Coming to Costa Rica

So I was scheduled to leave LGA on Sunday night, May 15. I didn't go to church that day because they had several baptisms, and it was Missionary Day. With an 8 pm international flight, I was supposed to be at the airport at 5 and taking public transpo on Sunday meant I had to leave home about 3:30.

So I procrastinated all day, and around 2:45 started to pack. When you're going to Costa Rica, all you need is shorts, T-shirts, a swimsuit, underwear, and sandals. So that's what I packed, along with whatever personal hygienic products were over the 3 oz onboard limit, and maybe some cords for the computer.

The only thing I couldn't find was my underwater point and shoot. Which I know I had, and which should properly have been with my camera products. But I couldn't find it, and by the time I left for the airport, I was ok with that.

I go to the airport. I get through security, with an hour or so to go. Long story short, the flight was delayed because of a storm and I wasn't going to be able to make my connection to San Jose that night. They gave me the choice of going back home and returning the following day or going on to Ft. Lauderdale and spending the night there. I'm not a fan of doubling back and didn't want to have to get up early and get to the airport, so I went on to Ft. Lauderdale.

Did a shout out on FB asking if anyone was in Ft. Lauderdale. Lo and Behold, Denny Freeman, Luis' old friend, had moved from the ATL to the FLL. He let me know and offered to come pick me up. Turns out Denny has been blessed to have been in FLL for a month, living for free and with all the work he could do. He decided to share the blessing.

So we talked til 3 in the morning, then took naps and he took me to the airport. We'd noticed he couldn't find his phone, and I kept calling it. He thought it was in the car, but on the way to the airport, we realized it wasn't in the car. He dropped me at the airport. While I was waiting in line at Nathan's (wanted a yogurt, got hash browns, coffee, bacon egg and cheese sandwich, and two individual humuses, and dropped over $17.00.) While I was waiting in line, I got a call from Denny's cellphone. Turns out he'd dropped it in the house and his neighbor across the hall found it. Fortunately I remembered his house number, so by the time Denny got home, his cellphone was propped up against his front door waiting for him! At FLL, I continued on to the gate and sat there for two hours, posting and playing games.

About 10 minutes before the flight was due to leave, they called a gate change. (Don't bother to fly Spirit air. The cheaper fare isn't worth the incompetence and the continual sales pitches. They even have advertising on the overhead bins!!!). I go to the new gate, but there's a flight to NYC there. Some woman, African America, clearly a New Yorker, was giving the ticketing agent a hard time. "You sitting there laughing like it's funny we had to wait for three hours. It's not funny! " (As if a plane delay was anyone's fault.) Everyone starts to quietly groan. It's as if we were collectively thinking, "please. we're all delayed. just shut up and get on the plane." Sad to say, but when people want to go home, they can pretty much be coerced into compliance.

But not this woman. I don't know what happened next. I saw another ticket agent run over as the loud woman went down the jetway. Then a guy I had been talking to said the Broward County Sheriff was there. Next thing I see is the loud lady coming off the plane in handcuffs. She was a lot more composed this time. "She said I pushed her. I didn't push her."

My flight to CR was supposed to leave from the gate where this flight was. But now this flight was delayed because they had to go through all the luggage and get hers off. So they delayed two whole planeloads of people to make sure a jerk in handcuffs got here luggage. Put your finger on that thought.

The gate changes, since our plane couldn't wait for that plane, and finally we were allowed to board. The flight was pretty uneventful. I sat beside a guy who gave me info on how to switch sim cards in your iphone 4 even if you've used the traditional upgrades. We both agreed that we wouldn't buy iphones again, mostly because of Apple's repressive habit of trying to control product utility and usage past the point of end user purchase. So I'll use that. And I made a new personal high in Bejeweled 2.

Get off the plane in CR. We were late, so we had to stand in line with another plane. Got through CR immigration just fine. Since I hadn't picked up a gift for Danny, I got a bottle of Jim Beam and two bottles of Bacardi Gold or something other than plain Bacardi. I paid a total of $24.00 US for all three bottles. In and out in probably under 5 minutes, right in front of the baggage carousel. And then I went maybe 15 yards and changed some dollars to Colones. Not sure why, since everyone in CR uses dollars, but I did. I was still in front of the baggage carousel, but since it just said oversize bags and since I didn't see a lot, I kept looking.

After asking two different people and verifying that yes, all the bags were gone, I went to the baggage assistance desk. There was only one guy assisting people; the other guy was chatting with a friend on his cellphone (Did I say don't bother with Spirit Air because it's cheap but you get what you pay for?). It wasn't looking good that another guy on my flight had the exact same issue, except that he also had a bag someone had returned because they'd picked up the wrong bag. I'm not sure why they make you have baggage check tickets if you can just take any bag you want. Remember how they held up the plane to make sure the jerk got her bag? But if you're just a normal person doing what they tell you to do, well -- you might get your bag and you might not. The guy behind the desk, 30 minutes later, when he finally got to me, did say that the bags usually turn up.

So here I am in Costa Rica. I have the clothes on my back, a coupla pairs of underwear and something to sleep in that I bought at Walmart (it's not Hypermas any more; it's straight up Walmart now). I'm hoping and assuming they'll get my bag to me tomorrow. If not, I'll probably be walking around either in my underwear or in shorts Danny lends me. It is very nice to be able to have yor friend lend you his clothes, though. It's nice to be relatively normal-sized.

So i'm still planning trips to Bocas del Toro, Panama and to Puerto Viejo (both on the Caribbean coast); and then to Quepos, which is on the rainy part of the Pacific Coast. Danny might even go with us. Not having luggage is not ogoing to significantly affect my trip at all. I'm in Costa Rica. PURA VIDA!!!