it’s begun… and we started out by sleeping all afternoon

Let me just tell you, the secret of sleeping on an airplane is being super tired from a weekend in San Diego. You know, the type of weekend adventure when you wake up on the Marine Base with no clear explanation as to how you got past the security check point…

F was good enough to drag me out of bed on the departure day, even though i am known to be an incredibly rude pre-travel ball of stress. Which i proved to be after about 5 minutes of being awake. We did, however, get me calmed down after about 2 hours and checking 5 more items off my ever-increasing list of pre-trip prep.

F took me to a fancy lobster dinner in LA, and we texted H, who by that time had been at the airport for hours and was getting all strung up worried, and G, who was going through a strange metamorphosis into M – cleaning her house in an intense flurry with her unsuspecting boyfriend looking on from the doorway with concern.

H and i had made reservations at a hostel at the beginning of the day, but it wasn’t until i was sitting at the airport waiting while my “On Time” flight, which was meant to board at 00:20 still hadn’t called anyone up by 01:15, that the entire madness of this trip without plans and little understanding of Spanish hit me.

It is madness, but at least I was able to sit in a window seat, which i never get, and sleep the entire way to Guatemala, my surprise layover spot. My neighbor was a sweet woman who was returning to visit her home.

Once in Costa Rica i had to convince the customs officer that i was a proper tourist who not only has a respectable job back “at home”, but that i plan on returning their within their guidelines. Neither of these things are true. This was nearly as awkward as the ticket for texting while driving when I wasn’t texting while driving incident, only the immigration official was also to-die-for adorable…

They let me through and H was waiting in a pile of her belongings just outside the customs scanner, looking a bit out of it. Granted, she had been waiting for me for over 4 hours. We hustled our way into a cab for about what it was meant to cost us, which i found to be quite an accomplishment considering the unsure Spanish skills we were working with. Then we hoofed it to our recently chosen lodgings.

Still being before noon, we decided to take a little walk through downtown San Jose. We grabbed some local food at the mercado, hooked up a little cell phone, and walked back to put on some long pants. It may be sunny and hot around these parts, but when the wind picks up between the buildings it’s super chilly.

We got into the bedroom to find the clothes and decided to just take a quick nap before we headed back out to take in the free concert in the park. H set her alarm on her watch for about 40 minutes, which would have gotten us up at 4 and the concert started at 5. We woke up at around 8:30 the next morning.

All in all, a pretty good start. Pictures to come once we get a memory card for the new camera!

Tags: Costa Rica, i feel like i'm about to die, overwhelmed, San Jose, travel blog