To Costa Rica...finally!

The early morning alarm at about 5:00 am came way too quickly. We were supposed to be at the airport at 5:00 for a proposed 7:00 am departure, but we saw no point in being there 2 hours ahead of time since we were already checked in, our luggage was on the plane, and we already had our boarding passes. So we took our time (and another long shower) and got to the airport around 6:00. One look at the TV monitors told us our flight was now departing at about 9:10 a.m. We were right not to hurry, but were pissed that we could have stayed in the hotel room longer!

So off we went to spend our measly $5 breakfast vouchers. I thought this would be impossible, but we went to our breakfast choice anyway (yep, the same bagel place where we had lunch yesterday) and only had to pay US$0.68 extra. But of course that was without coffee, and of course we couldn't pass up a Starbuck's opportunity, so we shared an iced latte (there are at least 3 Starbuck's in the Miami airport, and Nigel was surprised when I turned down a drink at all 3 of them yesterday when he offered). We waited at the gate...and waited and waited. Finally we saw our new plane arrive. The AA staff announced that the flight crew required more sleep (yeah, so does everyone else!) and we'd be departing around 11:00 after 1 more delay. And the plane did finally take off just before noon (after everyone had boarded and then deboarded at least twice). We hoped they would be really nice and offer free alcohol, but we were wrong to think AA would go that far. And they built up their generostiy by announcing "We've managed to organise with catering to serve food on this flight since we know it has been a long wait for you guys." But in truth they just served snack packs with food packed with fat, preservatives, sodium and sugar. We still enjoyed them, don't get me wrong, but we thought we all deserved a hot lunch at this stage. And leave it to an American airline company to serve the unhealthy crap.

The flight to San Jose from Miami is pretty short (still no movies). It was late afternoon when we arrived. We got our bags, which we were happy to see, checked out of immigration and caught a taxi to a hotel. As we approached, the driver explained that this was not a very good area (it didn't look good either) so we had him drive us to another place I had written down from Kim's book. We got to Tranqilo Backpackers, a place in a cute neighbourhood, paid too much for a room, and then treated ourselves to a hot shower and clean clothes. We set out firstly to find ourselves a guide book and ended up at a pedestrian mall full of shops. We wandered around a bit, bought a Lonely Planet, then ended up wandering through some indoor markets. We had a beer (our first of many overpriced ones) at a soda, a Costa Rican deli type place, then set out to find some locks for our bags since the immigration people at the Miami airport had hacked through ours, leaving a friendly little note saying "In your absence, we had to break into your bag, ruin your locks and rifle through your stuff so we could make sure you're not terrorists." Thanks American Airlines, for letting this happen. We then had the cheapest dinner we could find, and oddly, it was at Taco Bell. Still, this was a pretty good treat for us. We headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain where we used the free internet and headed to bed.