No Regrets!

I didn’t go to sleep last night, so getting up for my early flight was not an issue.

Sitting next to me on the plane was an older, foreign woman with no qualms about taking her shoes off and airing out her feet.

A thick blanket of gray covered most of the eastern US. Through patches of the clouds, I caught glimpses of twisty rivers and oxbow lakes.

After a mesmerizing descent through the blanket of clouds, we landing in Houston and I caught my next flight to San Jose.

Cute little fluffy clouds covered the Gulf of Mexico.

A couple of hours later, I looked out the window to see a giant, smoldering volcano, which research revealed to be called Apoyeque in Nicaragua. Apoyeque produced one of the largest known explosions in history in about 50 BC.

After circling over the lush, green mountains of Costa Rica, we landed in in San Jose.

Humid and 82 degrees. I caught a ride to our hotel in central San Jose, set up my things in my modest room, and then headed to the bar for a welcome drink. The bartender recommended a Centenario rum and coke. Delicious.

I met the group I’ll be traveling with in the lobby of our hotel. Two older Korean couples, a family of four, two buddies who met up down here, and me. An odd mix. I fear it won’t be as social as I was hoping. There are three more getting in late and should be joining us tomorrow.

Our leader, Jorge, seems like a nice guy, if not a little tired and low-key. After filling out some paperwork, he presented us with a dizzying array of activity options that made everybody’s head spin. We could do some things tomorrow, but not if you prefer to do them the next day, here’s what you might be able to do the day after that, this is closed for Christmas, that is booked up, we might do this instead, the hotels on the itinerary aren’t correct, the listed prices for activities are no longer accurate… It will be interesting to see how this all comes together.

Since pretty much all of San Jose is closed for Christmas Eve, we stayed in and had a mediocre dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had some sort of chicken with blackberry sauce thing that wasn’t bad.

San Jose, at least on Christmas Eve, is a bit of a bust. But maybe it’s for the best. I am truly exhausted. Outside, fireworks are going off in the street. They’re not going to stop this guy from sleeping.

Tomorrow, we’re off to La Fortuna.