Aaaand We Made It!

So hey, we made it to Costa Rica in one piece!! No delays, rerouting, cancellations, or missing pilots this time for which I am exceedingly grateful.  Costa Rica at night is about as warm as Oregon is in the day time on a good day so I can only imagine what tomorrow morning is going to be like.  Whoo boy, better get that sunscreen ready! You can see the stars really well, even from San Jose and dad and I were able to make out Orion and the Big Dipper pretty quickly. When we went through customs, mom gave the lady the two passports that I had made for Felix and Felicity the fox’s and we got her to stamp them.  Success!!

When we got to the airport we had our rental car company waiting there to pick us up. As we were hauling our luggage carts behind our driver some “kind citizen” offered to “help” push our cart which basically entailed him shouldering mom off the cart and pushing it along for us.  We did give him a tip for his “trouble” though, as is customary here, and initially gave him what was the equivalent of 12 cents. We got a funny look for that one.  We amended it with one of the bills we had and he happily went on his way. Only then did our helper from the rental company look us over and say “Do you know how much these bills translate to?” Turns out we had given him 10 dollars for shoving mom off the cart.  Whoops!

We got to the rental place and had a bit of a run around getting things all sorted out but mom is fairly deliberate and firm so we got it all figured out. Bob Wilmarth, a veterinarian stationed in Costa Rica, met us at the rental place as we had arranged to stay at his house for the night. We followed him to his house in this tiny trinket of a car and at times were worried the thing wouldn't make it up the steep hills. Mom has since dubbed it the “Gutless Wonder.” Sounds about right.

Can you imagine we fit three suitcases, three backpacks, two fair sized boxes, and three people in this thing?? Excellent packing skills I would say (i.e. Mom).

In its defense, Bob’s driveway is one heck of a road, paved with cobble stones, pot holes, and dirt.  I think the car must have chugged and died 3 of 4 times before we finally got to a place where we could park and leave it for the night. I do wonder how we’re going to turn it around in the morning… But I am so excited to finally be here and get to explore this fantastic country for the next few weeks!

Time difference here is about 2 hours later than home so it’s about 12:15 here right now.  Tomorrow we say our goodbyes to Bob (that is, until mom and dad come back through and work with him for a couple weeks at the end of our trip) and head to Samara to our final destination where Luke, Anna, and Arden are currently living. So excited to finally see those guys again!