Hasta luego Costa Rica, 11/16/22

With a long day of sitting in cars, planes, airports ahead of me I wanted to get a nice long hike in this morning.

I made a short slideshow of my hike. You should be able to view it by clicking on the image or the arrow. If not it may be because in an emailed version of the blog entry the links aren’t all active. If so, go to sailwestmac.com directly and then when you open the blog all the videos and links should work.

Finally, the Kinkajous were awake this morning. So cute!

I wanted to get in a long hike since I had time before my car left at 10 for airport and it would be a very stagnant day exercise wise later.

I retraced all my favorite trails and went to all the waterfalls. I took pictures quickly as I hiked. I finally used my trekking poles that I had packed. They made the uphill sections SOOOOO much easier on my legs, which was key because I didn’t want them sore while trapped in airline seats.

Ah, my last meal in Costa Rica, I spoke only Spanish to the waitress today.

I had my real camera with me and got some nice zoom closeups of the hungry birds.

I got a quick ID with my inaturalist app for this beauty.

For trip home I would check both these bags and just bring my small backpack on plane. I know many people travel the world with just a carry on but I always need space for my running/hiking/swimming gear. And my apple AirTags in the bags for tracking have been extremely accurate so far, hopefully I will never need them to “help” airline find lost luggage but great to know they are in there and working so well.

Adios Peace Lodge. Quite the place. Highly recommend for anyone who loves animals and especially for those with kids.

Goodbye Rusty! I’ll see FIFA in 14 hours and tell her all about you!

Very pleasant views on the one hour drive to San Jose airport. Coffee plantations on the slopes.

As well as coffee, this region is known for growing Strawberries and local cheese from the dairy herds.

$1.80 for a box of strawberries sounds like a bargain. And they are already selling Xmas decorations. They were hanging the holiday lights in the Hotel lobby as I checked out.

Michael (who gave me the night time tree frog tour) was my driver to airport in a comfy SUV. I sat up front and we chatted about Costa Rica. He has worked at Peace Lodge for 20 years. He lives only 10” away and was able to see the Poas Volcano erupt from his house in 2017. He told me the area was also affected by a big earthquake in 2004. Starbucks bought a lot of the smaller coffee growers land a decade ago and has a lot of employees. In Costa Rica the coffee berries are picked by hand while in the mass produced coffee from Brazil machines shake the bushes and then it is collected from the ground. Most of the pickers are refugees from Nicaragua since most Costa Ricans get well educated in free public schools and don’t want to do manual farm labor as much (kind of like in USA).

And just like that I was back in a city after a relaxing 11 days of rural life.

New bracelet joins the precious one my kid made for me.

I had noticed this in front of airport earlier but finally got time to Google it and Lindbergh did a tour of Central America.

Very well organized airport. It took me less than 30 minutes from sidewalk to sitting at my gate (including selfie photo and coffee stop).

This was another case of the “full employment” ethos I saw in Costa Rica. 4 people working at this kiosk. No wait. At Terminal 5 at JFK the Starbucks has only 3 people for many more travelers and always a long, long line. Several times I have just given up and went elsewhere for coffee.

And there were several artists creating and selling works and a guy on saxophone 🎷 making a living.

The Ticos will be very excited for the World Cup next week. I will root for them but their group seems impossible. My Puerto Rican friend Jaime says he can’t find Imperial here anymore.

Dave the adventurer! Made this my new FB photo with a love the Planet frame ❤️ 🌍

I did a little blogging at airport but was just too tired on flight.

I knew my vacation from reality was over when I heard annoying USA accents in the airport after 5 days of mostly Ticos and a few Brits and Canadians. Americans do talk more loudly than anyone else. The Ugly American exists. Grateful for my noise cancelling headphones!

Michael had told me that at the height of the dry season all the grass and bushes in the San Jose area turn yellow or brown.

The city sits in a valley between several mountain ranges. One reaches over 10,000 feet.

With Costa Rica being so small it was only 10 minutes later that I Saw on Delta flight track screen that we had crossed border into Nicaragua. Big river below.

It was too early in day to really sleep but I just rested with my eyes closed and listened to music for the less than 4 hour flight to Atlanta.

Ack! Not the “Hotlanta” I am used to. It felt cold on the jet bridge.

I am glad I had a 3 hour layover for the largest airport in the world. It didn’t really take all that long for the lines at immigration, through TSA checks, the escalators, the train from international terminal to a different one but would hate to be in a rush.

I really don’t understand why luggage isn’t just sent through to final destination. They make u collect it and then give to a person to put on a different carousel. No one looks at luggage, asks u about contents at any point. I also saw no “faster” lines or automatic kiosks at Atlanta for global entry???