we finally learned that only one person was working the tourist side (of like 24 booths!)

When we were nearly to the end, a second person came, which sped things up a bit.

Pretty rough on the old body, though–5 1/2 hours on plains, 4 ish hours in lines (immigration, customs, money changing). Then waiting for the car rental stuff. All with a mask on, which… didn’t make breathing the easiest.

Chatted with a woman from Brazil in the immigration line. She was a vet in Brazil and moved to the US and had to do more schooling to be able to be a vet in the States, and she was in Costa Rica for a training.

Anyway, we got through all the lines, got our rental car ($45/day for insurance… (gulp), and finally headed out, just as the sun was setting.

We’d hoped to do the drive in the daylight, to see the jungle and everything, but it wasn’t to be, so we stopped at a grocery store on the way north, and after about a 4-hour trip North (from the time we left the rental agency), we made it to our hotel–John fighting some pretty hefty car sickness because of the super windy road through the mountains.

But here we are, happy to have a bed. Happy the hotel is providing breakfast, and I’m happy to have the cell coverage and plan I do (thanks, Heather, for getting me this super great cell plan deal!!!).

Anyway, love and hugs. I’m sure I’m missing plenty, like the huge flock of amazingly loud Parakeets (big ones, like a foot long?) that were in the trees outside the rectal car place, and the little lizard we have as a bunkmate here in the hotel.

Lift the World.

~ stephen