We set the alarm to go off around 5:30 am, and to make doubly sure we sleep in and miss our flight we arranged for a wake up call at 5:40 am. Grumbling to consciousness we managed to wake up to the alarm and roust ourselves from bed. I don't think either of us slept well again that night, just too excitied again I think. Keep in mind that to our bodies it still felt like 3:30 am. After getting our packs ready we went to meet the shuttle in front of the lobby that we had set up the night before to take us to the airport at 6 am.
I was getting concerned that I wouldn't get any breakfast before my flight, a distressing thought that I may have to last until dinner on the in flight "meal" alone. Luckily there was a continental breakfast of sorts set up in the lobby. I snatched a really good doughnut, especially considering I don't really like doughnuts, and a banana from Guatamala. As we scarfed down our food the shuttle arrived and almost left without us. Lumbering as quickly as we could toward the loaded shuttle we managed to catch the van before it left and made it to the airport on time.
Check in at the airport went reasonably well. The only problem we had was when I dropped my passport in a crack between the desk and the computer handing it to the airport clerk. It took two big guys lifting up the computer monitor to get my passport back to me. The only other scare we had was when we thought we lost our return tickets. Though a rapid search through our ever growing mountian of airport papers soon put our fears at ease. We found our return tickets and were ready to take off from a somewhat smelly airport.
The plane to San Jose was scheduled to take off at 9:15 am, and ended up leaving at 9:30 am. We were told that the delay was due to making sure there were enough meals packed for everyone. In a situation like that, I would much rather a wait than not have adequate food. The food we did get, a breakfast of sorts, included two small sausages, an egg omlette with green onions, one can of tomato juice, choped and seasoned potatoes, a croissant and a muffin, cranberry I think. All in all the food was pretty decent.
This flight was much better than the last, there was a litle turbulence, but nothing compared to the last. The inflight movie was Practical Magic, followed by an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Due to it being an international flight I didn't have to pay for the headphones and so I watched the movie with both disinterest and restlessness. However, I was very impressed that they supplied video games on a small screen in front of each chair. I played a rousing few games of reversi, and then resorted back to my restlessness.
The only exciting sight I remember seeing from the plane was some small islands and a mountain range sans snowy peaks.
We landed at 12 pm Coata Rica Time, which if you're keeping track is one hour ahead of Vancouver and one hour behind Houston. No squealing of the tires this time, just a nice smooth touch down. Equally as easy was going through customs. They gave us the forms to fill out on the plane, which thankfully were in Spanish and English. The only hitch was they stole Robyn's granny smith appple, an apple given to her in a "treat bag of the damned" present by a friend (Sunny) before we left. Hence they stole Robyn's apple of the damned.
Our first order of business was finding "the red bus" that was supposed to take us into San Jose city central and drop off at the Coca Cola Bus Station. No sooner had we stepped onto the sidewalk than we saw a red bus pull up, lumbering along with our packs we managed to catch the bus before it left. We hopped on and found the last two seats free way in the back. While on the bus we met a guy from Quebec studying Spanish in Alejualia. He gave us a few tips on things like how much we should spend for a hotel and food without being taken.
We ended up at the Coke Station as expected. My first impression of San Jose was the noise, cement, fast pace and car fumes.
More to follow later
