Day 1 - January 23 - Going International

Ana and I started our trek to Costa Rica from SFO. It was a chilly morning, but I braved it in a thin jacket knowing in about 11 hours I´d be in the warmth of the homeland of my family. We took off around 9 am heading to Vegas. In Vegas we had to change terminals. Luckily our layover time allowed for an easy transfer. No running through the airport having your name blasted on the intercom. We hit up the next flight heading to Phoenix. In PHX we only had 45 minutes of a layover. I was worried my checked in bags may not make it, but I just said a little prayer. As the trip proceeded I could feel the stress in my shoulders of work and my day to day start to slip away. In PHX, Ana and I changed seats so we could sit with each other for the longest leg of the trip. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS! haha jk ANA! I pretty much slept or did suduko the whole flight. There was a really nice girl in our row from LA who was meeting up with a German. She had not planned anything except diving and let her friend do the planning. Sounds like me and Ana. :)

5 hours later and a few international lines we arrived in San Juan Santa Maria Airport Costa Rica. I haven´t traveled at night to CR in a while is it was odd to not see the warm green mountains welcoming me back, but the second I stepped off the flight I could hear the little cantadito (song like accent) of the Ticos. We went to the visitor section of customs to show our US passports to get in. We were at separate stations. Ana passed all easy. Not me. The girl behind the counter kept asking me questions about how much cash I had on me and how that wasn´t enough for me to be staying 14 days. I was speaking spanish to her so maybe she picked up on my Tico accent or something and thought I was going to stay longer. I don´t know. I tried to tell her nicely I expected to use ATMs and my credit cards so how much cash I have on my person doesn´t matter. I finally got through.

I went to get some colones since I knew the second I got to my cousins we´d hit up the bars and I didn´t want to be stuck without cash like last time. I grabbed my suitcases and one of them was missing a wheel. Dud! So I had to carry that one. The only one seemed pretty light. We went through the custom scanner machines when I realize the second bag wasn´t mine. ooops! So I ran back found mine and left the other one. Walking out of the airport I saw the familiar faces of my cousin and her husband. They are so sweet and always are super hospitable when I come to Costa Rica. At the car was their daughter, my cousin Dani! I love her to death. She´s was my buddy last year and held my hand when I got my eye surgery. Ana seemed to be doing just fine. I was scurred the Costa Rican spanish would throw her off. Of course I could see her eyes get big when she heard how much we swear in our spanish. haha that´s just the beginning Anita. Your ears will be burning the whole time.

After getting to my cousin´s and have a quick bite we picked up another one of my cousins, MariTere, and headed to a bar. There I was introduced to Imperial Silver. yuck! not recommended. Stick to the real birra, Imperial. We did not stay out late since Ana and I had an early flight out the next day. That was pretty much it for the first day.

Pura Vida!