Dima’s Corner

My flight back was leaving San Jose at 8am so I had to leave very early. Trevor’s dad arranged for a guy to come over and spend the night at the villa and take me to the airport the next morning. It was a nice drive without any traffic early in the day and Ronald kept on talking about many different subjects so it kept me awake. The airport was nothing special, check in was quick, so were the customs (even though the line looked huge at first), and the security screening was a joke - I did not have to take my laptop or liquids our, nor did I have to take my shoes off. I just had enough time to grab some crappy Burger King before boarding the flight to Atlanta.

I had a six hour layover in Atlanta, so I called up two of my friends and we agreed to meet up for a quick dinner near the airport. Andy picked me up and we went to a Ruby Tuesday’s. Unfortunately Erik got stuck in rush hour traffic and could not make it. Andy just moved down from New York so we talked about his first week of MBA program experience, my trip to Europe which he could not join me for, and plenty of aviation geek talk :-). We got out of the restaurant and saw that Andy’s Jeep was booted. Thankfully they came out pretty quick and tried telling us that they saw someone walk out of the car and walk somewhere else which was bs and I had the restaurant receipt to prove it. So they took the boot off, Andy dropped me off at the airport, and I flew back home without any further delays.

Lessons Learned:

• Do not leave anything valuable in the cars, assume it will be stolen
• Lock valuables and documents if possible at all times
• Bring copies of your passport and driver license and carry those with you instead of originals
• Must pay cash “airport exit” fee when departing, prior to check-in

Stuff To Do Next Time:

• Visit Arenal volcano and hot springs (day-long bus tours, must sign up at least two days in advance)
• Visit Manuel Antonio park and beaches

View Costa Rica Trip in a larger map

A trip to Mt. Rushmore did not work out last Memorial Day weekend so we decided to give it another shoot this year. Everything looked like it was a go until Trevor instant messaged me at work a couple of days prior saying that he found dirt cheap tickets to fly down to Costa Rica. His dad and two brothers still live down there so we would have a place to stay and a car to use so it was a no brainer.

So early (too early!) Sunday morning off we went, first to Atlanta and then off to San Jose. The approach was pretty cool taking us through some awesome cloud formations in-between the mountains. We got in around noon and it took us another hour or so to clear the customs. At first they could not scan my passport and then the guy was not sure if I had to have a visa or not but it all worked out in the end.

Trevor’s dad met us at the airport and since it was lunch time, we stopped by at one place along the way. The food was actually pretty good, but I got the first taste of Costa Rica experience when they told me that I should probably bring my laptop with me, even though the car was parked just twenty yards away.

After lunch we got on our way to the west coast. It took a while since the most of the way was a roach with one lane each way and in some cases, one lane period. We got to Playa Hermosa where they used to run a surf camp (Trevor’s borther Kyle is a competitive surfer) and “moved into” Kyle’s villa about a mile away from the coast on a mountain hillside.

It was almost dinner time, so we drove back to the beach with Trevor’s other brother Joel and popped a few beer watching the surf. Afterwards we went to his dad’s for dinner made fresh from veggies he brough back from his farm up in the mountains. We came back to the villa and just crashed even though it was only about 9pm.