Sunday, May 21, 2006

Day 1 - Costa Rica - Fly to San Jose

Our day started with our ride to the airport not showing up at our house. So, we packed our bags into my Tahoe and parked in long term parking. We arrived plenty early at Sky Harbor International airport. We flew Continental Airlines and our trip from Phoenix to Houston went smoothly. I had brought the portable dvd player and some dvds, but we didn't need them because we had reading material.

In Houston we had a three hour layover and the airport was nice! We ate lunch at Papasitos (a Tex-Mex restaurant) in the airport, changed some dollars into colones (the Costa Rica currency), and I bought a book at Borders. As I was getting onto the next flight from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica I thought about how glad I was that we had the dvd player for the three hour flight. The dvd player!!! I didn't have the portable dvd player!!! I had left it safely tucked under the seat in front of me on the previous flight!!! I frantically asked the Continental staff at the gate where I was boarding my flight. They said that since our plane was taking off in 15 minutes, that I should just board and fill out a report at the Costa Rica baggage claim. I was so mad at myself!!! But, we boarded the flight and Alicia was pretty nice about the whole thing.

We arrived at 9:30 pm in San Jose, CR and we went through customs. We had arranged our trip through a travel agency and there was someone waiting for us to take us to our hotel, Hotel Brittania. It was the first time I have ever had someone waiting for me with my name on a sign. We felt important! There were tons of people at the door outside the airport waiting for their brother, sister, dad, cousin, or maybe even aunt to arrive. They were all pressed up against the window like fans waiting for Michael Jackson.

We checked into the Hotel Brittania and got into our room. We were shocked at how small it was. It had two beds, one full and one queen with a little closet and a bathroom. There was barely enough room for the 13 inch TV! The best thing was the see-through "bath towel" that barely fit around my left butt cheek, or maybe it was the beer bottle opener installed on the tile wall in the bathroom. Pretty classy place!

I think we have turned into mattress, pillow and sheet snobs because of the nice ones we have. Neither of us slept well on the cement hard mattress with potato sack pillows.

0 comments: