Dear God we are actually getting ready to fly. It feels like forever since we’ve taken a full vacation. Of course it could be because this year has been a raging shitshow in multiple directions but no matter the cause we are heading out. We are going to Costa Rica for a week. I want sun, sand, and booze. Looking for a hat trick on that.
We are at the Amex lounge currently where the gentleman clearing the tables appears to be Bensonmum from Murder by Death. he is moving only slightly slower than the car that brought us to the airport. I ordered an Uber Black but we were sent a Tesla Model Y. I guess the Black is now just the color. The car might have been way too small but at least the driver drove maybe 15 MPH below the speed limit the whole way. I was going to get out and help push.
But I have whiskey now so all is good in the world.
We always take morning flights and always fly direct when we fly on vacation – but there was only once flight to Costa Rica, and it is a night flight with a layover in LAX. That makes a short first hop and a longer second. So far we are still on the way to LAX and it’s been uneventful. Yulia has been flying for work non-stop this year, and will fly again once we get home. I haven’t so it’s been like a new experience. security at the airport has changed – we have Clear but there are new scanners for identification that I’m sure are giving me some for of Cancer or at least an internal sunburn, everything was under construction at the airport so it was all a maze of temporary drywall.
It took me a few cocktails to get into the groove of being on vacation. I get really wound up until we are actually on our way. and ive been high strung with work to an abnormal extent. But we are in the front of first class now, the sun has gone down and we are beginning our descent into LAX. It will he a be a few hours until our next leg. At least I think so. I just hope we can grab a good lounge there.
I could use another drink.
We hit the Alaska Lounge in LAX with enough time to grab some soup and a beer. It was almost closing by the time we got there so we were chased out after a short time, but it worked out since we didn’t have a huge layover. A woman was napping in one of the big lounge chairs and the folks from the lounge were waking her up to tell her to go. Apparently she had been asleep in that chair for over 6 hours. Her plane had long since left. That’s gotta suck.
We were on time for our gate. Once we boarded I passed out almost immediately, but it was impossible to get any real rest. The lights were low and everyone was trying to get some sleep, but there was no comfortable position that I could find. So it was up and down for the whole flight. I didn’t even bother trying to drink myself out at that point. It was a long night flight, and i managed to get an hour or two of sleep total before we started our landing around 5:30 am.
We didn’t land until 6:00am. Turns out that’s when the airport opens so the pilot slowed down and circled a bit so we didn’t sit on the Tarmac waiting for someone to show up. We bounced along and up to the gate. Our tickets were front row of first class (don’t get excited. Alaska first class is slightly bigger seats and free drinks. ) but that meant that we got off the plane first. We headed up the ramp and into the terminal to find all the doors closed.
It was a dead end.
I looked around a bit as more people came up behind us. Every door was closed and marked “Authorized Admittance only” After some dumb looks I saw a sign in the next all for Passport Control, so I opened that glass door. No alarms sounded, so I entered the next chamber. I was not eaten by a Grue, and repeated this process until we found a cleaning lady who was apparently closing all the doors to clean them. The escalator was behind her that went down to Immigration.
There was one young girl there pointing us to the line – which was empty. There were no customs, immigration forms, or anything. Apparently if you are smart enough to navigate the maze of velvet ropes at Passport Control then you are qualified to enter Costa Rica. That alone would probably eliminate about half the folks i have seen there – so I didn’t argue.
We left immigration, passed through a room with empty inspection tables, and exited to the taxi queue. The heat and humidity hit us right away. It wasn’t Mexico desert dry heat. This was humid jungle hot, but not too oppressive. We were lucky to find the ride from the Resort already there, and we escaped the taxi vultures. We had pre-booked a van with the resort. I just never trust th folks at taxi stands, and since we had at least an hour drive i didn’t want us cramped in some little car with no AC.
Traffic was pretty slow since there was a bridge that was down to a single lane up ahead. We crept forward for a long time. Itwas all very similar to Mexico, but everything seemed in a bit better shape. I’m not sure if Costa Rica has a better economy than Mexico but it sure seems like the roads and construction was all in better condition. Eventually we passed the bridge construction and were making better time. We were heading from the airport in Liberia over to the coast at Tamarindo. There aren’t any big highways so it was fairly small local roads the whole way. I wouldn’t say “slow” roads since everyone drove like crazy, so we made pretty good time.
We were still badly sleep deprived at this point, and our stomachs were in about the same shape. This was a fairly rough trip so far compared to most of our travel, but we were very excited for the getaway. We pulled down into Tamarindo, and it was all right along the oceanfront. I very pretty little town as we drove through – it reminded us of Salulitas in Mexico from our previous Puerto Vallarta trip. Shops and bars all looked pretty new and kept up. the ocean view was amazing. We drove straight through and turned into a side alley, then turned again. Down the alley was the arched entrance for the Ocho Bungalow Resort.
We made it. It was 8:00. Checkin was at 11.
Cognitive Dissonance 